Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

[mrfunnyman]

Looking at adding another compressor to the mix and it's come down to the Boss CS-3 and the Wampler Ego Compressor. Can I get your guy's input on both these pedals? Looking for something that will help out with come country licks.

 

[hermetico]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

The Ego is way more complete and studio-like sounding. It has a blend know, that allows you to roll the right amount of dry (uneffected) and wet (compressed) signal, it has a very natural compression and, can be used as compressor or sustainer without any issue. The tone control is a good thing also. After trying lots of compressors, this is the one i've choosed for myself.
But, the CS3 is good enough.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Guitar compressors are essentially just limiters...
Studio stuff has no meaning with a guitar!
Blend and all that fancy stuff does not mean much.

If you are looking for compression without colouration, you might as well not use one and work more on your picking instead!
Way cheaper and all that!

If you want an effect.....a CS-3 is just fine and useful!

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Is this question based on the fact that you already have a ross type compressor? like an analogman or a keeley?

 

[zenmindbeginner]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Yeah, the blend knob isn't totally necessary when you can just back off the compression to get a similar effect.

I've found that the CS-3 is a perfect compressor except for the fact that it kills some of the low end of the signal... most of the mods of the CS-3 involve increasing it's bandwidth.

It makes the guitar lean and mean.

I love my tiny little Mu-Tron era Orange Squeezer... no knobs, just a switch that turns it on or off. lolz!

It thins out the sound a bit too but lifts it a bit and actually adds a bit of sparkle and just the right amount of sustain and limiting for me.

This is sort of where the strengths of the nicer boutique compressors lie... increased bandwidth and lower noise.

"Studio compression means" less squish and squeeze in my experience.

I think the Slide Rig took compression to a new level.

Been loving the new demo for the improved Vise Grip, looks pretty interesting.

 

[IM4Tone]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

......................Been loving the new demo for the improved Vise Grip, looks pretty interesting.

Yes, it does!

 

[Liam1963]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Have an EGO Compressor myself, switched out a BOSS CS3 for it, never going back......

 

[hermetico]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Guitar compressors are essentially just limiters...
Studio stuff has no meaning with a guitar!
Blend and all that fancy stuff does not mean much.

If you are looking for compression without colouration, you might as well not use one and work more on your picking instead!
Way cheaper and all that!

If you want an effect.....a CS-3 is just fine and useful!

Sorry, mate. With all the respect, I have to disagree.
A compressor pedal isn't a limiter. You can discuss about (fixed) compression knee, (fixed) compression ratio, (fixed) compression threshold, (fixed) attack, (fixed) release, or any other of compression parameters but, a compressor pedal is STILL a compressor effect.
Limiters work with a fixed infinite compression ratio and, in ANY case, they are just a very SPECIALIZED compressor's type.
The blend knob allows you to emulate "parallel compression", which is a very well known studio effect.
EGO CAN be the most transparent compressor pedal I've ever tried and, CAN nail the tones of the mythic MXR and, everything in between and beyond.
Just MY experience.

But, honestly, someone that wants a compressor, without understanding how it works, he/she better goes for the simpler one (that is, go for a single knob compressor, as the MXR).

 

[hermetico]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Yeah, the blend knob isn't totally necessary when you can just back off the compression to get a similar effect.

With all respect, I have to disagree. I think you really don't understand what "Parallel Compression" means.
The blend knob allows you to emulate that, tweaking the right proportion between dry and wet signal, to achieve the most natural but sustained and beefed results.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Guitar compressors are mostly just limiters.
The blend thing is just like an Apple product.....I never knew I needed it feature.....
Don't get the studio needs for guitar.....

But that is just me I guess.

 

[2manyguitars]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

In my opinion, the Wampler Ego is a much better pedal in almost every way? The one I have shelved my Boss, & two others! For the most part I just use my MXR Super Comp, because its easy & has Velcro on it already but the Ego is def. what I'd take into the studio to record with! I've always had a Super Comp so I guess it's just my go to compressor but I've owned both the Boss & the Wampler. I still own the Wampler, if that says anything? I want to tell you that it's a little less noisy than the boss but I never used them both through the same amp side by side to see so I can't say for sure? It's as quiet as any other compressor anyway??? I know this means absolutely nothing to 99% of us, me included, & I don't really know why I'm even bringing it up but it even looks better! Call it vanity or whatever but the Ego looks flipping great on a pedal board!!!

 

[hermetico]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Guitar compressors are mostly just limiters.

A limiter is a special case of a compressor, with fixed compression ratio 1:infinite, beyond its threshold level.
Simple guitar compressors have all their parameters set to a fixed value and, usually you can just adjust the compression ratio or its threshold with their single control knob.
If the compression ratio goes to infinite then, yes, such a compressor can work as a limiter with the knob totally rolled on.
Other compressors allow you to tweak a couple more parameters, as release time and attack time, with better results in dynamics.
And there are more sophisticated compressors that allow you to tweak practically everything. Some features can be fixed or variable:

- Gain
- Threshold
- Knee
- Attack time
- Release time
- Compression ratio
- Compression algorithm
- Side Chain EQ
- ...

IMHO, the EGO in one of the late.
Even the Tone knob works as a Side-Chain, selecting the band of frequencies you want to compress and, I find it very helpful.
With the Attack and Release, you can play to achieve anything, from squashy compression, to just a sustainer that doesn't affects your attack, to anything else.
And the Blend control allows you to dial the weirdest compression effect and, still to achieve a natural (but enhanced) guitar sound, mixing the right amount of the original signal with less quantity of the compressed signal.
Also, its floor noise is lower and, therefore, its dynamic range higher.

