If it's budget that has you turning to BOSS, I get it. The cheapest comp I'd be willing to use if I couldn't afford anything else would be the Seymour Duncan Studio BC. Still sub $200 range!
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Favorite BOSS Compressor/Limiter?
- Thread starter Dorado Pulido
- Start date
I got the LM-2B on my small board, and I prefer that over the LM-3B. I owned the CS-3, and didn't like it much. The BC-1X looks good, and we all know if a pedal looks good, it sounds good 
The best setting for the "enhance" knob depends on how much mid scoop you like. I modified my LM-2B and like the knob at 9-10 o'clock.
I placed the "enhance" knob on a footswitch with a dedicated LED. I always have the limiter on, and kick in the "enhance" when I play slap or w/ a pick
. it's the top left pedal in the pic:
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I’m currently running a cs2. I like it for a little compression. I keep the sustain knob at 12 or below depending on how hot the bass is. It gives a nice color, trims some lows, and feels like it brings the bass a little more forward. It’s also 3 knobs and I appreciate simple pedals.
the bc1x is nice too, but I never got to try it in a live setting. I tried a cs3 at guitar center and thought it was better than people say…as long as you keep it at very mild settings I thought it had some good sounds
the bc1x is nice too, but I never got to try it in a live setting. I tried a cs3 at guitar center and thought it was better than people say…as long as you keep it at very mild settings I thought it had some good sounds
I have used many of the compressors suggested here, and as someone who barely understands how to turn the knobs on a compressor (It's such a counterintuitive process to me) I have settled on the green one - the BOSS BASS COMP BC-1X. It's EASY and like the demo says, nearly every setting sounds good.
I use it the predecessor of CS-3, the CS-2 and its VERY good. Maybe the main pedal that i have.
That's a big part of it. Hard to beat the reputation, durability and legacy of BOSS for the price point.
While that is a largely fair assertion of Boss down the years, I'd say it's actually quite easy to beat the Boss at its price point; Broughton, MXR, Empress, Keeley, MarkBass, EBS, Earthquaker, and Seymour Duncan all have units that I'd say are at least comparable, if not vastly superior, to the BC-1X for the same price as the Boss + or - $30
Those are just the ones I can think of in the first 30 seconds. Give it time, and there will be others. Don't be shy to look around and explore; Boss isn't the industry standard like it used to be, and for a reason. Not hating on the brand at all, they have served me fine down the years, just saying there are LOTS of other, uh, boss companies making great stuff at a similar price point! You owe it to yourself to check out your options.
So what is your favorite BOSS compressor?
The best setting for the "enhance" knob depends on how much mid scoop you like. I modified my LM-2B and like the knob at 9-10 o'clock.
I placed the "enhance" knob on a footswitch with a dedicated LED. I always have the limiter on, and kick in the "enhance" when I play slap or w/ a pick
View attachment 5022407
That is awesome, I've never seen that mod! Did you do it or have it done somewhere?
The LMB-3 was the nearest I came to liking one. The enhance knob is horrid, and it doesn’t actually offer enough controls to be useful for me. But at least it didn’t suck any tone when bypassed, which I can’t say for the other Boss pedals I’ve used from that time period!
Both in terms of functionality/control, and sound. If I wanted both a compressor and a limiter, I’d need two Boss pedals in order to get there. Ones like the Broughton, EBS, and Earthquaker are all multi-faceted enough to do both things very easily. Besides the BC-1X, most Boss units don’t have very good/any metering, so you can’t monitor things as you play. And that pedal still lacks basic things like an attack control, so yes, there are options that are similarly priced which offer better functionality, and more sounds, than the Boss.
If they do the job for you, that’s great! Truly. I’m just letting OP know, since they seemed to suggest Boss is the best bang-for-buck, that there are other choices out there, too, which may be worth looking at. Not trying to flame anyone or hate on these pedals, so my apologies if it sounded that way!
Two things happened here. First, prices went up over the past few years. Second, BOSS digital comps became slightly more popular due to threads like these. You can get them for $150 or less if you're patient. But that seems to be under market right now.
EBS doesn't have attack or threshold either... But probably calls it sensitivity. EQD doesn't have metering at all.. And Broughton gives all of the controls, but is just a single led. And the only one that has multiband options is the EBS, but that's just on one setting. Not sure how any of that makes any option better, or gives "more sounds". It's compression and limiting. They're all just different shades of the same color.
Maybe it's just me, but "vastly superior" and "has a few subtle differences that boil down to preference" don't usually mean the same thing.
If you're the type of person that puts both a compressor and limiter on your board, more power to you. Seems vastly wasteful considering not a single person listening will be able to able to discern that in a mix.
I couldn't disagree with this statement more.
The Boss BC-1X is, in my opinion, one of the top 3 or 4 bass guitar compressors on the market, and absolutely stands head and shoulders above every single one of the brands you mentioned, none of which are in any way comparable (let alone "vastly superior") to the BC-1X, because they are all analogue wideband compressors, while the BC-1X is a digital multiband compressor.
The best compressors for bass guitar on the market are all digital multiband compressors:
A. Boss BC-1X Bass Comp
B. tc electronic SpectraComp (and Hypergravity/Hypergravity mini, though these are really marketed toward guitar)
C. Source Audio Atlas
This is important because wideband compressors will frequently trigger on the much greater energy of bass frequencies when you don't want them to trigger.
For most bassists, of the three, the BC-1X is going to be by far and away the easiest to use to get a great sound. The SpectraComp and Atlas are probably technically better, but to get the most out of these, you really need to dig into the computer editor functions and, more importantly, understand what the parameters do and how to program them. The BC-1X is optimized for bass guitar, and takes all the hard work out of the equation. For bass guitar, it just works. The downside, of course, is that it pretty much is only good for bass guitar, where the Atlas and SpectraComp can be used effectively on any instrument, if you program them properly.
Now, this is not to say that analogue wideband compressors can't work well on bass guitar, but they just cannot do what a digital multiband compressor can do, which is to compress different frequency ranges differently. In my program for the SpectraComp, I have different thresholds, different ratios, and different knee settings for low, medium, and high frequency bands. You just can't do that with an analogue wideband unit.
There are very few analogue wideband compressors on the market that approach the quality of these three digital multiband units. The Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Bass is one (which you didn't mention, at all), and one of the reasons for that is that the Cali76 actually is a pseudo-dual band compressor. It has a pseudo-sidechain function whereby the bass frequency content going into the compressor trigger mechanism is reduced.
So, let's compare the units you think are "comparable, if not vastly superior":
Broughton OmniComp: no gain reduction meter, does not offer simultaneous compression and limiting
MXR Bass Comp: does not offer simultaneous compression and limiting
MXR Studio Comp: does not offer simultaneous compression and limiting
Empress Bass Compressor: does not offer simultaneous compression and limiting
Keeley Compressor: not tailored for bass guitar, no gain reduction meter, does not offer simultaneous compression and limiting, no attack control, no release control
(not including the Keeley Compressor Pro, because it is three times the size of the Boss BC-1X, so it's really not comparable)
MarkBass Compressore: 3x the size, no gain reduction meter, does not offer simultaneous compression and limiting
EBS MultiComp: no gain reduction meter, does not offer simultaneous compression and limiting, no attack control, no release control
Earthquaker The Warden: not tailored to bass guitar, no gain reduction meter, does not offer simultaneous compression and limiting
Seymour Duncan Studio Bass Compressor: no gain reduction meter, does not offer simultaneous compression and limiting, no release control
Of these units, the Empress does at least offer an HPF on the sidechain trigger, which makes it a much better option than any of the others here just for that reason.
