Compressors!

[howieee]

Oh the wonderfull compressor! i have a crapy and yes i do mean crapy....... behringer (sorry) compressor. iv been told its crap and to get rid of it.

alot of techie people iv spoken to have said thats the evil word... and that i should get a valve compressor (for around 120quid..??)

is the difrence between a bog standard compressor and a valve compressor exactly the same as the diference between a valve bass head and a solid state bass head. or is there more to it than that.

i know how a compressor works and what the settings do. (apart from key listen...?)

although i dont always no how they effect the sound of the bass...


so what sort of settings do you guys, who use them, tend to go for?

i use a ratio of about 3:1 and change the threashold depending on wether im using a passive or active bass.

cheers all!

[tayste_2000]

Wouldn't bother tube amps compress your signal plenty, just practice not having huge peaks and dips in your playing style

If you really want I highly recommend the Empirical Labs Distressor

[howieee]

i dont ahve a thousnad pounds to spare. or did google turn out the wrong result. (that was a sweet compressor by the looks of it.

[51m0n]

All about [url="http://www.ovnilab.com/index.shtml"]compressors[/url] (follow the link)

+1 to tube heads, and any other overdrive causing a form of compression

If you want a decent comp you need a rack device, I rate the Focusrite Compounder, you can pick them up for under £200 on evilbay, and they sound the beans.

[tayste_2000]

[quote name='howieee' post='856238' date='Jun 3 2010, 03:57 PM']i dont ahve a thousnad pounds to spare. or did google turn out the wrong result. (that was a sweet compressor by the looks of it.[/quote]

Nah that's the right one

Honestly mate I wouldn't bother with it not with the amp you have.

[howieee]

this is where iv sudenly realised valve amps do more than i ausme they do/did! i supose distortion is compression. and to get that i would asume u need to turn the pre amp up and the master down to actualy be able to play with a compression and not drown everyone else out....

my amp doesnt have a preamp nob....

although i will say at our gig the other week we all turned the masters up on our amps. we all had them on 4 basicaly and i swear i got that valve warmth everyone has been bangin on about. and it sounded sweet! and like nothing iv ever heard! especialy with marcus miller giving me all the jazz that i ever needed!

[geoffbyrne]

............................just 4???????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....................................



G.

[howieee]

[quote name='geoffbyrne' post='856267' date='Jun 3 2010, 04:46 PM']............................just 4???????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....................................



G.[/quote]


well 4 is just over half way on my amp believe it or not the svt only goes to 7.....(acording to the little arrows.. )

sorry to have worried you

[Shambo]

I scored a second hand Demeter Compulator pedal from this very website and use it either very, very sparingly so you can hardly notice, just to even out my playing.... or full on, which completely crushes the sound and produces it's own strange swirling distorted effect, which I find very pleasing.

[LawrenceH]

Those Behringer compressors are pretty good actually, certainly better than a lot of people judging on name rather than sound give them credit for.* I'd hesitate to upgrade from them unless you went for something significantly more costly (like the focusrite), or something less transparent (they're not transparent by studio standards but are compared to bass pedals!). The optical compression on the Aphex Exciter units, for example, is a very 'warm' sounding compression that really bigs up the bass end, very different to a studio rack compressor.

*The caveat is I haven't heard the more recent Behringer models, only the ones from the early 2000s. But they were very usable.

[discreet]

[quote name='tayste_2000' post='856230' date='Jun 3 2010, 03:46 PM']If you really want I highly recommend the Empirical Labs Distressor [/quote]

Ooh, yeah. Especially for drums.

Edited June 6, 2010 by discreet

[Chopthebass]

I've tried various compressors over the years and always found they take away dynamics. Never got on with them and really can't see how they can improve a bass sound in a live situation. Only my opinion mind you.

[discreet]

[quote name='Chopthebass' post='859448' date='Jun 6 2010, 11:38 PM']I've tried various compressors over the years and always found they take away dynamics. Never got on with them and really can't see how they can improve a bass sound in a live situation. Only my opinion mind you.[/quote]

I totally agree. Taking away dynamics is what a compressor is for. I never use one live.

[goingdownslow]

[quote name='Chopthebass' post='859448' date='Jun 6 2010, 11:38 PM']I've tried various compressors over the years and always found they take away dynamics. Never got on with them and really can't see how they can improve a bass sound in a live situation. Only my opinion mind you.[/quote]
+1
Only suitable for use in the bedroom, pretending to be playing live.
When playing live, why would you want to sound like you are in the bedroom?

