Osiris

True. But my personal preference is still to use my ears. I should probably clarify and expand that to say that it is not a good idea to set up the compressor in isolation as you run the risk of over compressing your sound as you have rightly pointed out, but set it up playing in context with your band, i.e. using the rest of your gear (i.e bass, amp, cab, any other effects) at gigging volume with other musicians. That way it is much easier to tell when you are going overboard with it and to get things right. Anyway, back to affordable compressor recommendations ...

For the sake of coherence it might be worth ignoring the previous 'answer' to your question ... The Zoom compressor models are actually very good in my experience and are among the strongest features of the current crop of their multi-fx units. I mainly use a TC Electronics Spectracomp but there's a few venues we play where I don't have room for my board so I use my MS-60B on top of my amp for tuner and compression duties. I've had great results with nearly all of them. There's several different models offering different types and flavours of compression so there's probably something in there that you'll like. My personal favourites being the M-Comp model for the punch it adds and the 160-Comp (I think that's what it's called) for a more transparent compression. There's also a squishy optical compressor and a scooped dual band model plus several more to experiment with. But as with any compressor you really need to understand how they work in order to get the best from them. That's not meant to be patronising but if you look through other compression threads on here you will see that the whole subject is widely misunderstood. But let's not have that conversation again here, please That's not aimed at you, by the way @LukeFRC. Regarding metering, yes it's useful (again, on the assumption that you know what it means and how best to use it - and and again that is not meant to be patronising) but it is not essential. As @jposega says above the best metering you can get are the free ones that came fixed to the side of your head

You can't go wrong with the various compression models on the current Zoom units (B3, B3n, MS-60B, B1on), there's atone of stuff to play with in there to keep you going for ages. TC Electronics Spectracomp - there's a tone of stuff regarding this superb little pedal on here and online generally , all of it true (just ignore any comments by @Al Krow ) The Boss LMB-3 is also worth a look for cheap and cheerful punchy compression.

@radiophonic Sorry if I wasn't clear, but what I meant was that the unit has a reverse reverb model, but it sounds from your original post that you have a very specific sound requirement in mind and I don't know if the Zoom will give you exactly what you want. It might, but you won't know until you try it. You may also find that you have limited control over the parameters (Level, tone, decay, tail and dry mix) compared to a dedicated unit. You could always add in something like a chorus model to give it a little shimmer too. I do have an MS-60B and I personally think it's a great little pedal that offers some good quality sounding effects for a modest amount of money. I don't really have any experience of higher costing units to compare it to as I'm not really a fan of obvious bass effects (filters, modulations etc.) as such, so there may be better options out there that will give you the sound that you want. But the Zoom is a cracking little unit none the less that might be worth a look if only to rule it out as a possibility. I tend to use the more pedestrian side of things with mine, as a tuner and compressor and as an occasional pre-amp and high pass filter rather than for any more obvious effects and it is more than good enough for my needs and certainly isn't out of place alongside the rest of my more expensive gear. See if you can track one down to try

The Zoom MS-60B has reverse reverb (as well as a reverse delay) plus a whole load of other reverbs too, and a ton of other effects too. These were included in the firmware update that was released last year. Plus it's within your budget. But whether it'll give you want you want is another matter

Round these parts it's known as Turdburst I certainly don't care for it myself, particularly when it's a slightly dark cruddy brown colour fading into a darker dark cruddy brown colour. However, add a tortoiseshell scratch-plate to a sunburst finish and it becomes an affront to all that is good and holy. This pretty much sums up my reaction to said abhorrent combination.

Beautiful sunburst and tortoiseshell combination.

That's another secret privy only to those that need to know. So don't earn yourself another spanking so soon.

@Al Krow I don't mind being quoted, it's being misquoted that I object to. My settings are not a trade secret at all, but as I have tried - and seemingly failed - to explain that, different basses have different signal output strengths and different fundamental tones. These mean that you'll need to optimise your compression settings for each different bass you use in addition to factoring in other variables such as your right hand plucking strength (I'm somewhat ham fisted whereas you attack the strings with the angst and venom of an asthmatic tapeworm) and any tonal characteristics of your amp/cab/speakers etc. What this all means that my settings almost certainly won't work for you*. So for the record, my settings for the 160 Comp on my B3 are; THRSH -32, Ratio 2.8, Gain 10, Knee Soft, Level 88. * For example, you often wax lyrical about the aggressive sounds of your Ibanez but if you set your compressor up with the settings that work with my warm, mellow sounding Sandberg as above, you'll start yet another thread/poll/campaign to tell the world that you have once again "proved" that compression is an urban myth and the likes of @Skol303, @51m0n and myself will lose the collective will to live. Again. etc. The best thing to do is to try it for yourself and find the settings that work for you with your gear. It really is that simple. There, I've said it. I feel cleansed.

