Ross Compressor for bass?

[audioguy]

I would like to build a Ross comrpressor to be used for a bass- are there any mods out there for this?

Thanks!
Audioguy

[audioguy]

I found one sugestion of upping the input cap... any other thoughts?

Thanks!

[moosapotamus]

I've found that sometimes, when modding for use with bass, going too big on the caps can result in unwanted distortion. Of course, too small can roll off too much bottom. Plan on trying a few different values before landing in a good sounding place.

A few of the bass-friendly mods that Mark Hammer has suggested for the Orange Squeezer involve trimming back the gain in certain spots. I'm not sure exactly how you would do that with the 3080, or if it even makes sense in this circuit. But, maybe something to look into.

To me, the Ross seems like a good candidate for bass because most of the mods out there seem to be trying to add high frequency response (tonepad, fuzz central...). So, maybe it's mostly already tuned pretty close to where you might want it for bass. I've actually recently been thinking about building one myself.

I think a clean blend would be a very nice feature to add for use with bass. I think the Barber Tone Press is a Ross derrivative and it has a clean blend control. Seems to get pretty good reviews, too.

~ Charlie

[Processaurus]

at JC maillet's site, he did a nice write up on the Dyna/ Ross comp and one of the things he thought was that the output cap was much too small for a full frequency response.  He reccomended changing the .05uF to a 1uF tantalum cap, with the plus side going to the effect.
http://www.lynx.bc.ca/~jc/pedalsDynacomp.html

I designed a clean blend for the Ross recently, and posted it in this thread:  http://www.elixant.com/~stompbox/smfforum/index.php?topic=40292.0

It works really well.  It helps you to get different, possibly more pleasing transients.  Especially if you add the Hammer attack mod with the toggle switch.  Those 2 things will really shape up that compressor, if it doesn't initially float your boat.

PS, if you haven't already built your comp, I saw the BYOC website has a super good deal on ross boards with an overetched trace, $5.

[audioguy]

Thanks for the info! Much appreciated.

[Mark Hammer]

Yeah, I suspect aiming for a much shorter recovery time, by decreasing the 150k resistor to something less than 50k (but more than 10k) would probably help the bass to sound a little more unaffected by the compressor and "transparent".

But here is my regular question: what do you want the pedal to do for the bass?  Do you want it to simply limit the big transients so that a bass doesn't stick out too much in a band mix?  Do you want it to impose a particular signature tone on the bass?  Were you aiming for - heaven forbid - more sustain?

[audioguy]

No... sustain is not the goal here. Just trying to smooth out my signal a bit. Im not a bassist, so my attack is choppy at times.

[Mark Hammer]

Then stick a 10k resistor in there instead of the 150k one, and you should have something closer to what you want.  That will produce a faster recovery so that the peaks are quickly reined in but the gain is restored soon after, without the slower restoration of gain that guitar players usually want to keep up the appearance of sustain.

[audioguy]

 Thanks for the assistance, I relly appreciate it!

[audioguy]

Mark-
Im building this unit now... and there are 2 150ks. Im assuming I would replace the one going to IC1 rather than the  one that goes to Q3. Is this correct?
thanks!

[quaternotetriplet]

Mark-
Im building this unit now... and there are 2 150ks. Im assuming I would replace the one going to IC1 rather than the  one that goes to Q3. Is this correct?
thanks!

bumping this thread.. which 150k are they referring?

[JDoyle]

Mark-
Im building this unit now... and there are 2 150ks. Im assuming I would replace the one going to IC1 rather than the  one that goes to Q3. Is this correct?
thanks!

bumping this thread.. which 150k are they referring?

NOT the 150k attached to the output of the 3080 but the one attached to the collectors of the recitfier transistors and the 10uF cap.

Alternatively, you could use a smaller cap than the 10uF.

That said, stock, the Ross circuit emphasizes guitar frequencies - so there are a number of other changes that need to be made to make the circuit applicable for bass. I don't have the time to go through the changes needed or the reasons why at the moment, but if one were to double the size of all of the caps in the signal path it should get you closer to what you need.

Regards,

Jay Doyle

[quaternotetriplet]

Mark-
Im building this unit now... and there are 2 150ks. Im assuming I would replace the one going to IC1 rather than the  one that goes to Q3. Is this correct?
thanks!

bumping this thread.. which 150k are they referring?

NOT the 150k attached to the output of the 3080 but the one attached to the collectors of the recitfier transistors and the 10uF cap.

Alternatively, you could use a smaller cap than the 10uF.

That said, stock, the Ross circuit emphasizes guitar frequencies - so there are a number of other changes that need to be made to make the circuit applicable for bass. I don't have the time to go through the changes needed or the reasons why at the moment, but if one were to double the size of all of the caps in the signal path it should get you closer to what you need.

Regards,

Jay Doyle

wow thanks