Extensive compressor reviews and FAQ

Arion SCO-1: Wow. This is the absolute worst-sounding compressor I have ever heard, bar none. It is like playing through a tiny transistor radio. In fact, it's actually a really great lo-fi effect. By cranking up the compression and tone knobs you can get a super biting, snarly, noisy, torn-speaker effect, like playing through a cranked 10 Watt guitar combo amp with a ripped cone. So if you are looking for a "secret weapon" for nasty lo-fi tone, this is a great find. It sounds very cool on bass if you blend it with your clean signal in a parallel loop. But again, as a compressor this the very bottom of the barrel, there is not one comp worse than this. The bypass is also the worst bypass I have heard, it sucks all the life out of your signal, and rolls off the lows. And the pedal construction is very cheap and flimsy. Thumbs up for such a spectacular failure!
 

 
 
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