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Personally I get better results with some kind of saturation pedal when I want to tame transients. It doesn't have to be a pedal that's specifically marketed as a saturation pedal. I often use an EBS ValveDrive set just below the edge of breakup for this exact purpose. I adjust the gain so that the tone is clean most of the time, but a tiny bit dirty when I dig in hard. This reduces spikes/transients in a far smoother way than any compressor. In fact, I use the ValveDrive in front of a compressor, to prevent the compressor from "overshooting" from transients/spikes. It doesn't necessarily have to be a tube pedal. Any kind of dirt pedal with a relatively neutral tone, and a relatively low gain that can be adjusted below the edge of breakup can be used for this. The problem is of course that most dirt pedals don't have a neutral tone at all. The ValveDrive darkens the tone slightly, but it's the best I've found so far for this purpose.
Of course, a tube amp set at the edge of breakup will also smoothen transients, but I'm assuming you want a pedal.
If you get a compressor, make sure it can be adjusted for a very fast attack. A slow attack will accentuate the transients, which is the exact opposite of what you want. This means you can probably forget about opto comps, as they have a rather slow attack by design, and won't clamp down on fast transients. Most allround "one knob" compressor pedals without adjustable attack will PROBABLY also have a too slow attack for your specific needs.
Maybe the M87 or the Empress could be worth testing? But to be honest I've never found compressors very useful to tame transients. Even if the compressor is fast enough it's so easy to completely mess up the dynamics with the fast attack that's required for this. For mixing, where you can tweak the settings in a controlled studio environment, it's a different matter. But with a pedal compressor... It's a very fine line between taming the transients and totally flattening your dynamics. No compression is always better than poor compression.
Of course, a tube amp set at the edge of breakup will also smoothen transients, but I'm assuming you want a pedal.
If you get a compressor, make sure it can be adjusted for a very fast attack. A slow attack will accentuate the transients, which is the exact opposite of what you want. This means you can probably forget about opto comps, as they have a rather slow attack by design, and won't clamp down on fast transients. Most allround "one knob" compressor pedals without adjustable attack will PROBABLY also have a too slow attack for your specific needs.
Maybe the M87 or the Empress could be worth testing? But to be honest I've never found compressors very useful to tame transients. Even if the compressor is fast enough it's so easy to completely mess up the dynamics with the fast attack that's required for this. For mixing, where you can tweak the settings in a controlled studio environment, it's a different matter. But with a pedal compressor... It's a very fine line between taming the transients and totally flattening your dynamics. No compression is always better than poor compression.
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