budget compressor, one that fattens tone...

[monsterthompson]

I think getting one that has the LED light indicators showing what your signal is doing really helps to understand how the knobs actually work.

Absolutely. Compression can be subtle and hard to hear at first. If the OP is looking to learn about it, then a device with a meter is super useful.

…along those lines…
@pcake is there a chance you have access to an interface and a DAW with compression plugins? You could start your exploration there and focus on what is happening with headphones. You could also record parallel signals and see how the waveforms change based on the compression settings. Heck, you could record one dry track and then process copies of it though a variety of compression devices and settings in parallel as an experiment.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Youtube is a valuable tool for assessing things and learning. There are couple of good ones for the DUncan unit

This a great unit! Simple and effective, quiet and flexible

 

[bongostealth]

i'm looking for a budget compressor, one that you can really hear, maybe fatten up the tone some and give a nicely compressed sound, not something super transparent. if i can also get more sustain, that would be a bonus, but it's not a must.

in all these years, i've never used a compressor, and i want to get an idea of what different controls can do by experimenting, so i'm not looking for something super simple. if i like it, i'll probably get something nicer.

suggestions?

For a budget "tone fattening" compressor, the Joyo Scylla is the way to go, IMHO. If you want something more expensive but still somewhat budget-friendly, I would recommend any of the following:

• Diamond bass compressors
• Lusithand Alma compressor (V1 or V2)
• EBS compressor
• FEA Opti-Fet
• Fairfield Accountant
• Pigtronix Philosopher Micro
• Union Tube & Transistor Lab
• J Rockett I.Q.
• J Rockett Airchild
• DryBell Module 4

There are several other fat and juicy compressors out there but I just can't remember them at the moment.

I have found that, for my liking at least, the ones in my list all sound amazing! They compress very well and add incredible tone and flavor that other "clean" compressors simply do not. Of course, there are times when you would probably want a clean compressor.

 

[And I]

fwiw the MXR M87 bass comp is more on the "transparent" side, IMO. it won't "fatten" your tone. just makes louder stuff less loud, how much so is based on a variety of controllable parameters.

 

[Discount Bassy]

darn, it's too late to edit my original post. no noise would be a huge thing.

any thoughts on a used MXR M87 or a joyo scylla?

i won't be able to test before buying, but i'd like to do some experimenting. is this the one you mentioned?
https://reverb.com/p/keeley-bassist-compressor?hfid=83754797

I will be listing a couple of MXR M87's that have served me well very soon. Both were purchased new about 8 years ago and suffered total failures from a brutal storm related power surge about 5 years ago that wiped a good bit of the electronics out of my life at the time. Both went back to Dunlop for factory repairs and received new everything inside the metal box, so only the knobs and housing are original. The factory PCB's were not cheap, but are genuine and installed by the MCR team in-house.

As far as compressors go, I liked them plenty and ran them in series as two options for different play styles, as a two stage unit, first and last pedal, and also in various parallel configurations. I need the space on my board for some other gizmos en route to the bass cave. One would do the trick for most. Two are a luxury and allow a multitude of choices in routing and usage.

 

[crucislancer]

I recommend the TC Spectracomp. I had one for years, only trading it out for something that I can adjust on the fly, as you need to edit the tone prints if you want to make more in-depth changes to your compressor. There are quite a few tone prints available that one can download into the pedal with your smart phone, and some of them will fatten up your tone.

I've used the MXR M87 in the past as well, it's a great compressor, but like others have said it's more of a transparent effect. I currently use an Empress Bass Compressor, and while they are expensive, they are worth the price.

 

[GrowlerBox]

There has been some talking about the One Control Yellow one lately in that regard.

That would be me, but I'm mostly talking to myself .

For someone wanting to learn about compression and what all the parameter controls do, I don't think the One Control is ideal. The Walrus Mira would be -- it has all the controls, it sort of has metering (a single LED), and it's quiet (not silent, I don't think that's really possible with compression, but definitely quiet). It's optical, and has a character often associated with that topology, typically described as "warm," "organic," etc, but still pretty transparent, and can go from very subtle to fully-squished limiting. They've been discontinued, but there seem to be plenty around on the used market, and seem pretty well-priced (on Reverb) for the quality you're getting. It could be the only compressor you ever need, but it won't be .

