Aphex Punch Factory

[slapstick13]

Awaiting for the arrival of my Aphex Punch Factoy Compression pedal, which I bought from a fellow tb'er. Has anyone used this pedal? I tried a search and really could not find anything on the talkbass forum.

Planning on running this into my vt bass into svt 3 pro.

Just looking for comments from anyone who has used the Punch Factory pedal before. Thanks!

[matthew.murray]

I own one but never use it. I am not into compression at all, but everyone told me I needed to use it, so I searched for the most subtle compressor and found the Punch Factory. Well, it is subtle... I can't tell a difference until it is all the way up and still don't like how it affects my sound. If you like it enough to have two, shoot me a PM.

[BassistFreak416]

Bongo would know

http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/punchfact.shtml
here is his review

[KarateKid25]

I used to own a Punch Factory. I didn't find that it did very much for me really. There is subtle, then there is doing nothing at all... If I cranked it right up to where I could tell it was doing something, it would distort a bit. I liked it to start off with, but I think that's because I wanted to like it.

I ended up moving over to a Demeter Compulator. It's a great little box that I'm far happier with.

[Ebelow]

I used to have it to, and I liked it! I like to use compressor since I use active 5 (or 6) string basses and I like balancing the low B and E. I found a good balance at 12 o-clock on the P Factory, I did not had to turn all the way up to hear the differences. I think if you use with active basses you will be happy with it!

[loendmaestro]

I was unimpressed with mine & sold it almost immediately, but I think I've decided that I'm just not a compression guy.

[Planet Boulder]

It is VERY(!) subtle, but that's a good thing, IMHO, because it produces a more "forgiving" means of compression (as opposed to, say, a more noticeable squeeze).

I have one and like it quite a bit.

[davkane]

I have one as well. I went from a rack mount dbx166xl to this. It is subtle, but I like it. the dbx was more tweekable for sure, but this pedal works just fine for me now.

[cassius987]

I just bought one of these and love it. But I am having a weird problem: I want to switch the optical LED from "bar" (full bars on the dB meter) to "dot" (single line on the dB meter) to save battery power. There is a switch inside to do this but I can't figure out how to flip it. Has anyone done this?

[Lapicide]

I currently have, well two. I like to use it subtlety, does what it does quite well and easy to setup and responds well. It can squash, but seems to take the life out of the bass. I have several compressor choices PF included at the beginning of the effect chain. I use another PF at the end of the effect chain to tame envelope followers and the like. Works well to tame spikes and not kill too much dynamics. I like to take the PF or compulator out when playing, simple setup, no messing around with all the controls to get set up. Dial in the amount and go.
On the changing the meter type. If I recall correctly when I checked it out years ago, you have to remove the pcb. I think it is actually a jumper, you change the pins the jumper is on, might also depend on which version you have....... Lapicide

[cassius987]

I guess you can slide it out without taking the board out, I just couldn't tell the part I was looking at was the jumper! But yeah... pretty simple. And I prefer the dot now. But this feature is not present in new PFs.

[JJ4Bass]

I've had 2 & they both broke! I liked the pedal, easy to use, sounded good, but doesn't hold up for the long haul. I'm now looking at a BBE Opto Stomp.

[derridiandrift]

Originally Posted by slapstick13

Planning on running this into my vt bass into svt 3 pro.

Just looking for comments from anyone who has used the Punch Factory pedal before. Thanks!

I don't own this particular compressor, but I do run an EBS compressor, along with the VT on my pedal board and some other stuff.

I found that the compressor is really not needed with the VT pedal. You might find that it's not needed with the SVT3, for that matter. The VT already does a bit of simulated tube compression, so I find that if I compress the signal before it hits the VT, I lose some of the charm of that pedal. I use the VT for specific tunes where I need lots of drive. I turn the compressor off when I use the VT or my fuzz pedal.

That "tube gain" dial on the SVT3 tends to even out the peaks of your signal as well.

[Slackerprince]

Hey OP-

Sorry you're not getting good feedback on a pedal that you haven't even gotten yet, but such is the pedal journey.
I have a MultiComp that I really like, and I've heard good things about the Compulater, but they're pretty expensive. I got my MultiComp used.
I use an Artec Turbo compressor on my *other* board that I got for $20 used and I really like it.
Good luck.

S.

[c-ba55]

I use it always. I like it fine enough. I'm sure there are better compressors, but whatever. I've had this one for 5 years or so and it's hard for me to see great compressor vs. good compressor on the bass making a bit of difference to any listener. If I were going to a 'real' recording studio to make a 'real' record, where conceivably the difference would matter, I would just use their compressor anyway. Effects that are really noticeable, like distortion, filters, synth,... I could see caring a lot more about the exact nature of those.

Punch Factory does nothing obnoxious (very important) and does seem to place the bass more prominently in the band without making my amp work harder. I have it set to somewhere around 7 gain & 7 volume +/- 1, and I play hard enough to make it compress 2-6dB when it really kicks in. The VU meter is also really handy for setting the output level of all preceding pedals in my chain.