Becos CompIQ. Anyone seen this?

[dave_bass5]

Cant believe i started this thread so long ago, but only today got around to ordering one. Ill probably end up selling it sooner rather than later, but out of all the comps I’ve had (and still have), this one seems to tick all the right boxes. 

[dave_bass5]

Just received my Comp. Frist impressions are very good. Other than the height of the knobs its actually  smaller than the Spectracomp. Amazing size. 

I plugged in and first reaction was.....its broken. I noticed the meter was flashing and the power light was going on and off as i moved it, before anything was plugged in to it other than the power. When it was just sitting un touched it was fine. The PSU input is very wobbly,  but this was with my One Spot, which has a short barrel length. The plan is to use it sitting on my amp, but this wouldn’t work as the vibration would cause noise.  Using an adapter at the end of the 1Spot seems to fix this issue. Ill contact them but I think its fine. A bit worried about how long it will last,  but I’m sure they know what they are doing. 

Using it though is a dream. I’m not sure if its just that i understand more what the knobs do, Becos has some very good explanations on thier website, but I found i could instantly dial in the effects i wanted, and see how much it was doing. Even just with headphones and nothing else playing I could hear the changes. Very happy. First time ive been able to get stuck in straight away with a comp. 

Here’s a photo showing it against the Spectracomp, and my BDDI for reference.

 

Edited February 25, 2020 by dave_bass5

[Al Krow]

I see you've succumbed to the fatal outcome that is prevalent amongst those who start threads - it's a surprisingly expensive pastime and should come with a health warning from the mods!

Funny though your Becos now looks wonderfully simple compared to the Stella and shouldn't take you till the end of the week to master.

And when you've had a few stellas, you'll no doubt be "doing a Simon" and getting one of these knob fiddler's paradise:

Which dammit, I've just noticed has got Lo Cut and Hi Cut - if those are essentially a 'free' built in HPF and LPF thrown in and they're half decent...

Edited February 25, 2020 by Al Krow

[dave_bass5]

Just read this in the manual 

DC POWER CONNECTOR - Use only good filtered power supplies, with a voltage of 9-12 VDC, with center negative  polarity. Use a DC Power Plug Ø5.1/2.1mm, with a barrel longer than 12mm (15mm recommended)

So i guess Mine is fine. I just need to find a PSU that has the longer barrel. All mine have shorter ones, although the splitter i have works fine. Hmmm, this means i have a spare PSU connector begging to be used now. 

 

[dave_bass5]

1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

I see you've succumbed to the fatal outcome that is prevalent amongst those who start threads.

It's a surprisingly expensive pastime and should come with a health warning from the mods.

Funny though that thing now looks wonderfully simple compared to the Stella and shouldn't take you till the end of the week to master.

And when you've had a few stellas then you'll no doubt be "doing a Simon" and getting one of these:

Which dammit, I've just noticed has got Lo Cut and Hi Cut - if those are essentially a 'free' built in HPF and LPF thrown in and they're half decent...

Well i may work up to that one, but having less control over the finer aspects (which the audience will never notice anyway :-)) and just having a box that does what i want and need is going to do it for me for now. 

That Stella scares me, in that i would be forever tweaking it. I can see mine as just being set and forget. 

[Opticaleye]

2 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

 

 

Which dammit, I've just noticed has got Lo Cut and Hi Cut - if those are essentially a 'free' built in HPF and LPF thrown in and they're half decent...

I think that the Hi cut and Low cut are just for the Saturation circuit, based on  the way the Stella works.

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, Opticaleye said:

I think that the Hi cut and Low cut are just for the Saturation circuit, based on  the way the Stella works.

They've missed a trick then: so few pedals offer a decent HPF / LPF.

But thank gawd for that 😁

[dave_bass5]

3 minutes ago, Opticaleye said:

I think that the Hi cut and Low cut are just for the Saturation circuit, based on  the way the Stella works.

This sort of thing has been a bit of a disappointment for me with the last two heads ive brought. I love my Fender Rumble, and the drive channel is very usable for me, but there is a LPF on that and it loses something in th elbow end. Same goes for the GK Legacy head i had, there was a noticeable drop in low end. I can see a reason for this, but my GK MB800 head doesn’t do it, which i why the Legacy went back. 

