Compressor recommendation?

Wazmeister

Yorkie

Yorkie said:

jellybelly said:

Loads of good Ross and Dynacomp clones on the vintage side. Edit: other than the compadre, the Visual Sound Route 66/Comp 66 is great for this, the only vintage style comp I've enjoyed using - think it has a blend control too from memory which is a great feature in a compressor. 

Hi,
I've been looking for a Route 66 v3 (overdrive + compressor) in the classifieds, and was wondering if you could comment on how effective the noise gate actually is in the v3? – assuming you were talking about version 3, which is the one that has the external switch for the noise gate as far as I know  
Cheers!
Jon

Aside from this, could anyone offer opinions on the combined ARIA unit from Keeley? That one has got a compressor and an overdrive as well. How good is the compressor? Is it noisy? (as that one hasn't got a noise gate).
Cheers,
Jon

jellybelly

Yorkie said:

jellybelly said:

Loads of good Ross and Dynacomp clones on the vintage side. Edit: other than the compadre, the Visual Sound Route 66/Comp 66 is great for this, the only vintage style comp I've enjoyed using - think it has a blend control too from memory which is a great feature in a compressor. 

Hi,
I've been looking for a Route 66 v3 (overdrive + compressor) in the classifieds, and was wondering if you could comment on how effective the noise gate actually is in the v3? – assuming you were talking about version 3, which is the one that has the external switch for the noise gate as far as I know  
Cheers!
Jon

Sorry mate it was the V2 I had. I expect a lot of the innards are shared though - noise gate was good but I usually left it off as my rig wasn't noisy and I wasn't using lots of gain in that period. VS stuff always works as intended in my experience though - I'd say it was worth a punt!

Yorkie

jellybelly said:

Yorkie said:

jellybelly said:

Loads of good Ross and Dynacomp clones on the vintage side. Edit: other than the compadre, the Visual Sound Route 66/Comp 66 is great for this, the only vintage style comp I've enjoyed using - think it has a blend control too from memory which is a great feature in a compressor. 

Hi,
I've been looking for a Route 66 v3 (overdrive + compressor) in the classifieds, and was wondering if you could comment on how effective the noise gate actually is in the v3? – assuming you were talking about version 3, which is the one that has the external switch for the noise gate as far as I know  
Cheers!
Jon

Sorry mate it was the V2 I had. I expect a lot of the innards are shared though - noise gate was good but I usually left it off as my rig wasn't noisy and I wasn't using lots of gain in that period. VS stuff always works as intended in my experience though - I'd say it was worth a punt!

Thanks for your input. The thing about the noise gate is that I currently have a TC Electronic 'Forcefield' compressor and as soon as the compression level goes after noon, there's a noticeable increase in noise. It might just be that it's a shite compressor with cheap electronics or a simplistic design and I wouldn't need a noise gate at all with a more serious compressor? 

Jon

TINMAN82

Remain very happy with the Origin Effects Cali 76 compact deluxe. Worth every single penny, which is more than can be said for many pedals these days.

jeroenvanhulsteijn

I used compressors at the beginning and end of the chain.

Barber Tone Press was nice. Used always on. Gave me some punch.
Carl Martin Comp / Lim. Nice for boosting and limiting at the end of the chain. I think there is a new version that runs on batteries as well.
Pigtronix Philosophers Tone. Bit noisy. Liked it for dirty sounds. Didn't like it clean.
Boss CS1. Very squishy. Really liked it as treble boost (has a switch for that).
Fairfield Accountant. Didn't work on my setup (squeals and amplified white noise) so can't judge it.
Origin Effects Sliderig big box. Didn't like it. Has to much of a swell to its compression. And it is huge.
FEA Opti Fet with side chain. Best I've tried. Dead silent. Can do warm, can do funky. I used the side chain as some sort of EQ to give my sound a different taste.

Don't use compression at the moment. But most likely it will be something FEA if I'll start compression again.  I'm not really into the squishy thing.
And ofcoarse Ovnilab.com for some good guidelines.