Like the rest of the folks above I've had my fair share of gigs like that. As has already been said, try and make the best of a bad situation; have fun with the band, try new songs and variations to your bass lines, try to build a repertoire with those that are paying attention etc. While it can be disheartening after you've put in all the time and effort there's no point beating yourself up over it as it doesn't change a thing other than how you feel. Try and learn from it so that when it happens again - which it almost certainly will if you're gigging regularly - you and the band accept it for what it is and get through it in a positive way. Our gig last night was similar, playing to a crowd of around 20 in a big pub so it felt pretty empty but we still had fun and got some banter going with the small but appreciative crowd. A little self depreciation goes a long way

Yes absolutely, there's loads of mileage to be had from just the TonePrints alone without having to go anywhere near the software editor. My only experience of TonePrint pedals is limited to the SpectraComp and Corona chorus, but there is just about every sound you're realistically ever likely to need already available from the free downloadable TonePrints. If you want something specific and esoteric you'll need to software editor but for most people it is far from essential. Although to be fair, this isn't a multi-fx unit, nor is it being marketed as such

The ones currently up on the TC website seem to be for the Spectracomp side of the unit only, so maybe we'll be able to mix and match them with tone prints for the drive section too? https://www.tcelectronic.com/de/sentry-noise-gate/toneprints/toneprints/p/P0D9D

You're missing out on a whole lot of fun, it's quick and simple to do, it literally takes a couple of seconds with a smart phone to swap tones prints. There's a wealth of stuff to try, most of it is great (to my tastes, at least) and it's all free. What's not to like

Ha, my mistake, I only clicked on the first link before getting sidetracked and doing some digging of my own

That looks interesting, especially as I'm looking to go over to in-ears soon and will be ditching my back-line and pedal board in favour of my Zoom B3 for DI/EQ/compression/tuner duties. My only reservation that I've got at the back of my mind regarding the move to the B3 is that I'm really going to miss my SpectraComp but something like this would give me everything I need in one box while keeping the control versatility of the SpectraComp. US price looks to be $199 so ought to be reasonably priced in the UK too. Here's the official video from TC

I've just 'discovered' these children too after recommended them by @Cuzzie and have been impressed by what I've heard so far. Yes, very very Zepp indeed, but I'm watching this space with interest to see what they evolve into once they find their own feet.

In short, no they don't on the MS-60B - but you can blend in some clean on the B3. The long winded explanation - I have both the B3 and the MS-60B and have been sinking a lot of time into the compressors on both lately as I'll soon be moving away from back-line to in-ear monitoring and my plan is to use my B3 as an all in one tone shaper, tuner, DI and compressor. To date I've been using the TC Electronics Spectracomp but as I'm hoping to ditch my board as well as back-line I've been getting to grips with the Zoom comps in greater depth. One thing you can do on the B3 is to go to the TOTAL menu for each patch and there is a blend option there called BAL where you can mix between the fully processed signal (BAL at 100%) and the unprocessed signal. For effective parallel compression I like a clean blend of around 20% give or take i.e. BAL at around 80. Unfortunately I have not been able to find a similar feature to the B3's BAL on the MS-60B. If it can be done and anyone else knows how to do it, please let us know.

I only use mine for quiet in-house rehearsals. The trouble is the noise of the thing drowns out the bass (and everything else) so it's hard to tell exactly how much squash is being applied. Still, the carbon monoxide emissions have killed the keyboard player so it's not all bad news.

Pffft, real men use one of these;

I've gigged one of these, it blew me away.

@andysg42 As has been said a few times already, the Genzler Magellan sounds like it ought to be on your shortlist, if not at the top of it! Please check out my review as linked by @Al Krow a couple of posts up. As an update since the review, I've been gigging mine for a year now and cannot fault it. The simple but effective tone stack allows me to EQ to any difficult room in seconds. You mentioned in your original post about "a bit of simulated tube warmth" and the Magellan absolutely nails it, IMO. It's a subtle drive with bags of those critical mids that you need for an effective drive sound in the mix. It's silky smooth too, neither gritty, fizzy or with a bloated low end mush. I cannot fault the amp in any way even though our honeymoon period has long since passed

Good luck with that

I have a Peavey Zodiac DE as well as an Ibanez SR1000 in my stable and while there's no doubt that the Ibanez SR neck profile is skinny and fast, but compared to the Peavey it's a tree trunk

No problem, but it was a major WTF moment first thing this morning My go to setting on the Mojo are Gain at around 10-11 o'clock ish, Volume at unity (1 o'clock ish?) Voice switch on (up position), Bass at about 10 o'clock treble at about 2 o'clock. On paper than might look like a high treble setting, but the bass I use these settings with is very dark sounding and the voice switch adds additional lows and mids to fatten things up. So although those particular settings work with my gear for the sound I want, they may not sound so great with other folks set ups. Both the BSF and Mojo do the mid rich low gain thing very well, so it all comes down to which one you prefer over the other.

Errr, where did that come from? Being in to "high treble" drive sounds is news to me