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Dual/Multi-Band Compressors ?

#21
Have you considered a Limiter instead of compressor? I don't do much slap so forgive my ignorance, but from what I gather it's the "pop" part of slap that makes the peaky signals that a lot of people want compressed. But a compressor sort of affects the whole signal, whereas a limiter selectively "squashes" only those peaky signals (in this case, mostly highs as I understand it).

Again, hardly my area of expertise and I could be wrong but it might be something to at least look into.
 
#22
jnewmark said:
Anyone have any suggestions for this type of compressor ? I'm mainly looking for a pedal model that lets the low end go through uncompressed, and compresses the more high end of a 4 string bass. My slap tone usual sounds fine uncompressed on the thumb hits, but I can't seem to get the right " squish " tone when popping on the G string. When I use a single band compressor, the thumb hits seem to get buried, and squashed too much, while the pops seem to be in the tone neighborhood that I'm looking for.
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The EBS is a great compressor but IMO it can be a bit aggressive sounding. If you want to let the "Lows" pass through uncompressed, the FEA Opti-fet is a very good choice as well. Sure the FEA dual band is fantastic, but if you don't need to compress the lows, then the opti-fet will work just fine. The opti-fet has a side chain where you can dial the lows where it won't be compressed (or hardly compressed). Don't be fooled, the side chain is not an eq, it basically lets you give priority to how much you want the Lows, Mids, & Highs to be compressed or not. Very cool pedal. If you choose to get one, make sure it has the internal dip switches. This will provide you different tone coloration as well (almost transparent to beefy bassy tubey tone).
 
#25
mmbongo said:
Very easy! There are two adjustments inside the pedal. Simply turn down..or off...the low end compression trimpot and turn up the high end trimpot.

DSCF9875.jpg
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Excellent ! Thanks a lot.
 
#26
jnewmark said:
Excellent ! Thanks a lot.
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The only problem with the EBS is that the settings are internal. When I had the pedal, there were times where I wished I could have changed this on the fly... that is the cool thing about the Fea Opti-fet. You know how it is, different venues have different sonic characteristics so you may want to make an adjustment. Also the Opti-fet gives you more control since it provides you with lows, mids, and highs.

Now I don't want to make it sound that I'm knocking the EBS pedal, because it is a really good pedal. I used to use it and got some great slap tones with it. You can check out the recording of "I feel for you" on my sound cloud page. That is an ebs multi comp with an EBS Neo Gorm combo.

The best part about this is that you have many options to choose from. Good luck!
 
#27
Thanks. The fea seems to pretty elusive , and expensive . Probably go with the EBS and see if it can give me what I want. It seems too simple to be true, though !
 
#28
cool. yeah the FEA is a bit pricey but Frank designs a fantastic pedal with top notch parts, so you are getting your moneys worth. The EBS is great too. Hope it works out for you… this way you save some dough and real estate on your pedal board. :)
 
#29
The FEA Opti- Fet looks interesting, although I don't think I quite understand how it limits the low end from being compressed. Is it just a matter of turning the LOW knob all the way to the left ? And this has no effect on the gain for lows ?
 
#30
Another 'budget' alternative(you can find these used and cheap quite often--they're not in production anymore)is the overlooked Marshall ED-1 "Edward The Compressor", Boss-sized, heavy-duty build.
Link Removed
Look at page 4 of the PDF; the 'Emphasis" knob controls the frequency band comp. Bongo's review is here:
http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/marshall.shtml So, it's not perfect, but I use one in my guitar rig and have no complaints.
 
#31
jnewmark said:
The FEA Opti- Fet looks interesting, although I don't think I quite understand how it limits the low end from being compressed. Is it just a matter of turning the LOW knob all the way to the left ? And this has no effect on the gain for lows ?
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Exactly. You engage the side chain. There are center detents on the low, medium, and high. When they are set center, it is the same as not having the side chain engaged at all. If you turn the knobs to the left, it will be less compression for that frequency range. Turn to the right past the center detent, it will be more compression. And yes, this does not effect gain; the side chain circuit compensates for the gain. Pretty cool.

I wanted the same thing you are going for. I had the low set to about 8 o'clock for slight compression, and the highs at about 2 o'clock for heavier compression, and then set the mids by taste. Depending on the venue, I would vary these settings a bit.

The one thing I would say about this pedal, depending how you have the dip switches set, it could be a bit tubey and dark sounding. More old school slap and very fat…. Very nice. The clean dip setting was pretty transparent, but still had a slight bit of warmth IMO. Depends on what you're going for sound wise.

I really liked the pedal but wound up selling mine because I had no more room on my nano pt and I really didn't want to move to a bigger board.
 
#32
maisbass said:
The only problem with the EBS is that the settings are internal. When I had the pedal, there were times where I wished I could have changed this on the fly... !
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These types of settings are normally 'set and leave' settings, as the main controls are on the outside of the pedal. You could also change the switch on the front to normal mode to bypass the dual band compression.
 
#33
while the FEA lab is probably vastly superior, I am more than happy with my Trace SMX, I paid $99 with power adaptor off eBay, and I've seen them go for comparable prices there.... To OP, I do the opposite, I compress the lows with just a touch on the high end and there was a FEA labs dual band comp on eBay recently, anyways, I could never go back to a regular comp after playing through a good dual band, and I like the trace enough not to have gas for another
 
#34
mmbongo said:
These types of settings are normally 'set and leave' settings, as the main controls are on the outside of the pedal. You could also change the switch on the front to normal mode to bypass the dual band compression.
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You are correct sir! Its been a while. I forgot about that you could change the switch to a normal mode as well.
 
#35
jnewmark said:
The FEA Opti- Fet looks interesting, although I don't think I quite understand how it limits the low end from being compressed. Is it just a matter of turning the LOW knob all the way to the left ? And this has no effect on the gain for lows ?
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Be sure to check out the article about sidechains that was posted earlier in the thread, it explains how the OptiFET can be used this way.
 
#36
bongomania said:
Be sure to check out the article about sidechains that was posted earlier in the thread, it explains how the OptiFET can be used this way.
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The Empress has this ability to modify threshold sensitivity with a simple capacitor wired to its TRS sidechain jack.

EDIT: Never mind I was thinking the opposite of what the OP was looking for.

-Frank
 
#37
hintz said:
while the FEA lab is probably vastly superior, I am more than happy with my Trace SMX, I paid $99 with power adaptor off eBay, and I've seen them go for comparable prices there.... To OP, I do the opposite, I compress the lows with just a touch on the high end and there was a FEA labs dual band comp on eBay recently, anyways, I could never go back to a regular comp after playing through a good dual band, and I like the trace enough not to have gas for another
Click to expand...

I've had several TE's over the years. I sold one early last year. Although I was sad to see it go, I don't miss the gig-normous size and quirky power requirements. Mine seemed to only behave with the factory PSU. I kicked it because of the power and I can fit three pedals on my board in the same space of the TE.
 
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#38
GMC said:
I've had several TE's over the years. I sold one early last year. Although I was sad to see it go, I don't miss the gig-normous size and quirky power requirements. Mine seemed to only behave with the factory PSU. I kicked it because of the power and I can fit three pedals on my board in the same space of the TE.
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yeah, I know its big, but it doesn't bug me as I'm more than happy with my pedalboard now(i have 3 "gig-normous" pedals),and for what the SMX does for my main basses tone.... Honestly I have no more GAS for any more pedals now, its really a good feeling to be happy with what I got!!!
 

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