post your Empress Compressor settings!

[J.Wolf]

I'm a huge fan of the Empress Compressor, and given that it has so much control over its parameters, I'm curious how most peoples settings look, and what you're going for with it.

Personally, I tend to use mine as a "fat boost", adding depth and presence to my sound and making it sound bigger, but without any discernable "squash" or "pumping". I will post a pic of my settings later, but please show me yours, just out of curiosity.

Empress FTW.

 

[Adamixoye]

Ratio 4:1
Attack 10:30
Release 1:30
Mix 2:00
Input to get -10 dB on my hardest hits
Output to taste

 

[Fuzzbass]

Sometimes I go for gentle smoothing: low ratio, long attack, short release, mostly wet. Other times I do the opposite: heavier squish, but with lots of dry signal -- that way I'm anchored in the mix, but the dynamic transients from the dry side keep me from sounding squished. Definitely a fun thing to do with parallel compression!

 

[J.Wolf]

This is what mine looks like, roughly

 

[domgonz]

I set the meter to both and adjust the input knob so that I never see more than one orange max. I ride the input quite often, depending on my mood and excitement/alertness level, so it stays in the sweet spot!
Other settings are mix fully wet, attack and release both around 10:30, ratio 4:1, and output to taste.

This setting is super fat while still being punchy, and the people I play with have commented on the noticeable improvement in my sound.

 

[J.Wolf]

will have to try that. i never set it fully wet, but would be curious to hear what you're hearing. thanks!

 

[domgonz]

will have to try that. i never set it fully wet, but would be curious to hear what you're hearing. thanks!

Typically, in a studio if you're using a classic compressor like an 1176/LA-2a/Distressor on a bass channel, it's being inserted in-line (DI or mic -> Mic pre -> compressor -> tape/DAW). Setting to fully wet on the Empress is effectively the same thing.

It gives the sound a little more attitude and character, whereas the parallel blend makes it more transparent and clean (which are not things I'm interested in). I love doing parallel squashing on drums and vocals, but on bass just good old fashioned in-line compression gives me the sound I want.

 

[Zooberwerx]

Watching with interest as I have an Empress coming onboard shortly. Plan on A/B'ing it with my existing Diamond comp...one stays, one goes.

Riis

 

[J.Wolf]

I'm definitely going to try messing around with some fully wet settings. I know I like it mild, but maybe could get away with a little more "effect". Not so much when using my Quilter which has a very nice and noticeable limiter happening on the front end, but definitely could be great when using my tube DI>power amp rig.

 

[J.Wolf]

Should be an easy call @Zooberwerx, they're so different in what they do, within that niche. I'm willing to bet that if you like the coloration and fatness from compression you'll prefer the Diamond and if you like transparent punchy clarity, you'll prefer the empress. If I played passive fender style basses it would be diamond and game over.

 

[JimboP]

Watching with interest as I have an Empress coming onboard shortly. Plan on A/B'ing it with my existing Diamond comp...one stays, one goes.
Riis

I have an empress and just bought the diamond, which arrived in the mail yesterday. I'm planning on keeping both...diamond up front and empress at the end after fx

 

[kesslari]

I have an empress and just bought the diamond, which arrived in the mail yesterday. I'm planning on keeping both...diamond up front and empress at the end after fx

NO! You have to have the Diamond in the back!

 

[Zooberwerx]

I have an empress and just bought the diamond, which arrived in the mail yesterday. I'm planning on keeping both...diamond up front and empress at the end after fx

Excellent! Like to hear more from you as the project progresses.

Riis

 

[Zooberwerx]

Should be an easy call @Zooberwerx, they're so different in what they do, within that niche. I'm willing to bet that if you like the coloration and fatness from compression you'll prefer the Diamond and if you like transparent punchy clarity, you'll prefer the empress. If I played passive fender style basses it would be diamond and game over.

That's a fairly apt description as to what's occurred. I received the Empress and re-shuffled my pedal board (below) to accommodate both compressors. You and Bongo are spot-on. In a nutshell: the Diamond provides some heft even with the tilt-EQ at -0-, the Empress was more transparent but lacked the Diamond's fatness...pretty much what I expected. I went as far as to boost the Ampeg pre's bass to compensate which pretty much created a level playing field. I put both comps to the test with an active fiver which has a lower output. In both cases, I had to goose the inputs to 2:00 to see any LED acknowledgement and/or gain reduction. Had to lower the Diamond's volume to 8:30 for balance, the Empress was a little trickier as I had the output at its lowest setting but it was still too loud. The work-around was to reduce the blend / mix from 100% to 70%. The volume fell into spec with the added bonus of adding back some articulation. An attack setting of 10-11:00 yielded the best front-end response without loss of the more desirable transients...I'm still working on the release time. The 4:1 ratio is a great all-purpose setting. As expected, the 10:1 offers a heavier hand but without sounding squashed or unnatural...you may want to re-think your attack, release , and blend (!) settings, though.