 

[wolffire99]

if you want to “fatten” your tone I highly recommend one with a blend control for parallel compression.

 

[musicman556]

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...udio-teletronix-la-2a-studio-compressor-pedal

Currently on sale at $129, normally $199. Simple controls, dry/wet blend, and a surprisingly great simulation of the famous Universal Audio LA-2A studio compressor.

I currently have the 1176 which is the same price right now and I love it as well. It's a little more transparent than the LA-2A and has some more controls to keep up with. I think as a first compressor the LA-2A is a really great choice.

I also had the white MXR 87 compressor. It worked fine and the LED bar was a great learning tool to be able to see what was going on as you made adjustments. However, both the one I bought and the one in the "house pedalboard" at much church seem to introduce a little unwanted noise. It disappears/gets buried once the band is playing, of course.

Instead of the LED bar, the UA compressors have an LED that goes from green (not doing anything) to yellow (doing some stuff) to red (getting into clipping/limiting) and I'm finding that for me the magic sweet spot is to keep it mostly in the yellow with some flashes of red when I'm digging in. I have gotten where I can dial in between different basses silently (not needing to hear any amp output) by just watching the clipping light/indicator as I test with some dynamic plucking, etc.

The MXRs worked fine, but I never went "OH YEA!!!!" when playing with them. My first day with the 1176 was a revelation of fat, massive bass goodness. I have been getting compliments from our engineers at church specifically about how well my tone/sound comes through and how easy it is for them to mix vs our other players. The other 2 bass players that rotate in are still using the "house" MXR, and to be fair, they are less experienced and have never spent time trying to dial it in and just don't know much about compression and how it works. We're trying to set a time in the next few weeks where we can all get together and work on that along with some EQ fundamentals (ie: don't just crank the bass to +10, mids at zero, and highs at -5), etc.

Whatever you get, play around and have fun, and let us know what you learn!

 

[HolmeBass]

Fair, and true.

You have any examples of one you think sounds very transparent and one that sounds very un-transparent? I'd love to take a look at what they're doing differently.

Still, if i set the transparent compressor with an very low threshold, fast attack, slow release, and a 10:1 ratio it would sound way less transparent than the un-transparent one set to gently kiss the threshold with a 2:1 ratio and averaging 3dB of gain reduction.

So a clean one would be the MXR, a colorful one would be like my Cali 76 CB or the Smoothie.

I think the transduction has an impact, octocoupler ones can be more colorful. But I think the amplifier in the compressor has the biggest impact. Some can get a little dirty, some are designed to distort very little and resist becoming saturated.

So it’s not really about the settings. But it would be a cool experiment to do what you propose.

Also let’s note that when I say colorful I don’t mean obvious compression artifacts. It’s not about slamming the ratio or dropping the threshold all the way down.

I set my Cali with minimal settings, mostly what I am doing is adding gain and getting the faintest bit of distortion from it. In fact, the last thing I really want is compression!! Any noticeable squishing or other compressor artifacts would be a huge turn off for me.

It’s not about the compression per se, it’s about the gain stage through the comp’s amplifier.

 

[FullumMusic]

So a clean one would be the MXR, a colorful one would be like my Cali 76 CB or the Smoothie.

I think the transduction has an impact, octocoupler ones can be more colorful. But I think the amplifier in the compressor has the biggest impact. Some can get a little dirty, some are designed to distort very little and resist becoming saturated.

So it’s not really about the settings. But it would be a cool experiment to do what you propose.

Also let’s note that when I say colorful I don’t mean obvious compression artifacts. It’s not about slamming the ratio or dropping the threshold all the way down.

I set my Cali with minimal settings, mostly what I am doing is adding gain and getting the faintest bit of distortion from it. In fact, the last thing I really want is compression!! Any noticeable squishing or other compressor artifacts would be a huge turn off for me.

It’s not about the compression per se, it’s about the gain stage through the comp’s amplifier.

I'm gonna go read up on those examples. Thanks!

And yes, different types of compressors do react differently to signal. And if you know what you're listening for, you can hear "transparent" compression the same way you can hear non-transparent compression. So what does "transparent compression" even mean?
I would totally love to do an experiment comparing the compressors "transparencies".

