need a good plug in compressor for bass

[billiamwalker]

Hey guys, i need to get a good compressor for my vst plug ins that i can compress really hard. i have some good compressors like the sonitus but you can only get to a ratio of about 8:1 and sometimes for bass i need a REALLY hard compress so i don't get those peaks. Does anyone know of any one? I'd be willing to pay a little bit of money if there is one that you think just absolutly sounds amazing and does a great job. And do yall prefer a multiband compressor for bass or not?

[Mradyfist]

For bass, my favorite plugin has always been Blockfish. It's free (go to http://www.digitalfishphones.com), easy to use, and cool sounding. However, I'm not quite clear on what your issue is.. you're saying that you need a ratio of more than 8:1? Have you tried playing with other parameters, like attack time? If you want an absolutely flat-line bass track for some reason, and you're still seeing some peaks, then set your threshold really low, your attack time as short as possible, and your ratio to the max. I don't think there'd be a whole lot of difference between 8:1 and above, from what I understand 8:1 or 10:1 is generally considered to be when you call it a limiter instead of a compressor.

[billiamwalker]

For bass, my favorite plugin has always been Blockfish. It's free (go to http://www.digitalfishphones.com), easy to use, and cool sounding. However, I'm not quite clear on what your issue is.. you're saying that you need a ratio of more than 8:1? Have you tried playing with other parameters, like attack time? If you want an absolutely flat-line bass track for some reason, and you're still seeing some peaks, then set your threshold really low, your attack time as short as possible, and your ratio to the max. I don't think there'd be a whole lot of difference between 8:1 and above, from what I understand 8:1 or 10:1 is generally considered to be when you call it a limiter instead of a compressor.

i think i've tried that. by peak i mean theres going to be 1 note that just pops out of the mix whenever it is hit. I do some eq'ing to fix it but i feel like it's a compressor problem because particular frequency isn't being compressed as well as the others...

[Mradyfist]

Can you see that visually in the waveform if you apply the compression? Or does it look even? To me it sounds more like your room has a low frequency peak due to standing waves, which is pretty common unless you've spent a bunch of time putting in treatment. For the most part, a standard compressor is going to be relatively flat across frequencies unless you're doing some sidechaining.

[billiamwalker]

Can you see that visually in the waveform if you apply the compression? Or does it look even? To me it sounds more like your room has a low frequency peak due to standing waves, which is pretty common unless you've spent a bunch of time putting in treatment. For the most part, a standard compressor is going to be relatively flat across frequencies unless you're doing some sidechaining.

Well you could be right on that one. I'm in a room that's about 24'x20'x8' so it's less than ideal. I do have bass trapping and some absorption on the walls but probably not nearly as much as should be efficient.

I can tell i have some sort of standing waves in the room because i particularly have a problem mixing things like bass and snare because i have this peak in my low mids area. (which is roughly where i'm peaking in the bass).

edit: and yes... it does end up looking even on the compressor while i'm getting the loud notes.

[fossiltooth]

Great advice Mrady.

...And I was all ready to share my favorite bass compression plug-ins.... There aren't many that are great to begin with, and bass is one of those places where I tend to miss hardware.

[Mradyfist]

According to some quick calculations, your axial room modes should be around 46hz, 56hz, and 140hz. That translates to possible bumps around F# (low and mid), A (low and mid), and maybe a middle C# on the bass. Of course, this is very simplified and a real room also has tangential and oblique modes as well, but these are the likely candidates. I'd read up in Making a Space, and in the meantime go easy on the compression. Us bass players sometimes like to play dynamically on purpose!

Fossiltooth, I will say that although I'm mainly a plug-in man, my all-time favorite compressor for bass is my dbx 163x. I just wish it wasn't so noisy...

[tubetapexfmr]

I really like the Vintage Warmer on Bass (as well as almost everything else!). You can compress the shit out of stuff if that is what you want. It also has a built in EQ. If you've never used it before, the first time you fire it up you'll wonder where its been your whole life.

[vvv]

Another type of compressor to try: a hard-limiter.

[frankz]

here's another great free compressor.
http://www.solid-state-logic.com/resour ... lugin.html
Not for everything but very useful at times.

Blockfish is great too. You can "open up" the case and adjust various parameters if you're not finding what you want with the front knobs.

[KilledByAlbany]

I use the URS 1980 for bass pretty often with good results. It's attack/release settings are pretty...well....real sounding, I guess.

I've never tried to use the Vintage Warmer on bass, but I'm going to give it a shot today. That thing has saved so many dull snare tracks for me that I've lost count.

[Ryan Silva]

I use the URS 1980 for bass pretty often with good results. It's attack/release settings are pretty...well....real sounding, I guess.

I've never tried to use the Vintage Warmer on bass, but I'm going to give it a shot today. That thing has saved so many dull snare tracks for me that I've lost count.

If you want to destroy your bass or just add a little high frequency fuzz, the PSP vintage warmer works great.

You know I cant think of a single instrument I haven't used with good results. Snare,guitar,vocals..man that thing rules.

[;ivlunsdystf]

here's another great free compressor.
http://www.solid-state-logic.com/resour ... lugin.html
Not for everything but very useful at times.

That thing is cool. Don't let the Phil Collins endorsement scare you off. It won't make your hair fall out.

[JASIII]

Here's some of my favs:

http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-compressor.php
(good on almost anything, and has some useful presets!)

http://hem.bredband.net/tbtaudio/
the pocket limiter can be cool sometimes, but the saturated driver is THE SHIT!! I almost always put it on a rock bass, you can dial in some awesome grit that makes the bass stand out. Perfect for when you want that Breeders "Pod" bass sound, or albini-sounding bass.

[mikehattem]

I use Waves RennComp mostly on bass.