Budget compressor that works way beyond expectations

Budget or not

I subscribe to the view that you almost always get what you pay for at the lower end of the market. So it's nice to come across something cheap that works well.

The compressor

I bought a compressor the other day, but not for use as a studio compressor. I bought it as an effect for my guitar rig.

I'm using it to push the preamp a little bit for a fat round sound. There are some of the standard compression knobs such as Attack and Release. There's also a Ratio switch for high or low. The Emphasis knob controls how much of the high frequency signal is passed through without compression, allowing for the rattle of strings to come through. This is a great feature if you're thinking of using it on bass.

The pedal is easy to use if you don't think of the knobs on the top row as having much to do with traditional compressors. I'm still trying to figure out the compressor knob. I know what I think it should do, but it doesn't seem to. It seems to be a mixture of ratio (relating to the hi or low levels from the switch) and threshold. One way to find out is to do record an A-B comparison and look at the audio file properties. I'm curious what it actually does do so I'll do this at some point.

The Output

The sound out of the compressor isn't crystal clear. It's not that noisy either, to the point that you can't hear any added noise when the amplifier is on a clean setting. I haven't measured it more accurately than listening by ear.

The resulting sound has a nice warm quality with the guitar's tone being slightly subdued. Feels like a more rounded tone. I guess some of the higher frequencies have been removed. For an all-purpose compressor, that's a problem. For putting in front of a guitar or bass amp, I see that as a positive. I wouldn't use it on every song either, but I can see it getting a lot of use.

With the amplifier on a high gain setting, there is more hiss and hum with the compressor switched on. That's not necessarily being introduced by the compressor other than the fact that the make-up gain is increasing the floor level.

Snake Charmer

It's the Vox Cooltron Snake Charmer Compressor pedal and I bought mine for £39, a big reduction from the RRP of £149. That's a great price for a compressor pedal and fits into the budget pedal price, undercutting a lot of more "pro" models. The Cooltron pedals are marketed as having tube technology. They do indeed have a tube inside. I have no idea if the tube is adding to the tone, to me it was just a gimmick, but I'm glad I tried the pedal despite that.

Bass

After trying this in the shop using a guitar, I couldn't wait to get it back and try on a bass. It has a nice tone on that as well, although there are some issues. Two things to bear in mind:

It's a compressor that isn't configured as a limiter, so a sudden loud signal will still get through to your amp.
I think it's designed for use with guitar frequencies, but rolling the emphasis knob to the extreme will let more of the bass' higher frequencies through.

I've found that I had to keep the attack on the left-side of 12 o'clock otherwise it outputs a click if you hit strings hard. The click isn't anything in the source and is still in the output despite the amplifier's limiter being on full. My guess is that the pedal introduces it into the signal chain. I want to check that before I confirm it. I'll see if I can get the same sound using a different bass amp, a DI and also using a guitar into the same amp. Either way, I'm a bit wary about introducing that click to any sensitive equipment until I can find out where it's coming from. The compressor pedal is still useable and a joy to play with on bass, but keep the attack knob down.

Edit - I've tried the compressor on the same settings with a (passive) electric guitar into a guitar amp. I didn't hear the click.

Vocals

I wouldn't put this in the signal chain for recording clean vocals. It's not designed for that and I really doubt whether it's clean enough although, again, I haven't measured it. From what it's done to the guitar, I can imagine it working well as a nice effect on vocals, perhaps on a send mixed in parallel with the original or on an insert for much rougher sound.

Conclusion

In all fairness, I didn't expect that much from the pedal before I tried it. I was dubious about the valve gimmick. But for using the pedal as something that cleanly adds tone, wow, it's got to be heard. It also has the bonus of having the usual compressor feature of adding sustain to notes. Great. Unlike most effects that I just use in one or two places, I'm looking forward to trying this in a variety of applications. It can never be my go-to compressor, in the end it is just a guitar effect pedal, but it definitely has a place for changing the sound of a signal in a positive way.

At this price, it's a steal. Almost a no-brainer.

If it were more expensive, I may still buy it but only if I wanted the exact sounds it produces and I couldn't get them from a more versatile compressor.