Could someone recommend a good Compressor please?

Alnico

I have looked at a few, namely EHX Black Finger / White Finger and Boss CS3.

Is the EHX Black Finger worth the expense and is it really so much better with valves in the pedal or is it just hype and the Boss CS3 (At half the price) will do just fine?

I'm not very experienced with pedals so i'm grateful for any advice.

If not one of these, could someone recommend another Compressor ?

JohnPerry

The best of the best: origin fx cali 76 or slide rig. Also wonderful is the diamond comp. The xotic sp is small, relatively cheap and pretty good. Of course it depends whether you want to really squash the signal or just add some light compression to it. The xotic squashes way more than the diamond, for instance

RaymondLin

TGP favourites are 

Wampler Ego 

Barber compact Tone Press 

Diamond

Empress Effects

Mad Professor Forest Green 

Xotic SP

 And the daddy of them all, Origin Effects Cali 76

joeyowen

Diamond is a good shout!

Do you want it to help dynamics?  Or start a country and western covers band?

smudge_lad

Over the last couple if years I've had a modded CS3, a Diamond, an Ego and I currently have the Xotic.

I wanted light compression, which is why I moved away from the CS3 to the Diamond. I used the Diamond for ages, it's a great comp, but when I got a second guitar I felt like I needed more control, so changed to the Ego. For me, this is the best compressor I have used out if all 4. Can do everything from light compression to squishy squish and with tons of tweak ability to get it just right!

I only chose to move to the Xotic for the size difference. When I A/B'd the Ego and Xotic, I could get almost the same effect/tone, so it made sense for me to change it up again.

But as above, it really depends on what you want it to do - subtle or squishy?!

not_the_dj

Xotic SP. Brilliant and small.

Kebabkid

Keeley or Xotic SP

monquixote

I have an Xotic SP. 

It's the best compressor I've ever tried and suits my needs perfectly.

I also like the Barber Tone press, but the SP is smaller.

ThePrettyDamned

Really like the one on the route 66, which is based on a dyna comp. Can be squishy or not squishy, but it won't go as subtle as something like an exotic sp (I tried a clone and it was fantastic).

The boss cs3 I tried was a bit noisy. Some folk mod them.

octatonic

I sold a Keeley 4 knob, now have an Analogman Comprosser.

Alnico

Wow thanks.

joeyowen said:

Diamond is a good shout!

Do you want it to help dynamics?  Or start a country and western covers band?

I was hoping for it to help dynamics, not really that acute twang of country and western music.

So from what I've read here the Cali 76,  Xotic Sp and Diamond are a good bet. I shall look out for one of them then. I can't do it until August so I have a few weeks to delve into this as much as possible and try to listen to as many demo's as possible.

Thanks everyone for your input. Any further replies are still very gratefully received.

hugbot

RaymondLin said:

TGP favourites are 

Wampler Ego 

Barber compact Tone Press 

Diamond

Empress Effects

Mad Professor Forest Green 

Xotic SP

 And the daddy of them all, Origin Effects Cali 76

I'm pretty sure the tone press, ego comp and sp compressor are all Ross comps- pretty much variations on the same circuit.

Beexter

The Biyang Compress - X is cheap as chips and sounds ace. It is basically a clone of the MXR Dyna Comp but with lower noise. I don't know how, but I've tried them side by side and the Biyang is better. For a different compressor flavour, the Marshall ED-1 is nice too and is a bit more transparent than the Dyna Comp style pedals.

monquixote

hugbot said:

RaymondLin said:

TGP favourites are 

Wampler Ego 

Barber compact Tone Press 

Diamond

Empress Effects

Mad Professor Forest Green 

Xotic SP

 And the daddy of them all, Origin Effects Cali 76

I'm pretty sure the tone press, ego comp and sp compressor are all Ross comps- pretty much variations on the same circuit.

As is the Barber and probably 90% of everything else. 

The difference with the SP is that it's quieter than a lot of the others and has a clean blend.

frankus

I'd love to try a Cali

I've tried lots of Ross style compressors and currently have a Tonepad clone on one board (in the same housing as a DIY etched Orange Squeezer)... on my posh board there's an Analogman Mini-bicomprossor (which is a ross type and an orange squeezer).

