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New Empress Compressor MKII

#182
PS. I have 2 bass compressors (my mistake. Was supposed to be one of each). I have a 65 jazz, an Asher TJ and a mim jazz with dual darkstars. Only the bass with dual darkstars has the clicking. I'm not even going to bother with the swap as I only use the darkstar bass for some Motown and I don't need a lot of compression for that :)
 
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#185
A
Adamixoye said:
To my knowledge the ZOIA keyboard issue hasn't been super widespread. I haven't had any issues with mine.

Give me a company that's transparent about their hiccups any day.
Click to expand...

The Zoia issue was on early production runs. Not sure when they fixed the pads but I got an early batch. Having played with it using each, I’m kinda surprised the first batch made it through QC. The newer pads are noticeably better.
 
#186
monsterthompson said:
The Zoia issue was on early production runs. Not sure when they fixed the pads but I got an early batch. Having played with it using each, I’m kinda surprised the first batch made it through QC. The newer pads are noticeably better.
Click to expand...
I pre-ordered at Prymaxe once the release date was officially announced, so I imagine mine is an earlier unit but I don't know that for sure I still haven't had any issues that I've noticed. Just FWIW.
 
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#188
I don’t see what the big hub hub is here. Quality issues are a common thing...for companies of all sizes. It’s a real struggle...one can only hope that a company learns from their mistakes because we are only as good as the last thing we have done. I am not sure why people are denying that there are quality issues...the company admits it. I am sure it’s an expensive mistake also.

I am not saying that empress is a bad company...they have shown their colors in acknowledging the error and doing everything in their power to make it right. I’d say support like that is WAY more valuable to me as a consumer than a buggy product. I am a massive fan of Red Panda, I also own a Beebo, and even a Hydrasynth. I am down with growing with a product and I love a company that stands behind their product and keeps moving it forward.

All that said, I am not assuming there was a quality issue...I was unaware of it, in fact, until empress announced it. Having quality issues doesn’t mean things won’t get better...there are however, many companies that continue to release stuff that has issues...there’s an active thread about EHX right now, and we’ve all heard darkglass stories, EBS has had some issues, many of the best have. There is no assumption being made.
 
#189
Lowendtech said:
Hondo did a nice review of the pedal and didn’t notice anything either. With a bunch of passive basses.
Click to expand...

Which is a simple enough explanation of how a defect such as this could sneak past thorough QC. Last time I experienced a glitch as an early adopter, it was the same thing: some users experienced the glitch, some didn't.
 
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#191
cosmicevan said:
I don’t see what the big hub hub is here. Quality issues are a common thing...for companies of all sizes. It’s a real struggle...one can only hope that a company learns from their mistakes because we are only as good as the last thing we have done. I am not sure why people are denying that there are quality issues...the company admits it. I am sure it’s an expensive mistake also.

I am not saying that empress is a bad company...they have shown their colors in acknowledging the error and doing everything in their power to make it right. I’d say support like that is WAY more valuable to me as a consumer than a buggy product. I am a massive fan of Red Panda, I also own a Beebo, and even a Hydrasynth. I am down with growing with a product and I love a company that stands behind their product and keeps moving it forward.

All that said, I am not assuming there was a quality issue...I was unaware of it, in fact, until empress announced it. Having quality issues doesn’t mean things won’t get better...there are however, many companies that continue to release stuff that has issues...there’s an active thread about EHX right now, and we’ve all heard darkglass stories, EBS has had some issues, many of the best have. There is no assumption being made.
Click to expand...
You literally called it a concerning pattern. This walkback isn't particularly convincing.
 
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#192
I’m still playing with the bass comp. While using an active bass (classic 4-string ray) I’m getting the clicking noise when the -3 gain reduction LED goes out. Typically, with a passive bass the clicking noise happens when the -1 gain reduction LED illuminates. Is anyone else encountering the same problem? The way I find it is by hitting a low note and holding it until it goes through the 3rd LED. It still happens a little bit on the 1st one though.
 
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#193
Adamixoye said:
You literally called it a concerning pattern. This walkback isn't particularly convincing.
Click to expand...

