Guess who just got a Symetrix 501...

bassman1185 · #1 11-12-2007, 01:19 PM

I did. For $75. I tried it out yesterday at practice, and it sounds fantastic. It really helps bring out a lot of punch and depth and helps keep my sometimes sloppy attack a bit more consistant.

Here's the story:

I work as a rental technician at an A/V company. I was talking with one of the install techs, and he was telling me that they were tearing out the PA system of a church, and that whoever was in charge at the church was giving them lots of stuff for free. He mentioned that one guy got a nice rack-mounted CD player, and that he got a Symetrix 501 compressor. I asked what he was planning on doing with that, and he said that he didn't know. I mentioned that I was thinking of getting a compressor for my bass rig, and he let me borrow it for the weekend. Apparantly it had been in a channel insert for a wireless mic, but the mic ended up getting lost. There isn't even rack rash on the ears.

bongomania · #2 11-12-2007, 02:11 PM

Congrats! The 501 is one of my favorites, especially for the rugged gig rig type of context.

bassman1185 · #3 11-12-2007, 03:29 PM

Yeah, Bongo, your review was pretty helpful. Right now I'm still working on getting it dialed in. I'm trying to run it in my effects loop in my Kustom Groove1200, which I've been running pretty hot to get the sound I want. The problem is that even with both thresholds on their max settings (+10db on the RMS and +20db for the peak) I'm still running into some pretty heavy limiting. I've got another practice tonight, so I'll see about getting it dialed in a little more. I may just end up running it before my preamp.

bongomania · #4 11-13-2007, 01:30 AM

Hmm... My preamp has a pretty hot output, and I keep the threshold of the 501 right around the 0dBm mark. Are you cranking the input gain on the amp in order to distort the preamp stage? If so, maybe the solution is to use an outboard effect for dirt, and run the amp input clean. Or you could pad the effects send; it might be as simple as adding a resistor in series with the jack tip (+), that way you can blast the amp input gain yet take a reduced signal level through the send.

bassman1185 · #5 11-13-2007, 07:20 AM

I'm running the input a little bit hot, but not much. I'm getting just a touch of grit from the preamp, and I've got a couple of distortion boxes for heavier drive. I'm running the gain so that the "Signal" light (Generally 0db) is lighting up consistantly, but I'm not running too far past there. Based solely on the light, which I'll admit is probably not the best indicator, I wouldn't imagine that I'm running more than +10db, but apparantly I'm pushing +25 or 30db. I'm thinking about getting a small mixer with 1/4" ins and outs and attenuating it that way.