ilovefuzz.com

Hey guys, I just wanted to get your opinion on this. Unfortunately I live in a small city where the biggest music store is guitar center/sam ash, So there aren't many compressors I can try in person, and when I watch compressor demos, there's almost no mention of how any compressor pedal preforms for clean tapping/mathy parts, which is primarily what I'm using it for. Before I shell out $350 for a cali 76, I wanted to know if anyone has any advice? I'm currently using a boss cs-3 that I got for 30$, but it has a high amount of noise, and not a great ratio. If you have any suggestions, or you know of any online demos that talk about this subject, please hit me up!

http://www.jimdunlop.com/product/bass-compressor

Yes, I know it says bass on it, but from what I understand, that was entirely a marketing move, because "only bass players care about compression" For the record, I'm a bass player, and I didn't care about compression at all until I tried this one. This thing is so effing amazing, and so flexible. I'm using it primarily as a limiter, but it does SO MUCH, and the instructions are really clear and easy to follow. Super 100% highly recommended.

EDIT: also, this is the go-to page for compressors: http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/toppicks.shtml - this guy has thought about and played almost everything out there. Worth noting is that the MXR I mention is in his top picks.

+1 to the Bongo suggestion. And, as such, it'd be poor taste to ignore the fact that he has his own compressor, the OnviFX Smoothie, for much less than that Cali76.

Sad to say it's a Gearmandude demo, but you can just mute the first 20 seconds or so. Also this might not help at all. Sorry if it doesn't.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdnNx-tbpwE[/youtube]

I've tried quite a few compressors with bass. The Diamond (BCP-1) has been my favorite by far but it is not totally transparent. It fattens up your tone a bit, for me that's good, really love it. The Diamond has a fixed low ratio so I think it might be suitable for what you are looking for. Very very simple control layout too which for me is great since I find compression to be a rabbit hole. The MXR that jrmy recommends is supposed to be in the ballpark of the 76 so I agree you should look into that too.

What do you want to do with your compressor?

In my mind (and on my board) clean tapping = low compression ratio, doesn't clamp down too hard on the notes' attack. Maybe a bit of colour.

That said I know very little about compressors but I'm quite happy with the Henretta Orange Whip. It's an orange squeezer clone (ish?) and though the noise floor is fairly high if you use it clean it's quite ok. If you dial back the compression you can get a nice evening effect over the fretboard and a little extra punch in the midrange which helps the tapping parts stand out. I ended up putting a jrc4588 op amp in it, which has worse specs than the chip Kevin uses, but it lowered the noise floor. I'm guessing less gain would explain that but I dunno. Whatever.

Still gassing for a Fairfield.
Because Fairfield.

That Ovnilab site is super helpful.

goroth wrote:What do you want to do with your compressor?

In my mind (and on my board) clean tapping = low compression ratio, doesn't clamp down too hard on the notes' attack. Maybe a bit of colour.

That said I know very little about compressors but I'm quite happy with the Henretta Orange Whip. It's an orange squeezer clone (ish?) and though the noise floor is fairly high if you use it clean it's quite ok. If you dial back the compression you can get a nice evening effect over the fretboard and a little extra punch in the midrange which helps the tapping parts stand out. I ended up putting a jrc4588 op amp in it, which has worse specs than the chip Kevin uses, but it lowered the noise floor. I'm guessing less gain would explain that but I dunno. Whatever.

Still gassing for a Fairfield.
Because Fairfield.

That Ovnilab site is super helpful.

The accountant does what you're talking about there perfectly while being a tiny bit gritty. I use it to play chords/tap on bass vi

Monoprice Compressor.
Quiet, cheap and good sounding.

BBE Sonic Stomp is another one I often see is recommended for tapping, haven't tried one in person yet though.

I can't say I've tried many, but I have a diamond and it's really nice for making tapping parts pop without noticeable noise or too much squish. As a bonus it just makes cleans sound amazing, I rarely turn it off.

Accountant?

I was lusting over the Cali76 real bad...wound up buying an actual 1176LN instead but that's another story.
MXR Custom Comp is great for tapping & slapping. All compressors emphasize noise, but the one I had was much quieter than any CS-3 I've tried.
The newer Custom Comp Deluxe has been on my radar, as I sold my original due to the internal trimpots; well MXR moved them to the outside...

...but I don't need another compressor pedal.

I've got an Effectrode PC-2A which is also great for like, everything you could want a compressor pedal to do. Pretty much idiot-proof, too. I've been on the fence about listing it in the B/S/T...but it may wind up there now that I have the 1176...

I use a Carlin Compressor for both bass and guitar. It's always on and if I turn it off everything goes boring. Not squishy, some noise and it also has a distortion on board.

I had the walrus audio Deep Six and I liked it a lot, it's super quiet and can really clamp down on your signal. The Warden is also good in that you can color your signal with it on if you want, which makes it so that those passages stick out better.

Barber Tone Press. I also owned a Diamond but I found the Diamond to be almost more boosty and did not compress enough. The Barber was good for tapping.

y'all is wrong. MI Audio's compressor (now discontinued apparently) is/was the best.



Why? SIX FUCKIN' KNOBS MAN. Seriously, you can really tailor what it does. Super snappy to nice and transparent. All compressors should have at least 5 controls.

-input
-threshold
-ratio
-attack
-release
-(optional) makeup gain.

Excuse you.