I think it is a bit of a concerning pattern (maybe "concerning" is a heavy word, it's just effects pedals...but it is a pattern, and I imagine they are not thrilled). 2 big products and they had to send parts out to customers to fix the issue. I don't know too much about the zoia thing, but this problem sounds like it happens when you plug a passive bass into the pedal...seems like a common use case to test. That's all I'm saying. I mean it isn't the end of the world, but they have had quality issues. That's it. They handled it well, but it was still an issue.
 
#194
But you said it was a concerning pattern and then were surprised at the pushback when others gave their reasoning for why it wasn't necessarily a simple, easy-to-catch thing. Now you're saying it was maybe too harsh of a word while still insisting that it's a pattern. Seems like you're trying to have it both ways.

I'm not trying to be a fanboy but it seems to me we're talking about some pretty fluky things (this is fluky and only shows up in a subset of passive basses, while the ZOIA is a really complex pedal), compared to some of the rat's nests and other QC issues that other popular builders on TB put out there.
 
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#195
I don’t understand this wave of frustration and rant over Empress’s new compressor. They discovered a minor design (not quality) issue after the product launch and immediately offered a fix. They did the right thing. Fast. What is the problem then? Have you guys never slipped a note during recording or playing a song? Change that ribbon cable and there you go, you have your perfect product back to specification. Is not like they killed someone with those clicks. Give them a brake. They didn’t do it on purpose. And they are fixing it.
 
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#197
Adamixoye said:
But you said it was a concerning pattern and then were surprised at the pushback when others gave their reasoning for why it wasn't necessarily a simple, easy-to-catch thing. Now you're saying it was maybe too harsh of a word while still insisting that it's a pattern. Seems like you're trying to have it both ways.

I'm not trying to be a fanboy but it seems to me we're talking about some pretty fluky things (this is fluky and only shows up in a subset of passive basses, while the ZOIA is a really complex pedal), compared to some of the rat's nests and other QC issues that other popular builders on TB put out there.
Click to expand...


I am simply trying to have a discussion on a discussion forum about a real world situation related to quality problems at a company. You may feel that releasing a product with a significant bug is fine and you are entitled to your opinion. And yes, if empress needs to send parts out to the end user for them to open up the pedal and make a change, that IS a significant issue. Maybe for your setup this is a non issue, but plugging a passive bass directly into a compressor designed for bass and getting a clicking sound is what we call in the technology business a show stopper issue - if empress had found this before product went out, I would bet that they'd hold production to fix the problem as it is more expensive to deal with a problem after release. Your comment is the first that I've heard that this is only happening to a subset of passive basses (is that true, it's a subset...which passive basses work?) empress' announcement suggested this was a problem for all passive basses or all instruments w a high impedance out. I don't know why it is such a problem to talk about this, but apparently it is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I seemed to have ruffled feathers by bringing this up, so let's stop beating this dead horse, shall we? You are right, I am wrong. I should have never pointed to the fact that Empress has released products that had defects that required them to send parts to the end users to fix. Although it happened more than once, I am wrong for calling it a pattern. I am wrong for using the word concerning (I mean it really is only concerning for them, if anyone right?). The compressor sounds great in the demos, people seem to be happy, and empress is doing the right thing by fixing their product. Hopefully this is the last product they have to swap parts out for...only time will tell, but lesson learned, it's only okay to point out quality problems at some companies.
 
#198
Let's get back to regularly scheduled programming. :)
Since this thread is entitled "New Empress Compressor MKII" I'm wondering how many have the MKII. My MKII arrived on Friday and I had a little time with it over the weekend. Definitely a lot of similarities but it is a different product and I can see where some might prefer one over the other. I definitely need more time with it and I will be publishing a formal review.

empress.jpeg
 
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#200
scubaduba said:
Let's get back to regularly scheduled programming. :)
Since this thread is entitled "New Empress Compressor MKII" I'm wondering how many have the MKII. My MKII arrived on Friday and I had a little time with it over the weekend. Definitely a lot of similarities but it is a different product and I can see where some might prefer one over the other. I definitely need more time with it and I will be publishing a formal review.
Click to expand...

I'll be interested to read your comparison/pros/cons between the two! I think this may be my Christmas present to myself if I can justify the budget for it, and I don't figure I'll be using the sidechain feature at all, but the tone switch is intriguing.

I read through your review of the Bass (thanks for that writeup!) and may have missed it... Does the SC HP knob do anything if you're not using the sidechain feature?

5sg.
 

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