Edited February 25, 2020 by dave_bass5

[51m0n]

12 hours ago, Al Krow said:

I see you've succumbed to the fatal outcome that is prevalent amongst those who start threads - it's a surprisingly expensive pastime and should come with a health warning from the mods!

Funny though your Becos now looks wonderfully simple compared to the Stella and shouldn't take you till the end of the week to master.

And when you've had a few stellas, you'll no doubt be "doing a Simon" and getting one of these knob fiddler's paradise:

Which dammit, I've just noticed has got Lo Cut and Hi Cut - if those are essentially a 'free' built in HPF and LPF thrown in and they're half decent..

It won't fit on my board at the moment 😭

[Al Krow]

On 29/08/2019 at 11:13, 51m0n said:

So Al here's some home learning for you.

Set up your Becos with a hard knee, 4:1 ratio, 35m/s attack time, 90m/s release time. Bring the threshold down until you are getting between 3dB and 6dB GR. Play with the attack until you like the sound. Use the output make up gain to equalise the volume with and without the compression on.

Now try a soft knee, 1.5:1 ratio, 35m/s attack, 90m/s release. Bring the threshold down until you are getting 3dB and 6dB of GR. Again play with the attack a tad to get it just how you like the sound. Use the output make up gain to equalise the volume with and without the compression on.

Si - on both the above, I note that you have recommended -3dB to -6dB GR. Is that a decent "ballpark standard" GR you would look to be targeting, or were you suggesting that amount so that it becomes noticeable? One thing I've observed with my playing style is that even with threshold set pretty low, so that a fair chunk of my signal is being compressed e.g. at 2/14 on the Becos which corresponds to about a -33dB threshold, there's pretty little compression going on (0 to -4dB). So I'd need to drop the threshold a little (but not much) further to get to a -3dB to -6dB GR.

For completeness I've got it set up with slow attack and fast release for a punchier overall sound and comp set at 3:1.

One thing that was surprising is that using the level control on the tape saturation rather than make up gain seemed to provide a weightier / better sound, even though I'd got the saturation, itself, set to nil!  Looking back at your excellent review of the Stella for some idea as to what's going on here and the level control is boosting the dry signal only.

I've got the wet / dry mix on 65% wet and if I turn the Sat level up to max I need to cut the make up gain to -6dB to get a similar overall volume to the pedal in bypass. This does fattening up the tone nicely, but cutting the makeup gain in this manner, seems to me to be sidelining the compressor and pretty much enjoying the tone shaping provided by the Sat circuit! A better balance of the two would be having the make up gain at +3dB and Sat level at a little boost at 3/10 also.

@Opticaleye be very interested to get your thoughts on the above too. 

Edited July 19, 2020 by Al Krow

[Opticaleye]

On 19/07/2020 at 13:15, Al Krow said:

@Opticaleye be very interested to get your thoughts on the above too. 

I'm not sure what, in particular, you wanted a comment on. I normally use the Becos as a 2nd compressor after my Basswitch Dual band which compresses mostly the lower frequencies before it gets to the Becos. The rest of the settings are as in the picture below. I do not use the saturation as the Quilter Interbass does that kind of breakup much better if I need it.

I could get away with Becos --> Broughton HPF ---> Interbass ----> Amp quite easily though on a gig I'm sure.

[Al Krow]

Thanks very much for sharing that. 

I guess I was looking to understand what a typical amount of compression folk are targeting e.g. is -3dB to -6dB before make up gain. 

I've actually moved my comp, after writing my previous post which you replied, to the end of my board rather than at the start to deal with any spikes from my Proton filter, and there is a noticeable increase in compression resulting when the filter is engaged, as might be expected. My settings aren't a million mile from yours, in terms of ratio, threshold, makeup-gain and dry level. I've gotta slightly faster slower attack (just based on the theory that this should be more punchy) but I'm finding any difference very marginal on that front!

Easier to see on this pic:

Edited July 22, 2020 by Al Krow
Correction as per below.

[Opticaleye]

You have your attack set slow in that picture (unless you're using one of the auto settings)?

 

I sometimes use the attack set much faster or use either auto setting depending on the bass I use etc.

[Al Krow]

10 minutes ago, Opticaleye said:

You have your attack set slow in that picture (unless you're using one of the auto settings)?

