Extensive compressor reviews and FAQ

Carl Martin comp/limiter: This pedal is capable of a wide range of compression settings, from totally smashed-out slow squeeze, to mild compression, to sharp "hard knee" limiting. It offers more controls than most pedal comps: Threshold (the volume level at which it kicks in), Comp (the ratio of compression), Resp (response, which affects the speed of the attack and release, as well as the knee), and Gain (post-comp makeup gain). This is definitely one for the knob-tweakers, and patient listeners. People who want to plug-and-play will be frustrated by this pedal, as it requires quite a bit of tweaking to get the setting that works best for your setup. I got this unit mostly wanting to use it as a limiter to keep my tube preamp from clipping. Unfortunately it turns out that the maximum limiting setting still allows some sharp peaks through- it does limit, just not quite a "brick wall". Also, at max settings your tones can have an artificial sound to them until the limiter lets go, and there is sometimes a little "pop" artifact when the limiting engages.
 
Where this unit excels is clean, non-extreme, "natural" compression. At more moderate settings, this unit is smooth and transparent. The sound is surgically clean, but rather dark, as it does seem to roll off some highs. There is no added noise at all at unity gain with moderate settings- this is easily the quietest comp pedal I have ever "heard". If you turn the output gain up higher than unity, though, it can add noise. I would recommend this pedal very highly to someone who wants crisp transparent sound and the lowest noise, as long as they don't mind the learning curve and the dark tone. The footswitch is not true bypass, and your tone stays the same (highs rolled off a bit) when the pedal is switched off.
 

 
 
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