Empress Compressor w/ active 5 string bass

[boomertech]

Many people talk about the LEDs on the Empress as being the deal-breaker when they bought. I'm sure I'll love the LEDs, but in my mind it's rather the quality of the unit, coupled with the no-nonsense layout of the controls, that sold me to the Empress. (It's exactly what I found when I bought my Empress Multidrive last year.)

Do you mean deal-maker? I see more people wanting some metering or compression indicator over a unit with none.

-Frank

 

[Raman]

Do you mean deal-maker? I see more people wanting some metering or compression indicator over a unit with none.

-Frank

An English-as-a-2nd-language mistake. I corrected it.

I am sure that metering is extremely useful. But you can go by ear. I find having control over the process is more important than metering if you have to choose. But with the Empress, you don't.
My plan when I get the pedal is to test it out at max gain and max all the other settings, then gradually lower, in order to fully appreciate the effect by ear. I could do that without the metering, though those LEDs will certainly be an additional cue as to what is happening.

 

[Raman]

An English-as-a-2nd-language mistake. I corrected it.

I am sure that metering is extremely useful. But you can go by ear. I find having control over the process is more important than metering if you have to choose. But with the Empress, you don't.
My plan when I get the pedal is to test it out at max gain and max all the other settings, then gradually lower, in order to fully appreciate the effect by ear. I could do that without the metering, though those LEDs will certainly be an additional cue as to what is happening.

Btw Boomertech, as much as I'm happy that I scored the Empress today, I really, really craved your pedal. Unfortunately, I didn't have the funds for a new unit, nor would one show up in the ads. To the exact same level as the Empress, the Opti-Fet seems like a perfect unit.

 

[boomertech]

Btw Boomertech, as much as I'm happy that I scored the Empress today, I really, really craved your pedal. Unfortunately, I didn't have the funds for a new unit, nor would one show up in the ads. To the exact same level as the Empress, the Opti-Fet seems like a perfect unit.

I have read a lot of positive comments on the Empress and Ovnilabs gave it a really good review. Even though we have never tried the Empress, we felt very comfortable recommending it to people that were looking for a full-featured compressor with side-chain access. So I am pretty sure you will really like it.

We tried several effects in the side-chain and the tremolo had the best effect, but it was just like the tremolo with much less intensity... there was just no 'wow' factor there. For me, the best thing to place in the side-chain is an EQ pedal. With the EQ you can really tailor the threshold levels for different freq ranges and I find that a lot more useful.

-Frank

 

[Raman]

He he, just got it! But I barely got to test it out before my neighbour called to complain... (Well, she's 70 and this building is most definitely not sound-proof...)
I plugged into an old Bassman 10 amp that I have lying around, which is just an amp that I keep around for when guitarist friends drop by.

1st (partial) impressions :
This is a very different beast than the Keeley. It really doesn't colour the sound, even at 10:1 with a lot of input dialed in, when I see a lot of compression is applied. I expected more of a noticeable effect, but this really is a unit purely for compression: not for a "touch of magic" effect that some units can add, like people report of the Diamond for example.

Contrary to what others have been saying, I did notice that it kills my low B at 10:1. But that's easily corrected by mixing in dry signal. Si I'm thinking I might explore the sidechained EQ option faster than I thought.
This said, there seems to be a problem with my amp with the low B even when I play dry into it. It crackles... So maybe the problem lies not solely with the Empress. I'll have to test it out in my gig amp, but it's stored away at the moment.

Otherwise, the little testing that I could do on 4:1 and 2:1 ratios was satisfyingly smooth. I can see the Empress becoming a permanent feature in my chain at one of those settings, just to keep things balanced and to add a bit of definition. And then dialing in harder compression "New-York style" for some specific songs.

I tested it with my Multidrive, placed before in the chain. The result was good. I couldn't see why some people advise against it...
I'll have to test it some more, but there's one song where I use a very heavy fuzz + dist effect, and where I always have to be super soft in my picking on soloed high notes because they just explode, whereas I usually want more power when I play lower with heavy drum and guitar. I'm hopeful that the Comp will help even things out. And again, there's the sidechained EQ option to look into for such cases.

Anyways, 1st impressions are good, even though I'll have to look more into the low B situation.

.............
PS- I stumbled upon another Empress in the classifieds yesterday... A Delay unit. But there's no way I could justify buying a second effect now.

