To me, a compressor is the most important piece of gear a bass player can buy. When my old boss limiter pedal died, it was time for a new compressor. I narrowed my options down to the following three:
- Lehle Basswitch Dual Band Compressor
- TC Electronic Spectracomp
- Origin Effects Cali76 Comp. Bass Compressor
To test these pedals, I hooked up my bass to Logic and made some A/B comparisons.
The Spectracomp is definitely the odd one out here. It's super small, probably a third of the size of the other two pedals. It has one knob, which determines the amount of the selected compression is applied. To select a preset, you can hook up the pedal to your computer. Too bad the necessary usb cable was not provided.
It's also possible to stream presets from a smartphone app to the pedal, using the pickups from your bass. This is a very cool, very futuristic feature that actually works. The reason I didn't choose this pedal in the end is twofold:
- The selected preset can only be modified by hooking it up to a computer. This is not band/stage/rehearsal room friendly.
- the gain staging is way too aggressive for my taste, and again, is only adjustable with the computer editor.
