Spectracomp

[M@23]

Because they're aren't enough compressor threads on BC... 

I'm after a new compressor, nothing too extreme, just a general always-on, 4:1 or thereabouts. 

I've had in the past: a Markbass Compressore, which was great, but too big and too power hungry. Keeley Bassist, which was good as a limiter but, but otherwise not really for me. An MXR M87, which was returned as it was SO noisy. A Diamond, which was great, at what it did tone wise, but I wanted a bit more. 

Now, I'm either about to go all out for a Cali76 Compact Bass or give the Spectracomp a go. 

Spectracomp is obviously cheap, and I have some TC pedals which I like. But, low floor noise is important and I know the TC might take some tweaking to get the balance right. 

How are Spectracomp users finding the level of noise with mild(ish) settings? 

Anyone own both?! 

[dannybuoy]

I have both and have owned the Keeley, Diamond, and EBS beforehand. I thought the Cali was the comp I was searching for, with the blend and HPF letting me even out the tone but still let of a lot of low end thump through. But it has been dethroned by the underdog, the Spectracomp. The stock preset at 8-10 o'clock on the dial is just perfect for me. 6 knobs on the Cali was always pretty taxing to dial in just right, just enough rope to hang yourself and too many knobs to think about. The Spectracomp is like someone took the most advanced multiband compressor on the market and got a top studio engineer to tweak dozens of parameters to perfection for typical bass use. They nailed it.

No noise that I can detect with the stock preset either (others may vary) unless you crank the compression knob. Last time I A/B'd them, the Cali was noisier in fact, however it wasn't a fair test as there were other things in the chain and the Cali was on a daisy chain with a couple of analog drive pedals.

Of course this is but one opinion and there are plenty who will think the Cali slays the TC. You'll only know for sure if you try both out yourself!

[Al Krow]

If you happen to be the sort of person with sufficient taste to get a Yamaha BB P35 then surely a bass of that calibre deserves a Cali 76CB to go with it? 

But more seriously, I suspect you'll be happy with either comp Mark - several of the guys I know who are very 'committed' comp users have Cali's (actually one of them has two different Cali's!) or the Spectracomp; they seem to be two of the most popular and highly regarded comps used by BCers.

[GisserD]

4 hours ago, M@23 said:

 

Now, I'm either about to go all out for a Cali76 Compact Bass or give the Spectracomp a go. 

Spectracomp is obviously cheap, and I have some TC pedals which I like. But, low floor noise is important and I know the TC might take some tweaking to get the balance right. 

I've had 2 spectracomp pedals. The first was noisy. The second was not. 

So it's worth trying one first to make sure it's a goodun. 

[Guest Briton]

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Edited June 23, 2018 by Briton

[M@23]

Thanks for the feedback all. Really, I've wanted to give the Cali76 a try for a while, but I've been so impressed with the TC mini pedals I've acquired recently, that I feel I owe the Spectracomp a chance. Plus, it's a 3rd the price... And Nathan East has a tone print 😁

 

[dannybuoy]

My mint & boxed Cali is now for sale should you feel the desire to acquire both...

[Guest Briton]

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Edited June 23, 2018 by Briton

[M@23]

1 minute ago, Briton said:

I have tried the Cali and it is a great Compressor, but it is similar to the MXR 87 with both being very transparent compressors which is fine for a lot of bassists, but I was looking for some colouration which the Spectracomp gives you in bucket loads. The MXR87 is also a great transparent compressor and is basically a cut down version of the famous studio compressor the Urei 1176. I suppose it all boils down to what you are looking for in a Compressor whether it be something that is transparent or something that gives you colouration in addition to compression.

I would test them out first though!

Ah, I had a bad experience of the M87, it added so much noise, even on its own when barely ticking over. I'm sure mine was just a dud (I know there were a few). So I'm reluctant to try another, but maybe I should. 

Honestly, of the compressors I've owned, the only one which really changed the tone much was the Diamond. I like the sound of my stuff as is, so I'm not too fussed about that. Seems like the TC could do a bit of both, but a usable, quiet compressor is first and foremost. If it tightens/brightens, then that's cool too. I guess, with the TC you get a bunch of options and tone prints. I'm really liking my other TC pedals, the Sub n Up is the coolest octave pedal I've had. 

[CameronJ]

The spectracomp is excellent. The reason you may have read conflicting reports about its noise floor is frankly because it can be either hissy or dead silent, depending upon settings used. I’m not a heavy compression tweaker so rely 99% upon the toneprints. Last year, I spent a considerable amount of time auditioning the toneprints through headphones to not only find the sounds I like but to find those with the least noise. 

The available toneprints have wildly different noise floors.

[M@23]

4 hours ago, CameronJ said:

The spectracomp is excellent. The reason you may have read conflicting reports about its noise floor is frankly because it can be either hissy or dead silent, depending upon settings used. I’m not a heavy compression tweaker so rely 99% upon the toneprints. Last year, I spent a considerable amount of time auditioning the toneprints through headphones to not only find the sounds I like but to find those with the least noise. 

The available toneprints have wildly different noise floors.

Cheers for that info. From what I've read, that seems a fairly common thing with it. Despite being the cheaper option and only having the one dial, it actually seems like it could be the most versatile option. If you don't like it, you move on to the next Tone Print, or delve into the editor... Right? Would you mind sharing which patch(es) you settled on after that test? 

