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Help choosing compressor

Diamond vs Aguilar TLC

  • Diamond Bass Compressor

  • Aguilar TLC Compressor

Results are only viewable after voting.
Jay Mastro

Jay Mastro

Jun 23, 2014
646
352
New York
#1
I've been meaning to buy a compressor for a while, there seems to be a lot of good ones out there, from the demos that I have heard so far I am mostly interested in the Aguilar TLC Compressor and the Diamond Bass Compressor, has anybody had experience with both and compared them hands on? They both seem great, I feel like I would be happy with either, but would like to hear what you folks have to say, that what this website is for, right?
 
#2
Great reviews at ovnilab.com. That's what I used to compare and evaluate compressors. My ear was not tuned well to hear compression, but I knew what I wanted it to do and that website made all the difference! I learned a lot from the tech papers too. Great site for compression!!

From what I know and have seen here, both are great, the diamond is a bit more transparent. I'm a fan of Aguilar products, they all sound great for what they do, and respond well to articulation.
 
#5
IMHO it all depends on what kind of music you are going to play... I have an Aggie and can surely say it's good, but there is no tonal magic when you engage this boy :-) sometmes it takes an educated ear to realize the diference beetween compressed and non compressed sound... and I really miss some kind of led indicator to show up when signal crosses the threshold... if you already have your "perfect tone" I think Aguilar TLC is the guy for you... really transparent. Never played through a BCP but... oh crap... some G.A.S.... :-D
 
#6
Well, depends upon what you want.

If you want mild compression, tonal enhancement, warm punch, really simple controls and a LED that helps you monitor what is going on, then get the Diamond.

If you want a range of types of compression all the way up to limiting, more ability to fine tune the nature of the compression, tonal transparency, and don't need any sort of LED to help you figure out what is going on, then get the Aguilar.

Both companies are amazing with fantastic reputations and excellent QC/CS.

As for me, I'm a massive Aguilar fan, but my board has a Diamond on it, and it will never, ever, ever leave. :D

http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/diamobass.shtml

http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/aguilar.shtml

Jay Mastro said:
I've been meaning to buy a compressor for a while, there seems to be a lot of good ones out there, from the demos that I have heard so far I am mostly interested in the Aguilar TLC Compressor and the Diamond Bass Compressor, has anybody had experience with both and compared them hands on? They both seem great, I feel like I would be happy with either, but would like to hear what you folks have to say, that what this website is for, right?
Click to expand...
 
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#7
I have a barber tone press. OK its not exactly high end and it does introduce a bit of noise but I only use it when I'm using a back line or another persons amp. I keep it in my gig bag but rarely need it. A nice feature in a compressor should be a mix knob. Blending the dry tone with the compressor yields some great sustain and beef without losing the attack especially if your a slapper. If I had to choose another compressor I would go with a Keeley compressor. The tone press has another cool feature. There is a potentiometer inside that you can sweep for a vintage compressor tone and modern clean tone. The vintage tone is warm and wooly. Modern is crisp and clean.
 
#13
Jay Mastro said:
I was watching a few demos of the Empress yesterday, seems pretty nice
Click to expand...

The Empress is very nice. I had one before my Diamond.

It comes back to what you want it to do. If you want excellent control over the parameters of your compression, and LEDs that slay all competitors, then the Empress can't be beat. For me though, it was and is all about the tonal magic, and just adding a hint of compression to punch things up a bit, and for that...its back to the Diamond.
 
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#16
I've been looking at the Diamond and the Empress, but I'd like to throw the Whirlwind OC in the mix. It fits between the other two as far as feature set. Can anyone shed some light on how it stacks up tonally compared to the others? Anyone know the compression ratios it offers?
 
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#17
I have a CS-3 that I think works well on my guitar (or 6-string soprano bass, if that's more "pc" :D ), but I'm getting some clipped signals out of it when I do chords and 2 notes at the same time on my bass. One bass has active pups and the other has humbuckers with an active EQ. Does the Aguilar TLC have the headroom for active electronics, heavy attack, and chording?

Thanks in advance.
 
#18
Fernando Candioli said:
IMHO it all depends on what kind of music you are going to play... I have an Aggie and can surely say it's good, but there is no tonal magic when you engage this boy :) sometmes it takes an educated ear to realize the diference beetween compressed and non compressed sound... and I really miss some kind of led indicator to show up when signal crosses the threshold... if you already have your "perfect tone" I think Aguilar TLC is the guy for you... really transparent. Never played through a BCP but... oh crap... some G.A.S.... :-D
Click to expand...

I´m a happier user of Aggie too. I must say that it gives me all what I expect for a compressor: a natural sound without coloration and no noise. This is my main concern when I need compressing my bass signal ´cause I´m glad with my own tone, so I don´t need adding or varing anything in my sound.

Lately I used it a few times in some songs and not in all the gigs what I did. I worked hard my dynamics and I can play with no a huge difference in terms of volume, so I rather using with soft settings instead hard compression to tame some possible speaks of my low B or my envelope filter mostly. I can sat that the Aggie is so transparent that sometimes it happened that I must to took a look to the led to make me sure that it really was on. :laugh:
 

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