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Compressor yes or no. If yes, which one?


Delamitri79

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I’m in the ‘yes’ camp - an EBS black label Multicomp on my main originals band pedalboard, a Boss BC-1X on my occasional covers project pedalboard, and a Markbass Compressore for recording in the studio.

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Most of the people have tried one or three compressors and may be able to tweak that one a bit. This guy has tried a few:

http://www.ovnilab.com/

There are very good pages (like S.O.S. = Sound On Sound) that have (more or less) simple descriptions how a compressor works and how the settings affect sound. Take a look and learn about attack, hard knee and other details.

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-compressors

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/compression-made-easy

See that short note on Max bass and if in need, search after other articles. Hope this helps.

Edited by itu
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Boss LMB3 if travelling light otherwise a dbx160a lives permanently in the rack case with the head - FOH guys always love it if you set it up fairly subtle it is quite transparent but stops any unwanted booming surprises making their way to the desk

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I've got a TC Electronic RH750 head which has the built in Spectracomp compressor. It's a handy tool to rein in unwieldy bass sounds (P-Basses immediately spring to mind). However, for the past while I've been using my hand painted edition of the JHS Pulp 'n Peel v4. It also works as a DI unit to feed the front of house. 

 

IMG_20190616_200849.jpg

Edited by kevin_lindsay
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I've just acquired an Ashdown ABM500, which has a built in one-knob compressor. I'm still playing with gain levels and compressor settings, but I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised how much variety in compression attack and ratio you can get. So at the moment, it's yes, but the built in Ashdown, the Boss and TC that I had on my board are in the cupboard.....

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On 15/06/2019 at 21:43, Delamitri79 said:

Hey folks. I currently run bass into tuner into di into desk. Thinking of adding a compressor just to tighten levels. 

Whose using them and what ones

Cheers 

If you're going straight to desk odds are they will have compression running on your signal already. If you want more texture or whatever your first chat should be with the sound guy/gal I think.

 

I use a Cali76 compact. Used a MXR basscomp for years but decided it was too clean.

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Another Keely Compressor Pro/Bassist or GC2 supporter. Also the Markbass Compressore is very good. Did not like the Spectracomp at all, to offer some balance against some of the above.

Point is I guess that compressor preference is very personal. I generally like DBX160 based compressors (the Keeley's are), others like Urei based pedals, others like Multiband compression.

Edited by HazBeen
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I have tried the boss limiter enhancer, line 6 constrictor and Ashdown amp onboard comp. The line 6 was more of a guitar pedal but it has three settings that are very easy to use and some knobs to tweak, quite cheap second hand. The Boss unit I preferred to use on "enhance" for my fretless. The Ashdown amp compressor I was leaving on most of the time of I had no compressor pedal and couldn't really tell you what it was doing but it certainly wasn't making anything sound bad. I've now got quite a sophisticated Boss multi FX with loads of different compressor models so will be playing around with that when I get time to create my own patches. Overall I'd say use one for live or recording to add presence, but that's just me with my kit and my playing. 

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some gigs I play through a Keeley Bassist - on other occasions just direct to the amp. It's how I feel on the day as to what sound I want. I like it 'on' but I like It 'off' just as much if not more, as 'off' is more versatile. It's the only pedal I use, the rest have been ditched as redundant; I'm tempted to move it on but I haven't quite got there yet.

The Keeley does the job very well and adds a very musical/complementary sound if that's what you want.

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