Extensive compressor reviews and FAQ

Maxon CP101: This pedal has a fairly transparent sound, mostly uncolored and open. The action is quite natural as well, but better for general smoothing-out of your signal than for punchiness. The highs are good, although not as bright as the Dynacomp; the lows are decent, better than the Dynacomp at some settings, but I found that the lows would seem to roll off more if I didn't have the input level and output gain set just right. Additionally, a bass with a hot output signal will cause the CP101 to distort badly. The noise level is about the same as the Dynacomp, slightly higher than some boutique pedals but not at all bad. Once you've dialed in the ideal input and output levels, this is a pretty good unit; but it took me a surprising amount of tweaking to find those ideal settings, and it worked best with a passive bass that has moderate output levels. The footswitch is not true bypass, but the bypass is clean.
 

 
 
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