Which compressor?

[lee650]

Plenty to think about, but as someone succinctly put, if a comp is "taking away" from your tone, then it's possibly not set right.

 

It also depends on what you want/need from a compressor, dynamic control as a bandage for technique, general smoothing, tone improvement. There are so many different types of compressors all have their strengths and weakness.

If you want transparent compression that doesn't really add much to what you have then

 

Empress bass comp

Aguilar TLC

Keely bassist

Mxr bass comp

EBS multi comp (on normal mode)

 

Ones that add a bit of "special sauce" and add a subtle fatness and Sheen

 

Diamond BCP1

Cali76CB (and the big ones)

FEA optifet 

Effectrode PC2A

Markbass compressors

EBS multi comp (on tube sim)

 

Not an exhaustive list, a shameless plug, but I'm selling an FEA optifet, which is optical, and has that syrupy warm lazy feel, that loves  p bass and flats, but can be relatively clean and bright, depending on the internal switching.

 

For ease of use and sound quality, for me the EBS multicomp has always been a fave.