Sounds unanimous, I’ll go with the Keeley, much appreciated!
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Keeley Bassist Compressor/Limiter!!!!!
- Thread starter RodneyMac
- Start date
Just picked up a new Bassist, now to put it through its paces tonight and weekend gigs. Should know soon enough if I’m a compressor sort of guy. I’ll be using a stirgray 5 and and Am standard Dimension through a gk mbf500 and 2 neo cabs.
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I've had mine on my board for a couple of weeks now. It is so easy to dial in. I have mine set to level out everything when I am digging in hard. This is working out great for me. +1!
- Apr 19, 2001
- 2,302
- 3,047
- Disclosures
- Beta tester Source Audio, demos/reviews of many others
Just FYI in case someone sees one or the other and doesn’t know, the Super Bass X is the same thing as the Bassist. I have the Super Bass X and love it as well. If you want a transparent comp then yea it’s hard to beat for simplicity and quality of sound.
I still miss my Fairfield Accountant but that’s on the dirty side of compression.
I still miss my Fairfield Accountant but that’s on the dirty side of compression.
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So I just purchased a Keeley and it will not grab my transients fast enough no matter my settings. I wish I would have seen this before I would have got the MXR, I searched threads hi and lo but did not see this. The Keeley sounds great though to me it does add some color its sounds much more transparent than some it just will not grab my peaks fast enough.
It is definitely in need of an attack control in my case. unfortunately I can out pace the Bassist and clip the signal before it can grab it.
It might be fair to include that you also had the same issue with various other high end compressors, so it's not an issue with the Keeley. I also noticed that you said you had awful noise from the Mesa Subway DI, which is the quietest pedal out there. I'm thinking you have something strange in your setup.
Dont think you got it quite right. I had issue with the Subway in conjunction with some other pedals Subway alone no noise add pedals much noise pedals alone no noise put pedals back with Subway noise back. Nothing screwy I stated I needed the other pedals more so I got rid of the Subway.
As to some other compressor pedals yes BCP-1, Plex, and Bassist cannot grab my transients fast enough to keep me from clipping my Elf head. FWIW DOD Milk Box is able to stop my clipping the Elf.
It might help if I add my technique is the screwy part nothing wrong with my board/pedals. I have an explosive attack with my right hand and I would not change anything about it.
Frankly Keeley should have included an Attack adjustment with the Bassist as bass players need this type of control from a precision instrument like the Bassist.
Frankly Keeley should have included an Attack adjustment with the Bassist as bass players need this type of control from a precision instrument like the Bassist.
I prefer the fixed attack of the Bassist - simplicity and great sound. There are TONS of compressors out there with an attack knob, including the Compressor Pro made by Keeley.
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So I'm not dogging the Bassist just wish it had an attack control for a specific need. I really like the tone or lack there of and the form factor a switchable faster attack might be a good addition IMO. I just wanted let folks know if you have a situation where you have a super explosive fast attack with a passive bass the Bassist probably is not the device to control these.
I currently have the Bassist on my pedal-board for a different application that I use with my big rig it works great for that.
I currently have the Bassist on my pedal-board for a different application that I use with my big rig it works great for that.
See, that's why I found your results so strange. I have massive attack, probably more than anybody I've ever seen. Passive or active, the Bassist works great for me.
No I do not see, the Bassist is not fast enough for my technique to stop peaking transients from my playing getting through and where this is a problem on the other end is where the Bassist is not capable of being the tool for the job. Its that simple. I can even see the peaks on a meter so unless I'm hallucinating this Bear is pooping in the woods.
And after doing some digging I found some similar results from some other folks. I believe part of the equation is the level of the origin signal as (in the manual) its stated at high input levels the Keeley speeds up. I'm guess if you start with a lower level bass the speed is not increased fast enough as if one were using a hotter bass but that is merely a guess on my part. Either way in any of the 4 rigs I have with both passive basses the Keeley is not fast enough to capture my transient peaks its just that some of my rigs don't care.
Are you suggesting I have a bad pedal?
These results are posted after extensive results using the Pedal by itself on new battery power with all 4 of my rigs and two different passive basses. I get the same results over and over no matter how I set the pedal. High Compression Low Threshold and vice versa and everything in between.
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No I do not see, the Bassist is not fast enough for my technique to stop peaking transients from my playing getting through and where this is a problem on the other end is where the Bassist is not capable of being the tool for the job. Its that simple. I can even see the peaks on a meter so unless I'm hallucinating this Bear is pooping in the woods.
And after doing some digging I found some similar results from some other folks. I believe part of the equation is the level of the origin signal as (in the manual) its stated at high input levels the Keeley speeds up. I'm guess if you start with a lower level bass the speed is not increased fast enough as if one were using a hotter bass but that is merely a guess on my part. Either way in any of the 4 rigs I have with both passive basses the Keeley is not fast enough to capture my transient peaks its just that some of my rigs don't care.
Are you suggesting I have a bad pedal?
If it were just the Bassist that you had the same issue with I'd say maybe, but since you have had various other compressors with the same issue then I'd say it's something else.
If I understand, the problem you are having is that it clips your amp? That means of course your amp can't handle the signal going into it. Lower the gain out of the compressor, or lower the gain on your amp's input.
Maybe you should try an MXR M87, which has controls for attack, input, and output.
I do think the M87 might have been a better choice.
Yes the problem is the Elf head definitely for what ever reason my transients shut the amp off for a couple seconds at a time. The fact that the other compressors have this problem are really no consequence as they are known not to make good limiters but the Keeley is billed as such which it will not work for the speed of my transients at the level I'm using it. As far as the gain goes I can turn it down til the amp is really quiet (not loud enough for much of anything) and still clip the amp.
Now I'm not looking for a solution as I already found one the DOD Milk Box oddly enough reacts fast enough with the attack control set in the right place and you can see the input level on the Elf stops going to red and this yields me the ability to have the volume I need with not much squash, severe peak limiting capability, and no more shutting the amp down. Oddly enough it works great now.
I made a little pedal board for just the Milk Box & Tuner.
Here is my other pedal board with the Bassist on it.
The Bassist works good where some moderate leveling is called for then I dump that signal into the Meat Box and by having the Diamond after it can control the amount of gain increase plus keep that chewy thing going then if I want to throw in some overdrive from the Plex I can. Oddly enough while trying to use the big pedal board to control the Elf I even took the output gain of the Shure down to minus 16db but if I turn the gain back up for usable volume I still clip the amp.
The main thing is this amp is extra sensitive to transients. I also had an Ampeg BA210 V2 that did the same amp clipping/shutting down thing as well. Now all my GK heads dont seem to care that just deal with it.
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I didn't have any problems with the Bassist, even when diggind REALLY hard with a pick (loud punk-rock scenario), but I always play a passive P bass.
Does the amp shut off sometimes when you don't use a compressor? Or when you go straight into the amp?
Yes its a known semi issue with the Elf and isn't a problem for most bass players just those of us who are extreme heavy handed. I probably have the heaviest attack on the planet. The sharp transients make the amp shut down about a second then comes back on.
