Extensive compressor reviews and FAQ

Alesis NanoCompressor: An older 1/3 rack width unit, which can operate in mono or stereo. It has no presets, but instead has a good versatile range of controls, and useful metering. The sound is almost identical to the Boss LMB-3: clean, dry, with fairly good highs and lows; but prone to a "pop" artifact when the threshold is crossed. The noise level is pretty decent, not bad. Strangely for a rack unit, this seems to work a lot better at instrument level (between your instrument and your amp) than at line level. The output is very low, even when the compression is bypassed. So even though it's rackable, I would put it on a pedalboard instead; it's pretty small anyway. Think of it as an LMB-3 with more controls and versatility, but no footswitch.
 

 
 
All text on this page written and owned by Cyrus J. Heiduska, 2006-2013, all rights reserved.
Copying is prohibited, but please feel free to link to this page using the link text "compressor reviews".