It is the nature of strings for the thinner strings to sound thinner than the thicker strings. A compressor won't change that. You can minimize the effect with technique, though. The more you practice, the better you will get at it.
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Buying a first compressor
- Thread starter DMKano
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No, no, no! This isn’t allowed! The only approved methodology for determining one’s first compressor is to first read the entire contents of the Testing Compressors thread, (this will take approximately 3 years), ask no less that 1024 questions in said thread, seek therapy to make sense of the information and opinion overload, try 15 other compressors first, and then buy the Empress. (I know that seems like a lot of extra work, but trust me, you’ll feel better about yourself in the long run.)
This is the way.
My favorite comp remains the Cali, but as a first unit,
metering is super important and the empress has a lot of LEDs showing you what's actually going on.
First compressor? Get a good one that does not make exotic claims or come with boutique prices.
Try to hear it before you buy, check out whether it uses upward or downward compression, it can bake your noodle trying to understand the manual if it says one and does the other. (Upward boosts UNDER threshold, instead of reducing above it, and changes of ratio and threshold directly affect the noise floor). As well as an attack control, make sure it has a release control, not all of them do. When following up with overdrive, set that low to start with, only raise it if the best compressor settings still aren't getting what you want. If overdrive is too high it's easy to end up thinking the compressor isn't working.
Meters can help, but they aren't necessary. Trust your ears when you understand the mechanism. Listen to recordings of your playing, it's not easy to judge while you're playing a bass. Try different playing methods, downward slides are especially good for helping to gauge compression results, as is the comparison of warmth in sustain vs some variation in HF strength on attacks.
If you don't get methodical with this you might be chasing compressors various for so long it will make you miserable.
Try to hear it before you buy, check out whether it uses upward or downward compression, it can bake your noodle trying to understand the manual if it says one and does the other. (Upward boosts UNDER threshold, instead of reducing above it, and changes of ratio and threshold directly affect the noise floor). As well as an attack control, make sure it has a release control, not all of them do. When following up with overdrive, set that low to start with, only raise it if the best compressor settings still aren't getting what you want. If overdrive is too high it's easy to end up thinking the compressor isn't working.
Meters can help, but they aren't necessary. Trust your ears when you understand the mechanism. Listen to recordings of your playing, it's not easy to judge while you're playing a bass. Try different playing methods, downward slides are especially good for helping to gauge compression results, as is the comparison of warmth in sustain vs some variation in HF strength on attacks.
If you don't get methodical with this you might be chasing compressors various for so long it will make you miserable.
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Whatever you do, you don't need to spend that much on a compressor. There are many much cheaper compressors on the market that do a great job, one of which is the Markbass Compressore (which I bought for €100 second hand). Really great compressor, I record with it in the signal chain (it's that good).
Thank you very much for the feedback and advices. As you mentioned I'll try to adjusting the pick-up height. I was doing that some time ago, but maybe I should experiment with it a bit more.
As for the compressor I'll think about the Empress but unfortunately it's not available in any store in my country and I wanted to buy it locally.
I wanted to ask you about MXR M87 compressor. On the internet I found information that this compressor breaks down quite often. Is it true? Did you have any problems with it?
. Sometimes I also use Ernie Ball Super Slinky (40-125). However, this problem occurred regardless of what strings were on and whether they were new or old.
I don't think it's amp. I have played on three different amps and that problem occured on every of them. Also, when I played another guitar on one of them, the sound was full and homogenous.
I have Ashdown MK 500 Mark King signature with grafic EQ. I haven't experimented too much with the sound. I have slightly boosted lower and upper frequencies and a slightly pulled down mids. But I tried different settings on my previous amp and couldn't achieve what I wanted. When I boosted mid frequencies so that the upper strings had enough, then the lower strings had too much. And as I write before I played on another guitar on Ashdown and There was no problem with lack of tones.
I agree that proper technique is a very important thing, but when you play gently with your fingers and wanted add some slaps then the volume difference will be too big to be compensated by the appropriate technique.
Actually both of the samples were played with fingers. Really
Maybe such picks you mentioned would be good idea, but what with slapping?
Maybe this would help. Thanks
Maybe but I thing that a p-bass it's not for me. It's not a type of sound I'm looking for.
As for the compressor I'll think about the Empress but unfortunately it's not available in any store in my country and I wanted to buy it locally.
I wanted to ask you about MXR M87 compressor. On the internet I found information that this compressor breaks down quite often. Is it true? Did you have any problems with it?