 

[Adamixoye]

He he, just got it! But I barely got to test it out before my neighbour called to complain... (Well, she's 70 and this building is most definitely not sound-proof...)
I plugged into an old Bassman 10 amp that I have lying around, which is just an amp that I keep around for when guitarist friends drop by.

1st (partial) impressions :
This is a very different beast than the Keeley. It really doesn't colour the sound, even at 10:1 with a lot of input dialed in, when I see a lot of compression is applied. I expected more of a noticeable effect, but this really is a unit purely for compression: not for a "touch of magic" effect that some units can add, like people report of the Diamond for example.

Contrary to what others have been saying, I did notice that it kills my low B at 10:1. But that's easily corrected by mixing in dry signal. Si I'm thinking I might explore the sidechained EQ option faster than I thought.
This said, there seems to be a problem with my amp with the low B even when I play dry into it. It crackles... So maybe the problem lies not solely with the Empress. I'll have to test it out in my gig amp, but it's stored away at the moment.

Otherwise, the little testing that I could do on 4:1 and 2:1 ratios was satisfyingly smooth. I can see the Empress becoming a permanent feature in my chain at one of those settings, just to keep things balanced and to add a bit of definition. And then dialing in harder compression "New-York style" for some specific songs.

I tested it with my Multidrive, placed after in the chain. The result was good. I couldn't see why some people advise against it...
I'll have to test it some more, but there's one song where I use a very heavy fuzz + dist effect, and where I always have to be super soft in my picking on soloed high notes because they just explode, whereas I usually want more power when I play lower with heavy drum and guitar. I'm hopeful that the Comp will help even things out. And again, there's the sidechained EQ option to look into for such cases.

Anyways, 1st impressions are good, even though I'll have to look more into the low B situation.

.............
PS- I stumbled upon another Empress in the classifieds yesterday... A Delay unit. But there's no way I could justify buying a second effect now.

To be fair, I said that it would depend on how you set it. 10:1 with the input cranked...yeah, it's going to kill your lows. That's a function of the nature of compression, not a flaw in the pedal. You have a lot of options to correct it...back off from those settings (I prefer 4:1), mix in some dry, or try the side chain.

I'm glad you like it though!

 

[Raman]

To be fair, I said that it would depend on how you set it. 10:1 with the input cranked...yeah, it's going to kill your lows. That's a function of the nature of compression, not a flaw in the pedal. You have a lot of options to correct it...back off from those settings (I prefer 4:1), mix in some dry, or try the side chain.

I'm glad you like it though!

I probably misread then. In any case, I don't see myself playing at 10:1 fully wet. 10:1 50/50 dry-wet sounds pretty awesome!
At least you're reassuring me this is to be expected.

 

[Adamixoye]

I probably misread then. In any case, I don't see myself playing at 10:1 fully wet. 10:1 50/50 dry-wet sounds pretty awesome!
At least you're reassuring me this is to be expected.

Well, I'm not the expert, but it's my understanding that lows carry a lot of energy and will make you cross the threshold sooner, that's why compressors have a tendency to kill lows if they are set with a high input and high ratio. I used 10:1 with about 75% wet for a while, before backing down to 4:1. 10:1 at 50/50 probably sounds great.

 

[Raman]

Oh, and yesterday I was saying that the row of LEDs wasn't a deal-maker for me... Now that I've seen it in action, it's most definitely a great feature.

 

[Raman]

Linguistic question: How do you call the non-slip rubber things under the pedal. (They were replaced by velcro and I want to get new ones because I don't use a pedal board.)

 

[Adamixoye]

I would refer to them as adhesive rubber feet.

 

[Raman]

Playing through my (trusted Sony MDR 7505 Pro) headphones, through a Eurorack console and through the PC's sound card.
I am getting a lot of hum, more than usual. Like interference. It fluctuates when I move about the room, and it completely goes away when I turn off the effect... Looks like the effect is picking up and amplifying something from the bass that's otherwise too quiet to be noticed.

Otherwise, I'm really, really appreciating this pedal!
Hard to describe, but it lets you completely control how your music travels as an electric current. It's a pure analog tone shaper. And very efficient at it.

I just hope I figure out the humming situation.

EDIT
Turning off the treble on the bass greatly improves the humming.