why you won’t have to sweat
dialing in the Studio Bass
Compressor’s attack and
release times. In practice, I
just used the Attack control to
determine how much of the
transient attack of the bass
came through—essentially
controlling amount of snap
in the note-- which meant
I could either dial in a fairly
transparent tone, or I could
do some tone shaping. Is
a Rickenbacker 4001’s top
end taking your head off?
Roll back the Studio Bass
Compressor’s Attack control
and dial in the Compression to
taste to get a more balanced
bass tone.
For additional tone shaping,
the Studio Bass Compressor’s
Blend function allows you
to dial back in the original
signal, which helps fine tune
the effect, but the three-way
toggle goes a step further
and allows you to select
what you dial back in. So if,
for example, the Attack and
Compression are where they
need to be but the low-end is
now under-represented, you
can select the Low setting
(bottom position) and roll
the Blend knob clockwise to
bring back in the right amount
of bottom while leaving the
top end properly tamed. This
approach worked wonderfully
with the bridge pick up on a
G&L SB-2 (think a very hi-fi
Fender Jazz Bass); I clamped
down on the bright attack
then rolled back in more body
than I’d typically find without
the pedal inline.
guitars, too.
WHAT WE LIKE
Fantastic functionality,
versatility, user friendliness
and clean sound.
CONCERNS
Um, the font is pretty bland?
The name is a mouthful?
None?
At no time did I find the
Attack setting too slow.
Similarly, I found it difficult
to (audibly) overdo it on the
Compression. The forgiving
parameters on these settings
mean you can fix the signal
at the source (in this case, the
performance itself) quickly
and easily, so the Studio
Bass Compressor seems
like a godsend to those who
track bass in their studios
and, like me, often find they
need some compression or,
worse, that the players they’re
tracking need some help.
I didn’t find the Mids settings
on the toggle to be very
helpful, but I liked it for
fattening up bridge pickups…
of six-string guitars. The Low
setting could be used to
similar effect. So, yeah, I’d
totally recommend this for
ToneReport.com
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