Currently I use D'Addario XL nickel wound (40-125). They are more than a year old. I know I should go to jail for playing on such old strings, but these samples that I uploaded were recorded long time ago (for sure on more fresh stringsmatante said:
. Sometimes I also use Ernie Ball Super Slinky (40-125). However, this problem occurred regardless of what strings were on and whether they were new or old.lan774 said:
I don't think it's amp. I have played on three different amps and that problem occured on every of them. Also, when I played another guitar on one of them, the sound was full and homogenous.
themickster said:
AndyLES said:
I have Ashdown MK 500 Mark King signature with grafic EQ. I haven't experimented too much with the sound. I have slightly boosted lower and upper frequencies and a slightly pulled down mids. But I tried different settings on my previous amp and couldn't achieve what I wanted. When I boosted mid frequencies so that the upper strings had enough, then the lower strings had too much. And as I write before I played on another guitar on Ashdown and There was no problem with lack of tones.
pbass2 said:
I agree that proper technique is a very important thing, but when you play gently with your fingers and wanted add some slaps then the volume difference will be too big to be compensated by the appropriate technique.
Rip Van Dan said:
Actually both of the samples were played with fingers. Really
Maybe such picks you mentioned would be good idea, but what with slapping?
S.F.Sorrow said:
Maybe this would help. Thanks
Maybe but I thing that a p-bass it's not for me. It's not a type of sound I'm looking for.
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I don't think playing an Ibanez Soundgear is the cause of your bad balance between upper and lower strings. If anything, Soundgears are veeeeery balanced due to them being a more modern kind of instrument. I think it's just a matter of setup. That said, compressed bass is a certain kind of tone that comes in useful.
Just to be clear, is the difference in volume between low strings and high strings your concern? Or the difference in tone between low strings and high strings?
I'm concern about difference in tone between low and high strings.
So as You said compressor won't help in this matter.
But there's still the (main) question, which compressor to choose to balance volume with playing fingers, pick or slapping. I can see that most of you recommend Empress, but this one is unavailable in my country and I don't want to import it from abroad.
I'm thinking about Boss BC-1X, MarkBass Compressore and MXR from Dunlop. As I see in the internet that last one it's very popular but I also saw one the thread on this forum, from which it follows that this model likes to break:
Dead MXR M87 Bass Compressor
But it's really that common?
The compressor will only take what you feed it, so adjusting pickup height might be the first thing, it can settle the difference in tone between strings a bit, and when that's done there will be some compression in the interaction of string and pickups. Saddle height (and intonation) adjustment might be needed too, if you're losing energy in a string during hard playing because it hits a fret. Those transitions can be so fast you might not notice them, but you might hear the loss of sustain and warm tone because the energy gets taken out so fast when that happens.
It's worth exploring that at length because no compressor is going to fix problems there if you have them. Play it by ear, because your hearing will act like a compressor. Once you have raw tone you like, try listening to the results of a compressor as recorded, after you've played something. Start with whatever compressor is most easily reached so you have some idea of the ratio of compression you want, and the threshold. Once you know that, then it's worth thinking about specific merits of other compressors, but not before.
That's fair. If your goal is to manage differences in volume, then a compressor can help you with that. I just didn't want you to have an unrealistic expectation regarding tone. If you got a compressor expecting it to even out differences in how the strings sound, and then it didn't do that, you might be a little upset.
Roland GR 88
Commercial User
I wouldn’t worry about the quality of MXR pedals and it would be a good start as you fall into the rabbit hole.
This site is worth reading first. Compressor Reviews
This site is worth reading first. Compressor Reviews
This is pretty typical of the D, G, and C strings in general. Compression will help, but other things you can do to aid this is:
- Dial back the bass on your amp. The D, G, and C strings are more in the realm of mid content, and bringing the mids up will make them jump out more. It's my humble opinion that mids = tone, and the easiest way to dig yourself out of getting buried in the mix is "MOAR MIDZ".
- User higher gauge strings for the D, G, and C strings. This will sacrifice playability a little bit, but going up by .005 (e.g. 0.040'' to 0.045'') will help the strings stand out more. This is one reason I like a 0.045-.100 set for 4 string; I find the tone ends up being more balanced. For what it's worth, there are lots of players who use those gauges for finger, pick, and slap.
- Adjust pickups, if possible. Bring the bass side of the pickup further away from the string or bring the treble side of the pickup closer to the string. Either way will equalize the output more. You can generally do this just by experimentation.
