Well done. Making adjustments while playing a looped bass line is the way to go.
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New Darkglass Compressor: The Hyper Luminal Hybrid Compressor
- Thread starter trainyourhuman
- Start date
Well done. Making adjustments while playing a looped bass line is the way to go.
Ba55Man1ac
Gold Supporting Member
Subbed my HL onto my board this past weekend, loved it! Blend & Time around 3:00, Output & Compression around 12:00, Ratio 1 LED lit, FET mode... PHAT, warm & punchy. It really juicifies root-fifth power chords too! Haven't plugged it into the pc yet. 
I just got one of these. Was curious, particularly with the alleged "all knobs in" setting for the 1176 mode. For reference, I've owned and gigged a lot of different compressors, and always have come back to my FEA dual band as my go-to live. In my home studio I run an Empirical Labs Mike-E which is a preamp and Distressor setup which can cop the 1176 driven sound really well ("toasty" ftw).
I haven't gigged it yet, but in spending an hour or two with it and comparing with the FEA, I can say that I'm impressed with the HL, and it is very different than the FEA. The FEA is dead quiet and more towards the "transparent" side of things, at least the way I tend to run it (high threshold, med ratio on low band, medium threshold, low ratio on high band). The dual band allows you to do some interesting things like both squash and boost the low end relative to higher frequencies (and that crossover is user set). It isn't a parallel compressor though, and that was one reason I was curious about the HL.
At first I didn't like the HL. Seemed noisy to me, almost like a Ross style box. But I started twiddling knobs and found that the three compressor types have different behaviors and levels (duh!). I really like the Super Symmetry mode, though it is a bit dark. The FET (1176) mode was what I was most interested in, and after working with it I found some really interesting tones. Not at all like the FEA which is "your tone, just a bit fatter and articulate". Instead the HL could do some level boosting, with the blend and output giving a lot of flexibility. The "all buttons in mode" is pretty dope if you're into that thing. Reminds me of tube breakup/compression, and you can dial it up very much as an effect, with the initial attack giving a pop, then as much bloom (or not) as you want.
Still a lot of experimentation to do, but so far it is has me coming back for more. I was thinking of getting the Cali76 but I think this will be a more interesting unit. Not going to send the FEA packing - different beast. Just a question if I can fit both on my new small board
Also, I'm running a OneSpot at the moment. Seems to be behaving (running it early in the chain), but will likely move to am MXR mini brick and use an isolated 300 mAh outlet.
I haven't gigged it yet, but in spending an hour or two with it and comparing with the FEA, I can say that I'm impressed with the HL, and it is very different than the FEA. The FEA is dead quiet and more towards the "transparent" side of things, at least the way I tend to run it (high threshold, med ratio on low band, medium threshold, low ratio on high band). The dual band allows you to do some interesting things like both squash and boost the low end relative to higher frequencies (and that crossover is user set). It isn't a parallel compressor though, and that was one reason I was curious about the HL.
At first I didn't like the HL. Seemed noisy to me, almost like a Ross style box. But I started twiddling knobs and found that the three compressor types have different behaviors and levels (duh!). I really like the Super Symmetry mode, though it is a bit dark. The FET (1176) mode was what I was most interested in, and after working with it I found some really interesting tones. Not at all like the FEA which is "your tone, just a bit fatter and articulate". Instead the HL could do some level boosting, with the blend and output giving a lot of flexibility. The "all buttons in mode" is pretty dope if you're into that thing. Reminds me of tube breakup/compression, and you can dial it up very much as an effect, with the initial attack giving a pop, then as much bloom (or not) as you want.
Still a lot of experimentation to do, but so far it is has me coming back for more. I was thinking of getting the Cali76 but I think this will be a more interesting unit. Not going to send the FEA packing - different beast. Just a question if I can fit both on my new small board
Also, I'm running a OneSpot at the moment. Seems to be behaving (running it early in the chain), but will likely move to am MXR mini brick and use an isolated 300 mAh outlet.
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Ok, more messing about, and I downloaded and fired up the editing software. Interesting because I was assuming the time control was the other way around, and I was surprised to find the high pass at 5 hz as default, though I suppose that makes sense so it covers the whole band out of the box. Per some previous I set to around 120 hz, also tried min and max while tweaking other things. Like a good studio compressor, this thing is very interactive and experimentation is rewarded. I've managed to get sounds that remind me of some long gone units (for me) like Avalon 737, Summit TLA-50, and I'm closing in on Distressor territory. Left all three around 130 hz for now.
Biggest take-home for @Darkglass - the software is easily the most seamless and best implementation I've seen for a pedal, or maybe any musical instrument (I'm on a Mac). It found the pedal with no drama, things were adjusted on the pedal on-the-fly (no having to save or "upload" or other nonsense), performance is snappy. Great job!
Biggest take-home for @Darkglass - the software is easily the most seamless and best implementation I've seen for a pedal, or maybe any musical instrument (I'm on a Mac). It found the pedal with no drama, things were adjusted on the pedal on-the-fly (no having to save or "upload" or other nonsense), performance is snappy. Great job!
Man i am really digging the BUS mode on this comp. This comparison might be way off for others but to me its like diamond magic on steroids with all the extra tweak-ability i always wished the diamond bass had.
Wow, thats a great testimony. I have the Cali76-TX and CB, FEA DB-CL and BE-CL and also a Diamond and some more. As of now the Cali76-CB is on my gig board but I’ve been really interested in the HL. It seems like a very competent and versatile compressor but I’m a little afraid of the noise floor, the FEA’s are very very silent and the Cali’s not too bad either but I really don’t like noise...
I probably just should try one, right?
I'm finding that depending on the HL settings, it can be comparable to much noisier. Typical settings I actually use have the HL with a bit more noise than my FEA. Non-issue in a live setting or in a mix.
With the Super Symmetry I found that some white noise was audible, while playing unaccompanied, with the output knob greater than 12. Is it the case with the Hyper Luminal ?
My HL should be here Wednesday hopefully will have some time Thursday to try it out. The only comp I have right now is the Spectra comp in my Spectra Drive Pre.
Have you used it with a noise gate? I'm curious if that would work because I use one in my chain and I'd like to upgrade my black finger tube comp but I dont want to if its gonna be a noise issue
I don't have any noise gates - not noisy enough (to me) to warrant, and playing live I'm usually not worried about some amount of noise. Nature of the beast...
The Hyper Luminal is dead quiet compared to some other compressors. If you you use headphones or put your ear right on the speaker you might hear a slight hiss. You'll never hear it in a real world situation.
with higher ratios and level a bit past 12oclock you can for sure hear a mild humming sound, not a high pitched hiss, a lower pitched hum. 100% only noticeable if you aren't playing. I haven't experimented with dropping the output volume to see if it hides it more but its so mild its not that big of a deal
I have really been digging BUS mode and was my easy favorite mode....... Until...... I changed from pro steels to daddario nickel rounds. FET is now my preferred with these strings. Attached is a pic of my custom software settings. BUS mode is my custom concoction very loosely based off diamond bass comp rumoured specs, and the FET settings i tried to match to the cali76 compact bass specs.
Try them out and let me know what you think.