I sometimes use the attack set much faster or use either auto setting depending on the bass I use etc.

Sorry, yes I did indeed mean "slow" for a punchier sound. I'll correct my earlier post.

[krispn]

Try messing with the release time to dial in ‘punch’ you might find it has a greater impact but like anything with compression there’s many schools of thought arguing both for and against and also depending upon the type of compressor circuit and input signal chain etc etc. 

Edited July 22, 2020 by krispn

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, krispn said:

Try messing with the release time to dial in ‘punch’ you might find it has a greater impact but like anything with compression there’s many schools of thought arguing both for and against and also depending upon the type of compressor circuit and input signal chain etc etc. 

Cheers will do.

I think it's fair to say that the basic threshold and ratio settings are effectively the comp's "bike stabilisers" to ensure a more even peak / trough output signal to the amp; and that folk who prefer to use compression more as a limiter (ped et al) with a higher threshold, and with an uncompressed signal below the threshold, to preserve their dynamics have an equally valid approach. 

In terms of the "magic" of compression, this does appear to relate much more to the attack and release settings, a compression topic which gets less airing than it might deserve. But setting these will vary depending on the track, style of music and what else is in the mix. It does seem to be more properly in the realms of studio mastering to adjust this to suit a specific track, rather than anything we will be able to do whilst playing our basses real time over the course of a set. So perhaps the better option depending on our "global" preferences might be just to go for the auto "fast" or "slow" attack / release settings available on the Becos, or just set and leave for punchier (slow attack / fast release) vs more compression (fast attack / slow release) again depending on preference.

Edited July 22, 2020 by Al Krow

[dave_bass5]

One of the reasons i love my Becos is a lot of it is auto. I know this is not always a good thing to use, but for me it all works so much better than any comp ive owned before. 

Thats and the lovely meter of course. Not the first time ive had a comp with one, but again this one seems to work just how I need it to.

[Al Krow]

3 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

One of the reasons i love my Becos is a lot of it is auto. I know this is not always a good thing to use, but for me it all works so much better than any comp ive owned before. 

Thats and the lovely meter of course. Not the first time ive had a comp with one, but again this one seems to work just how I need it to.

Yeah agreed, the metering is super helpful on the Becos. And to provide that even on the mini is just indicative of how feature rich their pedal range is. 

Wish Helix did the same on the HX FX and Stomp and not just on the their larger units. 

[Vaska]

On 22/07/2020 at 14:45, Al Krow said:

Thanks very much for sharing that. 

I guess I was looking to understand what a typical amount of compression folk are targeting e.g. is -3dB to -6dB before make up gain. 

I've actually moved my comp, after writing my previous post which you replied, to the end of my board rather than at the start to deal with any spikes from my Proton filter, and there is a noticeable increase in compression resulting when the filter is engaged, as might be expected. My settings aren't a million mile from yours, in terms of ratio, threshold, makeup-gain and dry level. I've gotta slightly faster slower attack (just based on the theory that this should be more punchy) but I'm finding any difference very marginal on that front!

Easier to see on this pic:

Try testing a faster attack (around 9-10 o’clock) and SCF to Normal, for a punchier kick. With soft knee, SCF and higher threshold, the compression must be very washed out at that low ratio. But that also depends on the instrument’s pickup power. Another way to make it punchier is moving to hard knee, again with a faster attack (but not the fastest), and a faster release time, while leaving the SCF to Low.

[dave_bass5]

I’m really impressed with the info on the Becos website and their manuals. Ive learnt so much from these. For some reason i just understand the way they talk and its been a revelation for me. 

Still don’t feel i need one, but now i have a better understanding i can get mine to do what i want it to do, which is a first for me. 

[Al Krow]

3 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

I’m really impressed with the info on the Becos website and their manuals. Ive learnt so much from these. For some reason i just understand the way they talk and its been a revelation for me. 

Still don’t feel i need one, but now i have a better understanding i can get mine to do what i want it to do, which is a first for me. 

Agreed with ALL of that! 😁 

[Daz39]

Gah - there's another one now! Simpler even than the Mini, but still 2 large knobs, 1 small one and a switch...

https://becosfx.com/product/compiq-mini-one-pro-compressor-pedal-for-guitar-bass/

Edited September 29, 2020 by Daz39