Edited June 7, 2010 by goingdownslow

[51m0n]

[quote name='goingdownslow' post='859641' date='Jun 7 2010, 10:53 AM']+1
Only suitable for use in the bedroom, pretending to be playing live.
When playing live, why would you want to sound like you are in the bedroom?[/quote]

HAHAHA!!!

Tell that to Tony Levin mate

[tayste_2000]

[quote name='51m0n' post='859758' date='Jun 7 2010, 12:37 PM']HAHAHA!!!

Tell that to Tony Levin mate [/quote]

+1

[goingdownslow]

[quote name='51m0n' post='859758' date='Jun 7 2010, 12:37 PM']HAHAHA!!!

Tell that to Tony Levin mate [/quote]

Will do, when he comes out of his bedroom.

[51m0n]

[quote name='goingdownslow' post='860792' date='Jun 8 2010, 10:50 AM']Will do, when he comes out of his bedroom.[/quote]

I'd quite like to have his bedroom then mate, it looks a fair bit bigger than either mine or yours does I reckon:-

[fonzoooroo]

A lot of small studios and PAs had/have behringer composer pros... They're OK. Don't have the reassuring feel of something more expensive, but the sound's fine. I've got one of them and an Alesis 3630 on studio duties and a samson s.com in my bass rig. Samson's the worst of the lot - suffers from the cheap pots and switches factor. I link one channel of the samson into the other, and use 1 side for compression and the other for limiting. That way, there's 2 stages of gain reduction, so it sounds smoother.

Key listen lets you send a signal into the compressor to activate the compressor, but not feed its audio to the output. You'd use it to (for example) duck the bass in time with the kick drum to make the kick appear louder in the mix.

[GremlinAndy]

I too have the Distressor.
It's the only compressor I've ever got on with.
I was trying over and again to find why people swear by compressors... as all they apperaed to do was as stated above, take away dynamics.
But now I find that the settings I'm using on the Distressor give me no loss of dynamics, and it's barely even there, but it does just tidy up my playing a little. (it's no substitute for perfect fingering tho, ...but then I'm far from perfect.) The key for me is to have so little noticable compression that I can forget it's there.

Mind you £1000 plus, is a lot of money to have something in the chain which I can't detect 99.999% of the time, I guess.

All other compressors I tried were basically, pants tho.

Edited June 19, 2010 by GremlinAndy

[alanbass1]

For a really good 'transparent' compressor (one that levels the sound without altering the tone) is the DBX160A. Really easy to use as well with the recommended bass setting in manual a really good start.

[Musicman20]

The only compressor I use now is on the Rh450, which is the best onboard compressor Ive had the joy to use. Simple, and effective, TC know compressors anyway so thats always a bonus.

The compressor on my Trace GP12 400SMX barely did anything if im honest.

[RichardH]

Shameless plug time - I have a Boss CS3 with the Monte Allums mods applied to it [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=91594"]for sale at a very reasonable price [/url]

[Lozz196]

[quote name='RichardH' post='872836' date='Jun 20 2010, 06:11 PM']Shameless plug time - I have a Boss CS3 with the Monte Allums mods applied to it [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=91594"]for sale at a very reasonable price [/url][/quote]
I`ve just recently started using the Behringer compressor, used to also be not keen on compressors, but, tried it out, and have now been converted. Think the problem was my previous use of on-board compressors that literally seemed to remove all dynamics, as many others have said here.

With the Behringer, I have output on full, sensitivity on minimum - it seems to just add some punch/snappiness to the notes, but removes "overspill" of the previous note. Have also noticed that this really emphasises how "on the beat" or not you are - so maybe even for the not so keen on using it live, compression could be a good thing to use at practices, to keep tight.

[Slaphead]

[quote name='LawrenceH' post='858578' date='Jun 5 2010, 11:26 PM']Those Behringer compressors are pretty good actually, certainly better than a lot of people judging on name rather than sound give them credit for.* I'd hesitate to upgrade from them unless you went for something significantly more costly (like the focusrite), or something less transparent (they're not transparent by studio standards but are compared to bass pedals!). The optical compression on the Aphex Exciter units, for example, is a very 'warm' sounding compression that really bigs up the bass end, very different to a studio rack compressor.

*The caveat is I haven't heard the more recent Behringer models, only the ones from the early 2000s. But they were very usable.[/quote]

I use a fairly new behringer limiter for slapping and not problem with it at all. I have tried other compressors /limiters with no better results. Justg because its cheaper doesnt mean its rubbish. Even if you dont like it you have only spent 20 quid instead of 70 or so.