Of course, for anyone that doesn't truly understands how a compressor works and, how to achieve this or that, the simpler the compressor, the better the results. The Dyna Comp is more than enough in that case and, even the CS-3 can be too much.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Yeah it is amazing....
How could we ever live without???


In a moment....we travel back in time...the 80's.....compressor galore

I have lived through all of that once, it did what it did.
Pedal boards is the new rack.

Midi, endless patches, making coffee, cooling the milk, call the maid, texting the wife, hangout message the kids, facetime the family abroad.....
And so on...

Sorry I am just thinking this as mostly toys with a wealth of another set of endless options.....
'Causeweneedtofocusonthesoundherewhilewecommandeerthespaceshipthroughthehardtonavigatemusicweplay....

Cranky old man hath written, so no taking it personally, and it is probally a great piece of gear and all that!
Sometimes I just wonder about why!

 

[Hank-]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

I never bought a comp pedal but i do use the one in my gt10 sometimes which has the ability to blend direct level with effected level. Blending is sort of different from using low compression settings IMO, here you get to keep your dry signal 100% intact & add maybe a hint of wet(compressed) signal on top of it. I guess rackmount compressors have this feature but I'm not sure if most comp pedals out there allow you to do that.

When you guys talk about blending here, do you mean something different like varying the ratio of dry signal with respect to the wet signal, i mean like when you turn the blend knob all the way up you get full wet effected signal( i'm thinking here i terms of the memory boy delay where the blend knob all the way up gives just the repeats/delays)

Also when i thought of limiters, i considered them to behave opposite of a comp, to restrict the dynamic range from increasing over a set value(there is a max threshold limit),while comp restrict the dynamic range from decreasing from a set value(there is a minimum threshold limit).

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Midi, endless patches, making coffee, cooling the milk, call the maid, texting the wife, hangout message the kids, facetime the family abroad.....
And so on...

I totally understand this. I have a (well known booteekish) delay that will even bring in the mail, but I only use two presets.

Sorry I am just thinking this as mostly toys with a wealth of another set of endless options.....
Sometimes I just wonder about why!

I have taken my compressor off the board because I only used it as sort of a boost or harmonic generator when an OD + Fuzz wasn't enough at low to moderate volumes.

Now I'm wondering if I'd rather bring it back than learn to pick and strum more evenly. To sound its best the EHX C-9 requires a very uniform signal at the input. The organ pedal is a fun toy, and uniformity is chief among my many weakness.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Haha it is not that I am anti compressor or something like that...
Sometimes I just think that guitar players go overboard with the fancy stuff.

Nothing serious in it really, I just wonder from time to time, mostly these days I just shut up about the whole deal.
I am still in the business of making pedals...haha
Though it is a new chapter by now....but our take is more like keep it simple and stuff like that.

Niels

 

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

I like simple. I don't even want an S-1 switch on a Strat.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Haha have neither split switches nor anything, the only "special" switch I have, is on my Ibanez S430 for adding the neck pickup to the bridge for a Tele like sound, mostly because the prior owner had drilled a hole for a switch....I thought what the frak...might just as well use it for something!
The rest is simple stuff.....and a great deal more expensive than in my younger days!

 

[hermetico]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Yeah it is amazing....
How could we ever live without???


In a moment....we travel back in time...the 80's.....compressor galore

I have lived through all of that once, it did what it did.
Pedal boards is the new rack.

Midi, endless patches, making coffee, cooling the milk, call the maid, texting the wife, hangout message the kids, facetime the family abroad.....
And so on...

Sorry I am just thinking this as mostly toys with a wealth of another set of endless options.....
'Causeweneedtofocusonthesoundherewhilewecommandeerthespaceshipthroughthehardtonavigatemusicweplay....

Cranky old man hath written, so no taking it personally, and it is probably a great piece of gear and all that!
Sometimes I just wonder about why!

Well, could it be that you are playing on a hi gain amp with hi output humbuckers?
If so, you don't need a comp. Well, in that case, I'm quite sure you don't need even a single pedal, apart of a Wah (if you like it) or / and some delay.
I'm not a fan of compressors myself and, THEY AREN'T PART OF MY FOUNDATIONAL TONE. I use them as one more effect, absolutely when I need that.

In any case, if you don't use compressors, with all respect, why do you recommend one or the other?. Based on what?.

I personally prefer the sound of a single channel all tube classic amp, with a nice clean over which to build the rest (1959 Bassman LTD, slightly modded).
And, I personally love Stratos with vintage output pickups.
Some songs need a compressor with that rig, that's all and, I take seriously every single piece of my gear.

Appart of mixing / mastering compressors (UA 1179, LA-2A, Fairchild 670, Drawner's, focusrite's, several brickwall limiters, de-essers, downgrade compressors, enhancers, etc.), on guitar´s compressors I've tested/owned: Boss CS2 and CS3, MXR Dyna Comp, MXR Custom Comp, MXR Dyna Comp Script, T-Rex Comp-Nova, Mad Professor Forest Green Compressor, some multi-effect compressors (as Line6 Pod Live XT) and, some others I barely can remember. The EGO satisfied me enough to end my search.

Once again, for anyone that doesn't fully understand what a compressor is, when to use it, where to use it and how to achieve what in concrete, the simpler, the best (and the simplest is NO compressor).
It took me several years to understand why some people loaded a compressor in their pedalboard and, I even had a CS2 in my pedalboard before to understand what could that effect make for me, just because I saw it to some others that played way better than me.:smash:

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Boss CS-3 Compressor vs. Wampler Ego Compressor

Yeah...what do I know?