 

[J.Wolf]

That's a fairly apt description as to what's occurred. I received the Empress and re-shuffled my pedal board (below) to accommodate both compressors. You and Bongo are spot-on. In a nutshell: the Diamond provides some heft even with the tilt-EQ at -0-, the Empress was more transparent but lacked the Diamond's fatness...pretty much what I expected. I went as far as to boost the Ampeg pre's bass to compensate which pretty much created a level playing field. I put both comps to the test with an active fiver which has a lower output. In both cases, I had to goose the inputs to 2:00 to see any LED acknowledgement and/or gain reduction. Had to lower the Diamond's volume to 8:30 for balance, the Empress was a little trickier as I had the output at its lowest setting but it was still too loud. The work-around was to reduce the blend / mix from 100% to 70%. The volume fell into spec with the added bonus of adding back some articulation. An attack setting of 10-11:00 yielded the best front-end response without loss of the more desirable transients...I'm still working on the release time. The 4:1 ratio is a great all-purpose setting. As expected, the 10:1 offers a heavier hand but without sounding squashed or unnatural...you may want to re-think your attack & release (!) settings, though.

View attachment 2851702

whats the signal chain on this board? I'm curious about that scrambler.. I'm back to needing some harmonic distortion and light overdrive. Don't love the size, but it looks like it could be nice for those purposes.

 

[Zooberwerx]

whats the signal chain on this board? I'm curious about that scrambler.. I'm back to needing some harmonic distortion and light overdrive. Don't love the size, but it looks like it could be nice for those purposes.

No problem! Wireless to either the Diamond or Empress (..we're in trial mode at the moment), spur line from the wireless to the Peterson tuner (not in the signal path), DigiTech bass chorus, Fdeck HPF, and the Ampeg DI you mentioned. Bought that on a whim to go head-to-head with an existing BDDI. The voicings are somewhat different but I'm having a blast with the Scrambler as it's the newest toy on the board. Extra points for the headphone jack! Here's some addt'l dope / observations:

*It's big, it's heavy, it's sturdy.

*Once you've engaged the Ultra-Lo, you won't want to turn it off as the box sounds anemic without it. It's essentially a pre-shape with a low boost & mid-cut. I leave everything ~12:00 with the exception of the treble which I run at 10:00. Running the HPF in front of the Ampeg provides extra flexibility.

*Ultra-Hi: I can take it or leave it but that's just me. I found that if engaged and the treble attenuated to 9:00, it changes the overall character of the top-end response.

*Scrambler: Solo'd, it leaves a lot to be desired...you have to blend it in with EQ section to make it work. I run both the drive & blend at 9-11:00...anything more and it sucks the life from the Ampeg-esque EQ.

The good news is that it's a quick-learn and easy to dial-in some great tones in a matter of seconds. The EQ and Scrambler sections have independent footswitches which allows one to switch between clean and overdriven presets quickly...can't do that with a conventional BDDI.

Riis

 

[Hawk99TA]

Great post. I need a little help from the veterans of compressors. Lol. I've had the Ampeg SCR-DI for a while. I like having the XLR-Out for plugging straight in. I just got an Empress Compressor. I play a Warwick Thumb 5 string which has some crazy lows. I was hoping to Sidechain the Ampeg(with the low down a bit) through the Empress, so that the compressor wouldn't squash everything because of the low end....but, when hooked up properly with a TRS cable...the Ampeg is rendered useless...meaning none of the knobs make a difference when moved. Any ideas?

 

[geobassix]

Great post. I need a little help from the veterans of compressors. Lol. I've had the Ampeg SCR-DI for a while. I like having the XLR-Out for plugging straight in. I just got an Empress Compressor. I play a Warwick Thumb 5 string which has some crazy lows. I was hoping to Sidechain the Ampeg(with the low down a bit) through the Empress, so that the compressor wouldn't squash everything because of the low end....but, when hooked up properly with a TRS cable...the Ampeg is rendered useless...meaning none of the knobs make a difference when moved. Any ideas?

I am not a comp veteran but try (if not already done) with inverting the TRS mono cables, it should be Tip=Send, Ring=Return, that was the issue in my case.

 

[Hawk99TA]

I tried that too. No luck. I'll add some pics of my setup...let me know if I've got things hooked up incorrectly. Thanks.

 

[Zooberwerx]

I tried that too. No luck. I'll add some pics of my setup...let me know if I've got things hooked up incorrectly.Link Removed Thanks.

Kinda curious as to which SCR-DI jack you're using to feed the Empress. Here's the blurb from the manual:

"The sidechain connector on the compressor is a loop that lets you alter the signal going to the gain reduction control circuit. It accepts a ¼” TRS plug: Tip = send, Ring = return, Sleeve= ground. When using the compressor on a bass guitar, it can be very useful to add a high pass filter to the sidechain in order to avoid triggering the compressor with high energy notes in the lowest octave."

If going this route...and I do have a HPF filter on my board...it appears you need an insert cable (it's described as a "loop") in some instances unless the source device has send & return on the same jack.

Riis