All this being said, if you want a compressor-- up your budget to $250 and get the Empress Bass Compressor. It's close enough to your budget and is a very versatile and good-sounding compressor, and in fact I'm actually considering getting rid of a $350 compressor and moving to the Empress.
Yes, and using compression between your bass and the studio/FOH front end is a very different thing than the compression being applied after the front end (the DI, mic pre, etc). There's a reason most of those cats don't have a stompbox compressor on their pedalboard, unless it's for an obviously effected sound.
Adjusting your pickups might help with your string issue but it also might not. Some basses are just like that. I had a P bass whose D and G strings would disappear in a band context. Adjusting the pickup height didn't fix it and neither did anything else I tried. In the end I sold the bass. As for compressors, I find the Keeley Bassist particularly user-friendly (though they might not be available in your neck of the woods). Then again, I tend to leave compression to front-of-house on bigger gigs and generally prefer an un-compressed sound for smaller gigs.
cats like Tony Levin and Tim Lefebvre (and I'm sure there are others too) talk about using compression pedals like Empress or Cali76 (amongst others) for both live and session work .... just sayin' .... I'm sure that there are great players and killer session guys who do not, but it's not just one size fits all.
and remember the OP asked us whether a compressor might help him tame the dynamics differences between finger style and pic playing ... and a compressor can help with that .... but of course, if you can fix that dynamic issue purely through practice and working on your technique, thats a good idea too.
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So, I'm getting the idea that you could be in the EU...just part of the fun on TB trying to potentially help someone who actually lives someplace on Earth...?
There is a dude in Denmark who has been doing compression for a minute. Carl Martin. This has only three knobs, does parallel compression and will make your Bass sound better.
But, hey, get down to the local MI and take a course on compression and get a meter, a set of four or five controls and find out who knows more about compression on a pedalboard?
$189 US
I've shifted to a midi controlled system, but I like this one for a simple, sounds good and doesn't brake the bank on the pedalboard.
(P.S. OE Cali Compact Bass doesn't have a meter.)
There is a dude in Denmark who has been doing compression for a minute. Carl Martin. This has only three knobs, does parallel compression and will make your Bass sound better.
But, hey, get down to the local MI and take a course on compression and get a meter, a set of four or five controls and find out who knows more about compression on a pedalboard?
$189 US
I've shifted to a midi controlled system, but I like this one for a simple, sounds good and doesn't brake the bank on the pedalboard.
(P.S. OE Cali Compact Bass doesn't have a meter.)
Boss BC-1X Bass Comp. You really don't need to look any further for a bass guitar compressor.
My first compressor pedal was the MXR M87. I had no problems with it and it sounded good for me at the time. It was a good introduction to using a compressor pedal and I did find the metering helpful, especially when getting my ear used to subtle differences in the amount of compression. It is very clean and does not add any color to your bass.
I did recently upgrade to the Empress Bass Compressor, and I have to agree with some others on this thread that it is a world apart.
When I bought the MXR I thought that was it and I would not buy another compressor, but I kept reading about the Empress and when I tried it, I could immediately tell the difference and I liked it. That is just to say, maybe as your first compressor pedal get something more affordable with all the controls you need so you can use it to train your ears to get used to compression and what it sounds like in different amounts. Then with that under your belt save up your money to buy one that is going to really suit your needs and style of playing.
I'm sure there will be some who say, "just buy the best, so you don't have to buy twice" and there is some wisdom to that, but compression is one of those effects that I found I needed to learn how to hear to know what sounds good and what I like.
That said, I don't think that you can go wrong with the MXR at this point.
I did recently upgrade to the Empress Bass Compressor, and I have to agree with some others on this thread that it is a world apart.
When I bought the MXR I thought that was it and I would not buy another compressor, but I kept reading about the Empress and when I tried it, I could immediately tell the difference and I liked it. That is just to say, maybe as your first compressor pedal get something more affordable with all the controls you need so you can use it to train your ears to get used to compression and what it sounds like in different amounts. Then with that under your belt save up your money to buy one that is going to really suit your needs and style of playing.
I'm sure there will be some who say, "just buy the best, so you don't have to buy twice" and there is some wisdom to that, but compression is one of those effects that I found I needed to learn how to hear to know what sounds good and what I like.
That said, I don't think that you can go wrong with the MXR at this point.
Hey, I guess I chose two models, but I can't decide which one to buy. These are the MXR M87 and BOSS BC-1X. Perhaps those of you who played those two could tell me something else about them that would help me make a decision? The BOSS is dual-band and the MXR single-band. Which of them do you think could better harmonize with the specific sound of my bass, which I wrote about in the first post?
