Compressor advice

[The Twickerman]

Hi folks,

I am looking for a compressor - primarily for my clean 12-string rhythm guitar playing actually - but it will inevitably get applied to bass too - if it sounds nice.

I tried the Celmo Sardine Can Compressor and was really impressed. Has anyone tried this one bass? Any comments?

Also welcome to suggest alternatives - rememberingg though that the principal use is for the strumming!

Thanks bassootists!

[Dood]

I'm afraid I haven't tried the compressor you mention - but I'm going to dive straight in with two suggestions, both by TC Electronic. The reason I select them (not only becasue they are my favourites) is because you specifically mention playing guitar through them as well as wanting a good Bass compressor.

For a rack mountable unit go for the C300. It has two compressors on board and TC have been very clever and added a rotary 'program' switch. You tell the compressor what you are using it with, for example 'Bass Drum', 'Female Vocals', 'Acoustic Guitar' or 'Bass Guitar' - it then configures itself between spectral (multiband) and full band compression. Also features Parallel compression techniques too which will be good for acoustic guitar. You don't need to know a great deal bout programming, you just set and forget!

You could probably find one for around 100 quid on ebay, which is astoundingly good.

Secondly, the Pedal version but far simpler, the Nova Dynamics. It features 4 compressors and two noisegates on board - you can have two running at once. Again, the multiband and full band compression is available. I would recommend the multi-band for acoustic and bass. You can also switch in a noisegate to keep background artifacts to a minimum. Again, 100 quid. I own the Nova Dynamics as I stopped using rack gear (briefly!!!).

If you can pick one up second hand, grab an EBS multicomp if you cant get a TC easily. They are also brilliant, but the Nova Dynamics rich feature set made it a winner for me.