Extensive compressor reviews and FAQ

Jacques Fat Burner: Fat is right! This is compression as an "effect", not as a subtle or transparent gain control. It is a squasher, a sustainer, and a thickener. It reminds me of the Boss CS3, except with fatter tone, more versatility, and much better low end. Like the CS3, it can also be pretty hissy at all but the lightest settings. But most other compressors would be equally noisy at this level of serious squash.
 
Tonally, it can be a bit furry or even muddy, but the lows and highs are not notably rolled off. The "Muscle" knob adjusts the sound from smooth to biting; I suspect turning it to the left speeds the attack and softens the knee, while turning to the right slows the attack and hardens the knee. I like it at 12:00, but there are good sounds at all the settings.
 
The Fat Burner also includes a decent headphone amp for practice, which doubles as a +10dB output to overdrive your tube amp if you like that sort of thing. The construction is a mixed story: the housing is sturdy cast metal, but the footswitch is cheap-feeling plastic. The pedal is smaller than it looks in the pictures, it's actually a little smaller than a typical Boss or Ibanez pedal. Apparently it uses the same relay-based "true bypass" as EXAR uses.
 
If you were considering an EHX Black Finger or similar pedal for "effect" compression, I think the Fat Burner provides equally fat squash in a much smaller package, with somewhat better noise levels. It's also perfect for the Tony Levin sound. I like it.
 

 
 
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