Extensive compressor reviews and FAQ

Retro-Sonic Vintage Vibes: This is a boutique clone of the old grey Ross compressor, famous for its use by jam-soloing guitarists; the very popular Keeley pedal is also a Ross clone. This one has a nice added feature, a switch for three different release rates to work with different playing styles. The Ross is noted for its sustain, and this guy does indeed sustain nicely. The noise floor is a little higher than I'd like, but the swell of the noise floor as the sustained note trails off is not so obtrusive, much better than the Barber Tone Press. The attack of the compression is fairly slow, and not adjustable- because of this, strong initial spikes from your playing can peak your amp or other gear before the compression kicks in, especially at higher compression settings. If you set the release rate slow, and then play a string of notes, the peak of the first note will spike loudly and the rest of the notes will be kept under control. This may work great with a tube amp for distorted guitar, but doesn't sound so good with bass and a solid-state amp. The only work-around for this is to use the lower compression settings, so the initial output level is closer to the uncompressed instrument level. That way, there is not much peaking, and the compression is gentle and smooth. I found that setting both knobs to about 10:30 got good results. The tone of this unit is actually quite sweet, it seems to fatten up the highs and high-mids, so this is a great comp for people who solo, especially fretless, in the upper registers. The lows, unfortunately, are a tad rolled-off; not so much that you couldn't use it for bass, but it does lack oomph on the lowest notes. I would closely compare the action of this comp to the Demeter, with the Demeter having less noise, fuller lows, and cleaner attack, and the Retro-Sonic having sweeter, brighter highs and mids. The Retro-Sonic is built very well: clean-looking, petite, and solid, and the footswitch is true bypass.
 

 
 
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