"Warmest" sounding compressor?

[thesameage]

What comp would best warm up the sound of a solid state amp? Bonus for working on bass and guitar.

[jtn191]

http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/toppicks.shtml  warm means a lot of things to different people. Origin Cali76, optical comps, Effectrode seems nice as far as commercial comps go

[thesameage]

I've got boards for the a Afterlife and the Engineer's Thumb...

[ddog]

The Engineer's thumb is great. I haven't been able to dial in a warm tone though. I find that it doesnt colour my tone much

[thesameage]

I finally realized that warmth is what I'm after. I had an EBS multicomp that I liked that had that quality.

[midwayfair]

Define "warmths". Is that loss of highs, or something else? People even use the term to describe distortion, even though that adds treble content. I don't understand that term at all.

If you just want a treble cut, you can mod any compressor to do that. E.g. put a 220pF across the LDR side of the vactrol in the Afterlife (this will have less and less of an effect the more your signal is compressed). Almost any compressor will produce a perceived loss of treble. You can also easily add a tone control to just about anything.

[GrindCustoms]

I finally realized that warmth is what I'm after. I had an EBS multicomp that I liked that had that quality.

The EBS MultiComp is my favorite «brand» comp ever, you probably used it in «Tube» mode. I understand the kind of warmth that you are looking at.

I think a 2 knob ET with a tone stack or what is suggested by Jon, would do it.

[thesameage]

Yep, EBS in tube mode is exactly the sound I'm looking for!

[jkokura]

I wouldn't call the Engineer's Thumb 'warm.' I might call the Ross/Dyna comp warm, and I really like it.

Jacob

[junkemail86]

I've built the Flatline, Engineer's Thumb, Ross to Keeley specs, Bearhug, and Compulator.  The Compulator is on my board, even though it is noisier than some of the others (at least for my builds), but sounds warmest to my ears at least.  Fairly simple build as well.

[thesameage]

I wouldn't call the Engineer's Thumb 'warm.' I might call the Ross/Dyna comp warm, and I really like it.

Jacob

Isn't the ET essentially a Ross/dyna?

[RobA]

I'm with Jon on this one, you need to define what you mean by warm. If you are looking for added harmonics, which I'm guessing because you want to use this with a solid state amp, then the EHX Black Finger is good. It's my favorite compressor at this point. It would be a bit of an effort to DIY it though.

You could also use a tube pre to get harmonics and then use whatever compressor you want to get the compression response you are looking for. 

[thesameage]

I'm with Jon on this one, you need to define what you mean by warm. If you are looking for added harmonics, which I'm guessing because you want to use this with a solid state amp, then the EHX Black Finger is good. It's my favorite compressor at this point. It would be a bit of an effort to DIY it though.

You could also use a tube pre to get harmonics and then use whatever compressor you want to get the compression response you are looking for.

I hear you. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I need and some of it is theoretical at this point. The project is this: I'm getting a Tiny Giant amp from someone here. If you don't know, it's a tiny, full-range solid state 20 watt amp. It's for home use for guitar and bass through an 8" speaker cab that I'm putting together. I've heard that the Tiny Giant is not the warmest amp in the world and I'd like to compensate for that somewhat. I understand that it will never have a true "tube" sound, but I'd like to do a little bit for it. I'm considering putting a Valvecaster type pedal in front of it to warm it up a little bit, but I'm wondering if a comp would help towards that end as well.

I guess I'm not totally sophisticated in expressing what I want in terms of "warmth" and that's part of this journey. I know that I like the EBS multi-comp. It just makes everything sound better and warmer. John, as always, makes some good points, which are helping me to figure this out. If anyone else has input, I'd love to hear it. Like I said, I have the ET and Afterlife boards already. I also have a Six Shooter for EQ.

[jkokura]

I wouldn't call the Engineer's Thumb 'warm.' I might call the Ross/Dyna comp warm, and I really like it.

Jacob

Isn't the ET essentially a Ross/dyna?

No.

Jacob

[midwayfair]

I wouldn't call the Engineer's Thumb 'warm.' I might call the Ross/Dyna comp warm, and I really like it.

Jacob

Isn't the ET essentially a Ross/dyna?

No.

Jacob

Hehe, this is the best answer.