Bass Guitar Compressor?

[Jonas H]

Can anyone direct me towards a good bass compressor to build?

Or will a compressor for an ordinary guitar do? With modification?

I prefer building my own boxes, but bass boxes seem to be scarce. Should I just buy one? Which one in that case?

[LivingDeadPunk]

You could build the orange squeezer with the bass mod by A. Colman:

http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=5

[moosapotamus]

The OS is cool. If you feel like experimenting, here's a more extensively modded version...
http://www.moosapotamus.com/OSfullwave.gif
... it's untested, but the mods were developed especially with bass in mind, so it's likely to work well.

For something super simple, try searching "la-light." It's reported to do a very nice job on bass.

For something more ambitious, I'll bet the "what compressor" would work well with bass, too. Might want to replace the mixing ("april") resistor with a pot to make it slam a little more, tho.

If you just want to buy a compressor... :roll: well... actually, I'd highly recommend the EH Black Finger.

~ Charlie

[Prive]

LA-Light!!!

Great job here, i forgot to do a buid report but i love it, i added the preenfasis network freom the what comp and the voice is Full in the mix now.

Saludos, Marcelo.

[nelson]

I am really interested in building the OS +++, is there a PCB layout available? I have all the parts. Was looking for a decent comp.

[Mark Hammer]

Strikes me that full-wave rectification is more of a necessity for bass compressors since the generally lower frequency increases the risk for ripple in the envelope/rectified signal.  FWR can help to smooth that out.

Though a PCB is probably the ideal, the OS and its variants are a simple enough build that you could probably perf or stripboard it in an evening.

[nelson]

Very true mark, no perf handy though. If a PCB isnt available, I am going to design one. Not that I am very good at it yet.

[seanm]

Ok, just when I had given up on the OS, you have to show me this  :?

You might also try the Flatline Compressor. It worked well for me as a very simple compressor.

[nelson]

Is the flatline compressor suitable for bass?

[seanm]

Is the flatline compressor suitable for bass?

I did not test it extensively, but I found it a simple and quiet compressor. I breadboarded it and needed to reuse the breadboard. I used a CLM6000 from Small Bear if that matters. There is a good chance this one will be boxed, if only because it is so simple.

I tested it with a couple of passive Fender P basses, fingerstyle only, direct into a small mixer. YMMV.

[rubberlips]

Tonepads got an orange squeezer PCB layout

Pete

[Aharon]

How about this one:

http://sound.westhost.com/project45.htm
Aharon

[moosapotamus]

How about this one:
http://sound.westhost.com/project45.htm
Aharon

I've always wanted to try that. Looks like a pretty cool idea.

~ Charlie

[Mark Hammer]

It's not mentioned very often, but just about ALL of that crap between the 82k input resistor and the envelope follower could be replaced with an optoisolator.

What the two FETs and accompanying passive components do is to simply provide a variable resistance to ground.  In conjunction with the 82k input resistor, they form the other leg of a simulated voltage-divider (pot) that turns down the input sensitivity in response to larger signals.  In effect, the OS is a gain stage with a volume pot at its input.

So......

Why not just stick the LDR between the 82k resistor (whose value might have to change) and ground, and drive the LED in the optoisolator with the output of the gain stage?  Naturally, there would be a diode and cap to ground just ahead of the LED to feed it a half-wave rectified signal with a wee bit of lag/smoothing, but boy oh boy would that get you over all the humps regarding FETs and trimpot tweaking fast.

Of course the other virtue is that LDRs are immune to the sorts of distortion problems that plague use of FETs as voltage-controlled resistors under high input signal conditions.

[moosapotamus]

Why not just stick the LDR between the 82k resistor (whose value might have to change) and ground, and drive the LED in the optoisolator with the output of the gain stage?  Naturally, there would be a diode and cap to ground just ahead of the LED to feed it a half-wave rectified signal with a wee bit of lag/smoothing, but boy oh boy would that get you over all the humps regarding FETs and trimpot tweaking fast.

Kind of like the LA-Light, no?

~ Charlie

[Jonas H]

You could build the orange squeezer with the bass mod by A. Colman:

http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=5

I like the OS, so I'll try this one (and possibly the more elaborated one later).

A question though: Which one is the "bleeder cap" referred to in the tonepad mod? Is it the one going down from the inverted opamp input?

Thanks for all your answers.

[Aharon]

You could build the orange squeezer with the bass mod by A. Colman:

http://www.tonepad.com/project.asp?id=5

I like the OS, so I'll try this one (and possibly the more elaborated one later).

A question though: Which one is the "bleeder cap" referred to in the tonepad mod? Is it the one going down from the inverted opamp input?

Thanks for all your answers.

It's been a while but I think the cap I incorrectly labeled "bleeder"  is the one next to the 100K resistor on the schem.The mods were the result of a few email exchanges with Mark Hammer.
Aharon

[Bernardduur]

Ah, that explaines the difficult to hear difference... I build the full wave version and it sounds really good. The problem was the bass mod; alone it sounds awesome on bass; when I engage the bass mode I hear no difference. Will try the "right" bleeder cap now and tell what happens!

[Bernardduur]

Just done the repair. It sounds like a newborn pedal. When the "bass" mode is engaged it focusses more on the bass notes (as in bass) but also the riffs done on the top strings do sound more aware than with the mode disengaged.

On bass the signal is more there; the unit is not anymore differing the bass notes away and even lower (B) is clearly audible. This one is a keeper.

[Gabriel Simoes]

Bernardduur,

So you think it's worth doind the 2 mods or just the bass mod is enougth ?
I dont know if I will try the full wave retification mod .... I went to shop for parts today and to tell you the truth I want to build it soon, do not want to wait more ... and for the full wave I would need to go shop again hehehe and make a pcb or buy a perfboard ....

But I still wait or your opinion , and tell me .... is os a nice subtle compressor for bass ?
Thanks
Gabriel