I've made about 5-6 Orange Squeezers now, in pursuit of the best quiet sound, changing diodes, opamps, transistors and elctrolytic caps ... it's a simple build, not a sophisticated circuit, but if you know what it can do you can get most compressed sounds from it

Most stuff fits into one of these camps: orange squeezer based, ross compressor based, studio type compressor.

My most favourite of the studio types I've played is the Rothwell Lovesqueeze, it works brilliantly with any drive not interfering with the drives compression unless you dial up a squashy sound - this is great for Zendrives! It's not really a pedal you know is on at some levels unless you turn it off, then you miss it. For clean and driven sounds it seems to balance the frequencies a lot better so the bass notes don't distort and the higher strings don't sound quieter.

I'd also love to try an exotic SP but I'm a bit disappointed to hear it's just a Ross compressor under the hood.

therose789

I use a JHS pulp n' peel. I like the blend feature, means you can have a really hard hitting compression mixed with your clean signal. makes it sound huge. 

Alnico

frankus said:

I'd love to try a Cali

I've tried lots of Ross style compressors and currently have a Tonepad clone on one board (in the same housing as a DIY etched Orange Squeezer)... on my posh board there's an Analogman Mini-bicomprossor (which is a ross type and an orange squeezer).

I've made about 5-6 Orange Squeezers now, in pursuit of the best quiet sound, changing diodes, opamps, transistors and elctrolytic caps ... it's a simple build, not a sophisticated circuit, but if you know what it can do you can get most compressed sounds from it

Most stuff fits into one of these camps: orange squeezer based, ross compressor based, studio type compressor.

My most favourite of the studio types I've played is the Rothwell Lovesqueeze, it works brilliantly with any drive not interfering with the drives compression unless you dial up a squashy sound - this is great for Zendrives! It's not really a pedal you know is on at some levels unless you turn it off, then you miss it. For clean and driven sounds it seems to balance the frequencies a lot better so the bass notes don't distort and the higher strings don't sound quieter.

I'd also love to try an exotic SP but I'm a bit disappointed to hear it's just a Ross compressor under the hood.

Thanks for all that. I don't strictly understand half of it, but I am learning quickly and the more I read stuff 60 times over and listen to demo's, the more I seem to "Get it".

The..... "On all the time but you don't really notice it until you switch it off" is I guess what i'm looking for, or maybe not quite all the time but certainly something close and I like what you said about balancing frequencies so the high notes don't sound quieter and bass strings don't distort".

So i'm looking for a 'Studio' type compressor then? That's what the EHX Black finger is supposed to be, with it's 2 valves and that has a 'Lamp' and 'LED' mode and also a 'Squash' switch to emphasise the squash settings - so is this just a gimmick pedal from EHX or can it be taken seriously. It's £128 which is the same price as the Xotic and if it's not much good, it's a lot of money to waste finding out I should have bought something else.

Thank you all for bearing with me and my Neanderthal Technophobic Brain. If these pedals had Pushrods I would understand them perfectly !

monquixote

frankus said:

I'd also love to try an exotic SP but I'm a bit disappointed to hear it's just a Ross compressor under the hood.

i don't think they make any secret of that fact. 

I can't overstate how much difference a clean blend makes. I hated the MXR Dynacomp, but the SP is my favorite comp ever.

Alnico

monquixote said:

frankus said:

I'd also love to try an exotic SP but I'm a bit disappointed to hear it's just a Ross compressor under the hood.

i don't think they make any secret of that fact. 

I can't overstate how much difference a clean blend makes. I hated the MXR Dynacomp, but the SP is my favorite comp ever.

I will definitely check that Xotic SP out.

Thanks

frankus

monquixote said:

frankus said:

I'd also love to try an exotic SP but I'm a bit disappointed to hear it's just a Ross compressor under the hood.

i don't think they make any secret of that fact. 

I can't overstate how much difference a clean blend makes. I hated the MXR Dynacomp, but the SP is my favorite comp ever.

Damn I can foresee another mod on the Ross clone then!

and I think I still want an SP in my mini board

nickb_boy

Cali76TX 

A shameless plug right there, but seriously there is no better compressor in a pedal format. I'm only selling on mine as I've now got the all singing and dancing limited edition version with boost. The actual compressor circuit is the same though.  They may be expensive but you will never need to go on another hunt for a compressor again, so it will save you in the long run.

frankus said:

I'd love to try a Cali

Here's your chance!