Yorkie

Some great suggestions here

Has anyone tried Orange’s Kongpressor? Have been watching videos of it and it sounds interesting. 

Jon

tanihhiavlt

Yorkie said:

Thanks for your input. The thing about the noise gate is that I currently have a TC Electronic 'Forcefield' compressor and as soon as the compression level goes after noon, there's a noticeable increase in noise. It might just be that it's a shite compressor with cheap electronics or a simplistic design and I wouldn't need a noise gate at all with a more serious compressor? 

Jon

The Noise Gate is removing noise from the signal that the compressor wants to drag up to normal volumes. 

I'd be asking "What is in the signal chain in front of the compressor that could be causing noise?"

Yorkie

tanihhiavlt said:

Yorkie said:

Thanks for your input. The thing about the noise gate is that I currently have a TC Electronic 'Forcefield' compressor and as soon as the compression level goes after noon, there's a noticeable increase in noise. It might just be that it's a shite compressor with cheap electronics or a simplistic design and I wouldn't need a noise gate at all with a more serious compressor? 

Jon

The Noise Gate is removing noise from the signal that the compressor wants to drag up to normal volumes. 

I'd be asking "What is in the signal chain in front of the compressor that could be causing noise?"

Single coils. 

tanihhiavlt

Yorkie said:

Single coils. 

Are you using a lot of gain? Like a couple of dimed gain pedals? Then I'd see the reason for a noise-gate.

Yorkie

tanihhiavlt said:

Yorkie said:

Single coils. 

Are you using a lot of gain? Like a couple of dimed gain pedals? Then I'd see the reason for a noise-gate.

Not a lot of gain, but a lot of compression for certain sounds. My single coils have always been a bit noisy. 

mo6020

Anyone got any opinions on the Analogman CompROSSor? I'm about to pull the trigger on a Sunface, and am in the market for a compressor as well so could kill two metaphorical birds with one order here maybe? 

jhumber

mo6020 said:

Anyone got any opinions on the Analogman CompROSSor? I'm about to pull the trigger on a Sunface, and am in the market for a compressor as well so could kill two metaphorical birds with one order here maybe? 

I've owned the Analogman Bi-comp twice, both v4 and v5, the latter of which had the 'mix' control on the Ross-side... excellent build and sound quality with both of them. The Ross side is (as the name suggests) quite a traditional sounding Ross compressor, not as subtle sounding as something like the Mad Professor Pine Green, or Xotic SP in 'low' mode, if that's a useful reference. I'd definitely go for one with the 'mix' option if buying again. If I recall correctly, both times I sold because I was down-sizing and wanted a smaller pedal, was always happy with the tones.

TINMAN82

I honestly couldn’t imagine a better compressor than the Cali 76 (although it probably exists somewhere)! Very transparent, if that’s what you’re after.

mo6020

jhumber said:

mo6020 said:

Anyone got any opinions on the Analogman CompROSSor? I'm about to pull the trigger on a Sunface, and am in the market for a compressor as well so could kill two metaphorical birds with one order here maybe? 

I've owned the Analogman Bi-comp twice, both v4 and v5, the latter of which had the 'mix' control on the Ross-side... excellent build and sound quality with both of them. The Ross side is (as the name suggests) quite a traditional sounding Ross compressor, not as subtle sounding as something like the Mad Professor Pine Green, or Xotic SP in 'low' mode, if that's a useful reference. I'd definitely go for one with the 'mix' option if buying again. If I recall correctly, both times I sold because I was down-sizing and wanted a smaller pedal, was always happy with the tones.

Thanks dude

Yorkie

I’ve now spent 24h with a Keeley Compressor Plus. The two release settings (single coils, humbuckers) work wonders. The tone I get with the ‘always on’ settings does make me want to keep it on all the time. Not that I ever needed any encouraging to practice, but having such great sustain now it’s difficult to put the guitar down and get on with other things! 

Jon