Considering Bass Compressor

[Snake Aces]

For most of my bassplaying life (since 98), I have not used a bass compressor. I'm a finger player, not a picker.

I effed around with a budget Ashdown bass compressor with the bands I played in from 2007 to 2010. Other than that, never.

That Ashdown didn't move the needle for me but it had its moments.

Now I am debating between the Origin Effects Cali76 or the Empress Effects Bass Compressor.

I'm leaning towards the Empress, not because of the lower cost, but because some people I've read reviews from say they prefer the Empress over the Cali76.

Anyone have experience with these two bass compressors?

 

[Chistopher]

I have no experience with those, but let me tell you man, you're gonna wonder why you didn’t get a compressor 28 years ago...

 

[Snake Aces]

I have no experience with those, but let me tell you man, you're gonna wonder why you didn’t get a compressor 28 years ago...

I think you're right about that, especially since I love fat bass tone.

 

[Snake Aces]

Maybe I should get both of them since I am building my dual amp rig this year... see which one I like more for deeper octave rig and which one will pair with the more traditionally-toned rig.

 

[uOpt]

I always used a dbx 160x (19" rack). Among other things it has better visual feedback.

 

[Snake Aces]

I always used a dbx 160x (19" rack). Among other things it has better visual feedback.

My current rack is full. I could consider looking for a bigger rack but then it gets even heavier.

 

[beaubrummels]

I've wanted the Cali76 but couldn't afford at the time. I got a Keeley Limiter instead, which has ratio, threshold and makeup gain; the three most needed knobs to make any compressor sound natural. Keeley has a Bassist and a GC guitar one; he told me the Bassist just has some circuitry to make it more sensitive to the peak lower frequencies of a bass, but both will work just fine. The guitar one is just a studio compressor like the Cali76.

 

[GuitarStv]

I'm a fan of compressors with a clean mix knob. This lets you effectively do parallel compression . . . it becomes very easy to get thick notes with control and sustain but still have some transient and the start of a note.

 

[Chistopher]

For a bass, a compressor is useless without a clean mix knob

 

[Snake Aces]

I'm a fan of compressors with a clean mix knob. This lets you effectively do parallel compression . . . it becomes very easy to get thick notes with control and sustain but still have some transient and the start of a note.

I believe both the Empress and the Cali76 have a mix knob.

 

[Mincer]

For a bass, a compressor is useless without a clean mix knob

I like compressors with a mix knob. Lots of people don't, but I find them great on bass.

 

[jeremy]

i like the option of the clean blend, you can use it or not

 

[Snake Aces]

I eventually decided on the Cali76 along with the Boss OC-5 octave pedal (I'm told I can hit 808 frequencies with it from a Sweetwater dude). They are on the way:

 

[GuitarStv]

I eventually decided on the Cali76 along with the Boss OC-5 octave pedal (I'm told I can hit 808 frequencies with it from a Sweetwater dude). They are on the way:

1176 style FET compressors seems to work great on most things for me when recording. I bet it will make an awesome guitar pedal.

 

[Coma]

I'm a fan of compressors with a clean mix knob. This lets you effectively do parallel compression . . . it becomes very easy to get thick notes with control and sustain but still have some transient and the start of a note.

Couldn't you achieve the same effect with a slower attack setting? Or is the outcome very different?

 

[GuitarStv]

Couldn't you achieve the same effect with a slower attack setting? Or is the outcome very different?

It's the same kind of idea, but always seems less finnicky to me. When you start changing the attack setting it will change the way the compression works on each note. If I want some light compression, it often ends up not getting the sustain I want and it's tough to balance right. I feel like it's a lot easier to get a natural sound with the mix knob - you can dial in anywhere from a little more than you want all the way up to way too much compression and then just mix back in the clean until it sounds right again.

 

[Snake Aces]

Well, my Cali76 came along with the Boss OC-5 pedal.

It took me two minutes to get a sweet, fat tone out of the Cali76. I'm not sure what all the people reviewing it at Reddit and other places were saying about the Cali76 being difficult to dial in. To be fair, I've probably been playing bass longer than a few of them combined.

The photo is were I found some sweet tones with the knobs immediately after hooking it up. I'm sure I will.tweak it a bit more in the coming days, but for an active bass with the MM-style pickup, I dig these settings. Super fat tone.

As for the OC-5, I'm going to enjoy that more when I set up my second bass amp. I don't want that to be the only tone coming through, I want one amp with the OC-5 and one amp without it for certain parts of songs.

 

[jeremy]

are you running it at 18v?

 

[Snake Aces]

are you running it at 18v?

Yes