😁

[CameronJ]

42 minutes ago, M@23 said:

Cheers for that info. From what I've read, that seems a fairly common thing with it. Despite being the cheaper option and only having the one dial, it actually seems like it could be the most versatile option. If you don't like it, you move on to the next Tone Print, or delve into the editor... Right? Would you mind sharing which patch(es) you settled on after that test? 

😁

I just had a look at my TonePrint app to remind myself which ones I saved as favourites. Looks like I ended up between “Hold My Neon Mule” by MonoNeon and “Born Again Compressor” by Nik West. They both had the lowest noise floor to me and the best tone for my needs. I prefer a more transparent/less coloured tone as I do my shaping elsewhere in the signal path.

I think I might have Born Again loaded in my Spectra at the moment but I’m not 100% certain!

[GisserD]

14 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

 

I think I might have Born Again loaded in my Spectra at the moment but I’m not 100% certain!

The most frustrating thing About TC tone print pedals right there!! 

[Al Krow]

14 hours ago, CameronJ said:

I just had a look at my TonePrint app to remind myself which ones I saved as favourites. Looks like I ended up between “Hold My Neon Mule” by MonoNeon and “Bjorn Again Compressor” by Nik West the Abba revival tribute band.

I think I might have Bjorn Again loaded in my Spectra at the moment but I’m not 100% certain!

Typos now corrected.

Edited May 29, 2018 by Al Krow

[Phil_T]

I sent my spectra comp back because it was very hissy. I tried tweaking various gain settings and suchlike in the editor but the hiss remained at an unacceptable level no matter what I did so I returned it for a refund within the two week cooling off period. Shame really because it was a very intersting pedal with lots of potential and it may have been user error but I didn't have time to play about with it enough before the return period ran out. I've now bought a mark bass compressore which does the job well and is very quiet (at twice the price mind!)

[dannybuoy]

I do wonder if some Spectracomps hiss more than others - I saw in a current thread on the pedal on Talkbass someone said they returned a hissy one then got a quiet one. Or perhaps they had different Toneprints on them! I'm very picky about noise though as I play through a PJB Bighead headphone amp that it otherwise silent so it's really obvious when a pedal is noisy, and my Spectracomp doesn't hiss. Which I was suprised about really, as I was expecting it to after reading conflicting reports!

[Guest Briton]

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Edited June 23, 2018 by Briton

[Quatschmacher]

4 hours ago, GisserD said:

The most frustrating thing About TC tone print pedals right there!! 

Hopefully that will be addressed with the new app. 

[Quatschmacher]

4 hours ago, CameronJ said:

I just had a look at my TonePrint app to remind myself which ones I saved as favourites. Looks like I ended up between “Hold My Neon Mule” by MonoNeon and “Born Again Compressor” by Nik West. They both had the lowest noise floor to me and the best tone for my needs. I prefer a more transparent/less coloured tone as I do my shaping elsewhere in the signal path.

I think I might have Born Again loaded in my Spectra at the moment but I’m not 100% certain!

Yep, the Nik West one is one that jumped out at me when trying out various presets.

[CameronJ]

12 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

I do wonder if some Spectracomps hiss more than others - I saw in a current thread on the pedal on Talkbass someone said they returned a hissy one then got a quiet one. Or perhaps they had different Toneprints on them! I'm very picky about noise though as I play through a PJB Bighead headphone amp that it otherwise silent so it's really obvious when a pedal is noisy, and my Spectracomp doesn't hiss. Which I was suprised about really, as I was expecting it to after reading conflicting reports!

This was my setup when testing toneprints. The his probably wouldn’t have been noticeable through an amp but I’m a bit anal like that!

13 hours ago, Phil_T said:

I sent my spectra comp back because it was very hissy. I tried tweaking various gain settings and suchlike in the editor but the hiss remained at an unacceptable level no matter what I did so I returned it for a refund within the two week cooling off period. Shame really because it was a very intersting pedal with lots of potential and it may have been user error but I didn't have time to play about with it enough before the return period ran out. I've now bought a mark bass compressore which does the job well and is very quiet (at twice the price mind!)

I can almost guarantee that it was the toneprints used.

[dave_bass5]

Like Danny I always practice at home with headphones, and other than using a Tone print that boosts the high end ive not noticed any extra noise.

[goingdownslow]

Would the hiss/no hiss on some have anything to do updating or not updating to the latest firmware?

 

[gs_triumph]

I use an EBS Reidmar 750 head and 2x TC Rs210 cabs.  It sounds great but at the rehearsal rooms I play my head through their TC BC410 and it seems be lacking in general oomph.  Last week for convenience I used the rehearsal rooms TC BH500 head which sounded completely gutless, until I added a bit of the built in Spectracomp and suddenly the sound filled out, cut through the mix and generally sounded none too shabby. 

The Reidmar has a built in compressor but it doesnt transform the sound anything like what the Spectracomp did on the BH. 

Forbidding the benefit of tone prints, does the Spectracomp pedal work a similar type of magic as the version built in to the BH500 head? 

Edited June 5, 2018 by gs_triumph

[M@23]

On 04/06/2018 at 22:37, goingdownslow said:

Would the hiss/no hiss on some have anything to do updating or not updating to the latest firmware?

 

Could do. From what's been said, it seems that some tone prints are much noisier than others too. 

[pete.young]

Still scratching my head over the M87 comment - you must have had a dud, mine is completely silent.

I'd say the Keeley to go for is not the Bassist, but the Keeley Pro.