Too bad i don't want to spend the money on multiple compressors just to do an experiment. (I mean i kinda want to spend the money and do the experiment, but i'm trying to be a responsible adult.)

 

[_One//Man//Mutiny_]

Mooer makes the Yellow comp, which is a mini Diamond guitar version, I can’t say enough good things about the Diamond Bass Comp, minimally invasive compressor that is all about fattening and tone enhancement. Hasn’t left my board for years and it probably won’t be unseated. The Lusithand Alma is a more tweakable variation of the Diamond but I haven’t been swayed to get one, it does exactly what I want it to do and it does it well.

 

[antfarm]

The tc electronic SpectraComp is extremely versatile and can be a great tool for finding out what you want from a compressor.

TC Electronic | Product | SPECTRACOMP BASS COMPRESSOR

www.tcelectronic.com

 

[Azari]

EBS on Tube Sim mode

Don’t forget the 18v power supply! The EBS Multicomp is one of those rare pedals that has an 18v and a 9v mode. It sounds even better in 18v mode, IMO. I just use a Dunlop 18v power supply that was bundled with an MXR 10-band EQ.

 

[Ondoval]

The Ampeg Opto-Comp is fairly cheap, easy to use and gives a slight colour to your sound. Makes it.. warmer? I dunno. I like it. Here's a Talkbass thread on it: https://www.talkbass.com/threads/ampeg-opto-comp.1345166/

 

[HolmeBass]

I'm gonna go read up on those examples. Thanks!

And yes, different types of compressors do react differently to signal. And if you know what you're listening for, you can hear "transparent" compression the same way you can hear non-transparent compression. So what does "transparent compression" even mean?
I would totally love to do an experiment comparing the compressors "transparencies".

Too bad i don't want to spend the money on multiple compressors just to do an experiment. (I mean i kinda want to spend the money and do the experiment, but i'm trying to be a responsible adult.)

There are two collections of excellent compressor reviews.

Ovnilabs is one, and there is a thread here by @scubaduba .

 

[InkCow]

I was going to recommend the Mira, as others have, but they’ve gotten really expensive!

My recommendation would be either the Scylla (although as noted earlier, the controls seems backwards, probably worth watching YouTube videos about it if you get one) or the DemonFX knockoff of the Cali76. I can’t compare it to the original, but it sounds surprisingly good on its own.

 

[lomo]

Here's another thought....what about a used tube preamp that allows a saturated, mildly overdriven tone with tube compression/saturation? Now THAT's a thickener. I can easily get that with my passive Sushibox FX preamps. They obviously won't compress when run completely clean, but with mild input saturation and a tad of bass boost they compress nicely and bloom/ thicken beautifully!

 

[FullumMusic]

There are two collections of excellent compressor reviews.

Ovnilabs is one, and there is a thread here by @scubaduba .

Cool. I'm sure there are tons of compressor reviews i could watch/listen to. Definitely will check out those two suggestions.
But nothing beats doing it in my own room in my own gear, either through my bass rig or through my Dynaudio LY3 3-way monitors.

But that's neither here nor there because 99% chance i'm not gonna do the test myself.

 

[GrowlerBox]

Here's another thought....what about a used tube preamp that allows a saturated, mildly overdriven tone with tube compression/saturation? Now THAT's a thickener. I can easily get that with my passive Sushibox FX preamps. They obviously won't compress when run completely clean, but with mild input saturation and a tad of bass boost they compress nicely and bloom/ thicken beautifully!

While we’re colouring a bit outside the lines, the Lusithand Ground & Pound might be another thing to consider. The distortion circuit is based on Turbo Rat which provides a wide range from cream on top to clotted coffee grounds on the bottom. The blend knob adds your clean signal which is run through a fixed 2:1 compression circuit lifted from their very good Alma compressor (Diamond-type). In addition to making the blended tone much more natural-sounding, it’s a really nice, low-squish compressor in its own right, albeit with minimal adjustment available. I run mine along with another compressor, which I dial back accordingly, and it adds a bit of what I take to be that Diamond-spice (I’ve not used a Diamond as such, so I’m extrapolating).