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TC Spectracomp


BassAdder60

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  • 1 year later...

I’ve just bought one of these little pedals on BC and I have to say I think it’s fantastic. 
 

My compressor history is fairly wide, from MXR, LMB3, Cali big box, FEA opti comp and others. My main requirements are that I like it to be super quiet (in terms of white noise when engaged), good at peak limiting and fast attack. 
 

So far using the Captain East toneprint I’ve straight away found a really punchy compression which I’m really happy with. The pedal is super quiet and of course tiny so it fits under my pedalboard, and as it remembers the on/off status when powered down and up again it’s pretty set-and-forget. 
 

I’m glad I finally got round to trying one. I think all my favourite compressors have been digital, come to think of it. I’ll give some other toneprints a whirl but loving it as it is.

 

Will try at rehearsal next week  🤘

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… I had two at one point, sold them both as I was on an analogue crusade (well still am kind of), but recently got one, err, and a spare 😎. Also have a Hypergravity full format to be able to have more control if needed. Just need to save some custom TonePrints with the Spectracomp settings in them!!

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… but for the used prices at the mo they are without a doubt very good bang for your buck!!

 

… just out of interest Ped does your units serial no. come up correctly when using the editor?

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I haven’t hooked up the USB yet, I sort of want to but at the same time I love the way it sounds now and I’m not sure if I need to change anything at all. Given that you can’t make your own toneprint and beam it via your phone I think staying with one of the ‘celebrity’ settings is probably safer than losing ‘my’ setting if I change to another preset. I rather like the way it’s worked - literally it arrived, I beamed the East toneprint, I turned the knob to 10:00 and done. It’s under my pedalboard, on, with the knob switched for a big chickenhead so I can more easily adjust by feel. I think I’ll tape it down where it is and leave it alone!

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4 minutes ago, jimbobothy said:

… can’t you save your edited toneprints then??


Yeah you can but if you use the app to load a different one you have to hook it up via usb to load your own one back again. Not really a problem if you design one and keep with it I guess. Would be good if you could save them to the app. I’m not 100% about this but this is what I’ve read. Despite spending hours tweaking various compressors I’ve had over the years I’m somehow not minded to bother with this, even though it’s probably the most tweakable of the lot.

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What I like about it most is that someone who knows has done all that tedious tweaking stuff. There are VERY few areas in life where I realise that my skillset trumps other people's. (Don't worry for me, I have an exceptional relationship with myself). With tweaking parameters and all that jazz, if proper grown ups have done ones where I can scroll through 30 and find one which makes a noise I like then it is happy days as far as I am concerned. And life is way too short to squeeze out that extra 3% which I will never hear once the Guitarmageddon kicks in.

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Interested to see you mention floor noise @ped, I’ve had many compressors too, and this always bugged me. I was going to try an M87 or Spectracomp next, both of which have very mixed reviews on the subject. 

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32 minutes ago, M@23 said:

Interested to see you mention floor noise @ped, I’ve had many compressors too, and this always bugged me. I was going to try an M87 or Spectracomp next, both of which have very mixed reviews on the subject. 

 

Yeah noise is what put me off some of the other compressors I've used. With my headphone setup at home I'm particularly anal about any noise and as such I went through a lot of cork sniffing to find the perfectly quiet signal (and I don't like noise gates)

 

The MXR is really good, and the noise sounds smooth and not gritty so it's really not very noticeable. The Spectra is super quiet. I think some reviews say it can get a bit noisy if you turn up the dial as there's sometimes make up gain applied as I understand it, but with the dial at 10 O'clock it's as quiet as the best I've tried. I know some others who said it was noisy were running it after several pedals with less than true bypasses so naturally the comp amplified that at the end of the chain. I honestly don't think you'll find quieter - digital compression always strikes me as quieter anyway.

 

Another important factor for me was the fact that it remembers the 'on' or 'off' status when power to my board is turned off - because it's underneath the board I want to turn it on, tape down the dial and forget about it. The MXR did the same.

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Thanks for that, good to hear. Will also keep an eye out for one on here I think and try it out! Nothing to lose if you can get one for £50! I do like the TC minis anyway and have had a good experience of them so far. 

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1 minute ago, M@23 said:

Thanks for that, good to hear. Will also keep an eye out for one on here I think and try it out! Nothing to lose if you can get one for £50! I do like the TC minis anyway and have had a good experience of them so far. 

 

I'm selling my MXR now if you want to have a crack with that and maybe compare the two. £50 for the spectracomp is amazing value and yes they're built really nicely with a satisfying footswitch.

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It’s quite deceptive because it can be both the simplest and the most complex compressor in the world. Either one knob with whatever it comes with as default or dig into the editor with 30 something parameters. 

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4 hours ago, ped said:

 

I'm selling my MXR now if you want to have a crack with that and maybe compare the two. £50 for the spectracomp is amazing value and yes they're built really nicely with a satisfying footswitch.

Hmm, tempting. I’ve recently acquired an MXR EF and love it. Will ponder this, please don’t hesitate should a buyer come forward though!

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