lowdowner Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 I'm thinking of trying out a compressor - just a touch - to balance out my sound a bit. If I look on Amazon (for example) there is a wide range of prices: from £45 to £185! Anybody have any advice - do you get what you pay for, or is it such a simple 'effect' that the cheapest will do just fine? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumbo Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 (edited) Yes you get what you pay for, but having owned quite a number of compression pedals myself I've noticed quite different characteristics from pedal to pedal so I think your best bet is to read reviews and start to narrow it down from there. This might help: [url="http://www.ovnilab.com/faq.shtml"]http://www.ovnilab.com/faq.shtml[/url] there's also loads of reviews on that website. Edited March 15, 2013 by thumbo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamfist Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 As Thumbo advises, the Ovnilab site is by far the best online resource for compressor advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionn Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Noticed that you play a Thumb Bass. Just a word of advice, be wary of compressors that don't have a control for the input signal. The signal from the Thumb bass is [color=#ff0000]hot hot hot[/color]. I had a Demeter Compulator (great pedal) which couldn't handle it, the range on the wee input trim pot wasn't great enough. It's safer to get a compressor that can dial the input signal back to zero. Bear this in mind when choosing a compressor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionn Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Like the guys above said ... Ovnilabs is the bomb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdowner Posted March 15, 2013 Author Share Posted March 15, 2013 [quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1363372503' post='2012071'] Noticed that you play a Thumb Bass. Just a word of advice, be wary of compressors that don't have a control for the input signal. The signal from the Thumb bass is [color=#ff0000]hot hot hot[/color]. I had a Demeter Compulator (great pedal) which couldn't handle it, the range on the wee input trim pot wasn't great enough. It's safer to get a compressor that can dial the input signal back to zero. Bear this in mind when choosing a compressor. [/quote] Ah, thanks for that, I will check... I didn't realise that the Thumb was *so* hot (well, not in *that* way, sexy-wise of course it's atom-bomb hot!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozz196 Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Depending on what you want from one, and going by the statement of balancing things out a bit, the Behringer DC-9 is a good starting point. You lose some lows when it`s on, but, if its going to be on all the time, up the lows on the amp to compensate. The review on Ovnilab rates this one quite well, and it`s a good starting point. You may find after all you don`t like compression, at which point not too much money wasted - about £20 - plus you can easily sell it on on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrismuzz Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 [quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1363380200' post='2012219'] the Behringer DC-9 is a good starting point. [/quote] Top advice. It was my first compressor! For some reason the output knob worked backwards, but apart from that it worked great. I only got rid of it because I like very extreme compression, and the Aguilar does that a lot better. I had to pay 7x the price of the Behringer for it though, which proves how good that little black box is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumbo Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 [quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1363372503' post='2012071'] Noticed that you play a Thumb Bass. Just a word of advice, be wary of compressors that don't have a control for the input signal. The signal from the Thumb bass is [color=#ff0000]hot hot hot[/color]. I had a Demeter Compulator (great pedal) which couldn't handle it, the range on the wee input trim pot wasn't great enough. It's safer to get a compressor that can dial the input signal back to zero. Bear this in mind when choosing a compressor. [/quote] I'm currently using a Demeter Compulator and I've not experienced this problem with my Thumb Bolt-on, I did have to crank up the trip pot for active basses though. Were you using a neck through model with it? I'm not sure how that compares in output to the bolt on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamfist Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 My Thumb BO4 is not particularly high output ..... unless you have the bass knob goosed of course, which will clip the input on many things on most active basses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgsjx Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 I think 51mon would be the chap to ask as he seems to know a lot about them. I'm sure he made a thread about compressors. IIRC, he suggests avoiding compressors that don't have a meter. He did recommend the Markbass Compressore as one of the stomp boxes he rates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fionn Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 (edited) [quote name='thumbo' timestamp='1363385267' post='2012286'] I'm currently using a Demeter Compulator and I've not experienced this problem with my Thumb Bolt-on, I did have to crank up the trip pot for active basses though. Were you using a neck through model with it? I'm not sure how that compares in output to the bolt on. [/quote] Good to hear that the promlem is not consistant with all Thumb basses. Aye, it was a Thumb NT that I had. I adjusted the trim all the way on the Compulator, but the signal from the Thumb was still too hot. The Compulator worked beautifully with my passive Aria SB. As an experiment I dialed the internal trim on the Thumb bass all the way back, this worked well with the Compulator as it lowered the active output from the bass. However, Because I was using both active and passive modes on the Thumb bass I needed an equal volume between the two, so this wasn't suitable. I got myself a compressor that has full control over the input level, so there were no more issues. This was also a lot more useful when swapping between my Thumb bass and my Aria SB which has a massively lower output. That said, I did particularly like the compressed tone and the simplcity of the Compulator. I would consider getting another, now that I don't have the Thumb bass. I'm just worried that the Signal from my Streamer would cause similar problems. What do folk think? My Thumb NT had an 18v pre-amp, My Streamer is 9v. What's in the Thumb BO? Is any of this even significant? Edited March 16, 2013 by Fionn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete.young Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 (edited) 51m0n's blog post is here: [url="http://blog.basschat.co.uk/setting-up-a-compressor/#more-806"]http://blog.basschat...essor/#more-806[/url] There are plenty of cheap rack-based compressors kicking about, which usually have much better monitoring than foot pedals. Edited March 16, 2013 by pete.young Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamfist Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 [quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1363429028' post='2012562'] What do folk think? My Thumb NT had an 18v pre-amp, My Streamer is 9v. What's in the Thumb BO? Is any of this even significant? [/quote] Don't know if it is significant but my 2006 Thumb BO4 is 9V. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumbo Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 [quote name='Fionn' timestamp='1363429028' post='2012562'] What do folk think? My Thumb NT had an 18v pre-amp, My Streamer is 9v. What's in the Thumb BO? Is any of this even significant? [/quote] I also have a Streamer Stage 1 (9v pre) and have no problems using the Compulator with it I can completely see why it didn't work well with an 18v pre-amp in your Thumb NT though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikhay77 Posted March 19, 2013 Share Posted March 19, 2013 You can bag a used Trace Dual comp for around £70,really cracking and bomb proof! Had one for ages until I got my V4 head with a built in valve compressor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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