Testing Compressors: Cali, Smoothie, Empress, Diamond, Keeley, FEA, Darkglass, Doc Lloyd, JHS & more

#10,801
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Thought I’d mention this as something that might interest people regarding both the feature set and compressor implementation. I was curious to try it since I’ve moved to a more bare-bones stripped down chain using pedals with simpler controls.

It’s an optical compressor (ratio adjustable via internal trim pot) and while not specifically for bass, is usable on account of the blend. The side chain filter is interesting…..rather than being high-pass, apparently it is a tilt style so that the compressor is either rendered less sensitive to low frequencies while at the same time more so to high ones, or vice versa.
 
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#10,803
TwototheValley said:
View attachment 7080893

Thought I’d mention this as something that might interest people regarding both the feature set and compressor implementation. I was curious to try it since I’ve moved to a more bare-bones stripped down chain using pedals with simpler controls.

It’s an optical compressor (ratio adjustable via internal trim pot) and while not specifically for bass, is usable on account of the blend. The side chain filter is interesting…..rather than being high-pass, apparently it is a tilt style so that the compressor is either rendered less sensitive to low frequencies while at the same time more so to high ones, or vice versa.
Click to expand...

Interesting indeed. How does the left side of the pedal work on bass? Especially interested in the saturation and if it affects lower or higher frequencies.
 
#10,804
Mr_BK said:
Interesting indeed. How does the left side of the pedal work on bass? Especially interested in the saturation and if it affects lower or higher frequencies.
Click to expand...
Hard for me to be precise as I don’t have frequency analyser to hand, but seems to affect mainly mid-mids with some extension into the lower mids. Doesn’t really affect the low or high frequencies. Hard to say if there’s any low end loss because when you crank the gain the thickened mids pop somewhat, which can sometimes create the psychoacoustic illusion of low end loss, but then you have the (full range) clean blend in any case, so you can mix to taste. The clipping is germanium and MOSFET, and seems to combine well with the clean signal rather than sounding layered. The “sparkle” control sounds to me like a post-clipping shelving EQ for the high frequencies. Not sure where the cutoff is, but it extends lower than what I’d describe as a “presence” control. The degree of high end boost it provides is considerable, so if you crank it all the way up you need to dial back the “level” control considerably to compensate. It doesn’t really get wooly, fuzzy or congested unless you heavily compress the signal going into it from the right side of the pedal.

One thing I do notice about the “saturation” control is that past 2 o’clock it faintly picks up the local Cantonese language radio station. I don’t think I’d ever have it that high though. Had a Broughton Valve Champ that used to do the same thing.

The manual is incorrect regarding the arrangement of the “blend” control. Contrary to what it says, on my unit at least, fully clockwise is the effected signal, fully counterclockwise is clean.
 
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#10,806
TwototheValley said:
One thing I do notice about the “saturation” control is that past 2 o’clock it faintly picks up the local Cantonese language radio station. I don’t think I’d ever have it that high though. Had a Broughton Valve Champ that used to do the same thing.
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I had a guitar player that would have considered that a feature instead of a bug.
 
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#10,807
TwototheValley said:
One thing I do notice about the “saturation” control is that past 2 o’clock it faintly picks up the local Cantonese language radio station. I don’t think I’d ever have it that high though. Had a Broughton Valve Champ that used to do the same thing.
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🤣🤣🤣
eeyorebass said:
I had a guitar player that would have considered that a feature instead of a bug.
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🤣🤣🤣

Best comments on Talkbass today!
 
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#10,811
I hadn't been gassing for a new compressor for awhile, but I've been considering switching my PC-2A to something a little more transparent? I have a Neptunium at the end of my chain so I'm getting some tube compression from that I believe. I've almost thought about trying the new Cali CB since it is so welled loved. Any other input from you guys?
 
#10,812
On Friday night, I played a first gig with the (new to me) Becos Compiq Twain (V1). It worked great! The sound tech loved it too.

My signal chain was simple: tuner - Twain - DI box.

We played blues and some other stuff (reggae, pop). For genres like these, I am going to use Twain as all-in-one solution. With its saturation circuit, crossover, low cut and high cut filters (and compressor of course), it provides enough tools to shape one great sound which I can use for the whole gig. The sound was thick, dynamic yet polished with some hair in the mids. I certainly did not miss my other pedals (drives, preamps) on Friday night.

For rock gigs, I will add Damnation Audio MBD to this simple setup.
 
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#10,814
jblock said:
I just posted a video of the J. Rockett Airchild 660 compressor on bass. I really like this compressor but that pop when engaging or disengaging the pedal can be a bit much. I leave compression on all the time anyway and it really does give some presence to a darker-sounding bass.

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Timely! I got the Airchild a few months ago and thought it was just fine, but didn't really get around to testing it until this week when I subbed it in for the Empress on my mini board.

My thoughts essentially align with yours and Scuba's. It isn't the most versatile comp -- especially compared to the Empress! -- but I do like the sumthin' sumthin' that it brings. I'm aware that output and threshold are interactive, I need to experiment more with that, but my limitation is that I will only ever run unity gain. I typically run blend and threshold on the right side of their dials. Tone is left flat, but nice to have for quick adjustments in challenging acoustic environments.

I put the Airchild in the same category as the Alma: subtle smoothing plus subtle tone magic. I suppose I'd go Alma for pop, blues, vintage rock/R&B because of its warmth, and Airchild for harder rock... but really, both are subtle enough that I wouldn't worry about that difference.

And yeah, my comp is always on, set it and forget it, so the switch 'pop' is irrelevant to me... and I barely noticed it in my recent testing.
 
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