Extensive compressor reviews and FAQ

Ibanez CP9: I found this pedal to bring out a lot of brightness in the tone; unfortunately it rolls off some of the low end. Its compression is very musical, and the brightness is nice sounding (kind of sparkly); it reminds me very much of the Ross/Dynacomp, and is probably the same basic circuit. The variable attack rate is a good feature, and the envelope is fairly even. There was a noticeable "noise swell" as the note decays. The tone is fairly neutral and the action is smooth. Overall though I didn't like it on bass because of the noisy decay and the low end rolloff. The construction is rugged and it runs on standard Boss-type 9VDC. The footswitch is not true bypass, but the bypassed tone is decent.
 
Update: This is one of my oldest reviews. About four years later here I have learned that it is in fact a very similar circuit to the Ross/Keeley/etc. I plan to get another one at some point, to test whether the mod mentioned in my review of the BP5 will work here.
 

 
 
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