Markbass Compressore Review

The Markbass Compressore Tube Bass compressor pedal is a do-it-all accessory that enhances the quality of your sound. It’s a versatile pedal you can use with guitar, bass, and other instruments.

You’ll find controls like gain, threshold, ratio, attack, release, and more to adjust the dynamics of your sound. Adding a compressor to your effect chain makes your setup more forgiving and boosts treble sounds to add dimension to your picking.

Things to Consider Before Buying a Compressor Pedal

I played my first live gig without a compressor pedal. The sound quality wasn’t ideal. The audience couldn’t hear quieter sounds over the band mix, and my attacks were too noticeable.

I later learned that musicians use compressor pedals during live performance to achieve a smoother sound. These pedals compress sounds above a certain threshold. They boost treble sounds to make your playing more dynamic. The result is a bass or guitar that is easy to hear in the band mix, and a more even sound between the extremes of the tonal spectrum.

Even though you can use a compression pedal to boost your overall volume, keep in mind that you can get more gain with a distortion pedal. You can also use a distortion and overdrive pedal together.

Here are a few questions to ask before buying a compression pedal:

Let’s take a closer look at the different features of the Markbass Compressore Tube Bass compressor pedal.

ECC 81 Tube Compressor

Simple Controls

The compressor pedal uses a simple design. It’s a board with six knobs that let you adjust different settings.

You’ll find labels and markings on the knobs. There is a central foot switch you can use to turn the compressor effect on and off.

The pedal has a true bypass feature. If you switch it off, your audio signal won’t go through the compressor tube and other circuitry to prevent distortion.

Release and Attack

You can adjust the release from 100 to 750 ms. The purpose of the release setting is to increase volume as your note decays. It extends the duration of a note and boosts short or quiet notes.

You can turn it down if you want sounds to decompress faster.

The attack setting adjusts how quickly a sound will reach its peak. If you strike a string hard, your note will sound loud and distinctive. Musicians call this effect attack.

You can adjust the attack from 2 to 50 ms. Increase this setting to make your playing sound smoother, and decrease it if you want a more aggressive result where sounds reach their peak faster. Playing with the attack setting can result in some unique effects if you use different guitar picking techniques.

Threshold and Ratio

You can adjust the threshold setting to determine above which level the pedal is going to compress sounds. You can keep the threshold low when you play in a studio setting and increase it when playing live.

The ratio determines the intensity of the signal compression. You can increase it for a more noticeable effect and turn it down if you want a sound that is more organic with a smoothness that is more subtle.

Being able to adjust threshold and ratio makes the pedal more versatile. You can adjust compression levels easily and make the pedal work for a wide range of musical genres.

Clean

Increasing the clean setting will remove noise and distortion to create a neutral tone. You can achieve a well-balanced and natural tone, thanks to this setting. The clean setting is a great option if you want to record some tracks in a studio and need to enhance sound quality.

If you place the compressor pedal early in your effect chain, this setting will create a clean tone to get the best results possible as you introduce additional effects.

Gain and Volume

You can use the Markbass Compressore tube bass compressor pedal to adjust gain and volume. Increasing the gain setting raises your input volume, which enhances the compression effect. You can turn it down for a more subtle effect.

The volume setting controls your output volume. You can adjust the volume setting to match the volume of your uncompressed sound. This setting ensures that there are no significant differences in volume when you switch the pedal on and off.

Image by Frame Harirak (available under Unsplash License)

Design

The compression pedal is larger than most effect pedals. The dimensions are 6.7x5.7x2.4.”

It weighs 1.66 lb. It’s a lightweight option for a compression pedal, but it weighs more than most effect pedals. There is a ground lift feature.

The Markbass Compressore pedal is a favorite among musicians. It has an outstanding rating of 4.9 on Google and a rating of 4.8 stars on Amazon. A majority of shoppers give the product a five-star review and often comment on how it adds smoothness to their sound. The product performs as expected, and a huge majority of reviews recommend the product to other musicians.

This Amazon reviewer likes that the pedal does an amazing job for a fraction of the price of what other gear would cost.

There is another reviewer who comments on how well the pedal smooths out the audio signal.

I found a Google review that mentions using the pedal for recording. It looks like the Markbass compression pedal would be an ideal choice if you want to lay some tracks in a studio!

Even though the pedal is popular among guitar players, this user confirms that it’s also a great option for bassists.