My evaluation thoughts on 500 series compressors for bass.

Updated with audio links to samples below.

Correction: The Chandler is not tube based but it sure sounds like it!

Since 2002 I have been working with singer-songwriters in my area. Often tracking in professional studios but increasingly home-based studios lately. It is not enough to just show up with your bass and expect that the songwriter knows how to get a proper bass tone. You really need to own more than just your bass playing these days. As a result, I started to pay more attention to what professional bassists were using to track their basses. I started with the Sans Amp devices then moved up to a REDDI which sounds amazing. Then followed the trends and got a Noble and a Cali76 which again sounds great. During the pandemic, the only musicians that were still working were the ones with home-based studios. I was already slowly building my studio however the pandemic forced me to complete it. I purchased a Neve 1073 and a Sta-Level compressor which sounded better than everything I purchased prior. I sold the Noble and a bunch of other devices that claimed to be “Neve-like” to fund a 500 series rack.

After much research, I purchased an API-based preamp and EQ and a few 500 series compressors to demo and made notes on each of their sonic traits on bass. My testing is not scientific, but I know exactly what I am looking for and my testing always leads me to what works for my needs. When it comes to tracking, I tend to compress no more than -3 to -4db. However, there are times when I want aggressive compression, and this is when I start to notice the good from the bad devices and where I usually start my testing.

At max compression, most devices will sound thin or get very noisy or distort in a way that is unpleasing to my ear. I always look for compressors that still sound big and massive in extreme settings and if there is any distortion it is more musical where it adds a pleasing grit to the sound which I do not mind on bass and lastly without too much noise. I know this is a lot to ask but some units do rise to the top with all these requirements I look for.

The units I purchased for this evaluation were the Great River 501 based on "Pulse Width Modulation" compression, Neve 535 "Diode Bridge", Neve 543 "VCA", Serpent Splice 1176 "FET", SSL E-DYN MK2 "VCA", IGS ONE LA "Opto", Wes Audio RHEA "Vari Mu", Elysia Xpressor "VCA", Retro Instruments Double Wide, and finally the Chandler Limited EMI TG "Opto" compressor. There were others that I really wanted to try but were unavailable at the time of this evaluation. I hope down the road to include the Shadow Hills Vandergraph, Pete’s Place BAC 500, Crane Song Falcon, and a Distressor. Although the Distressor only comes in 19” rackmount.

One thing I found remarkably interesting is that there is a strong correlation between sound and weight. Except for one unit, the heavier modules rated higher for me sonically.

Unfortunately, I did not have the time to make audio samples of my testing results since all were on loan and had to be returned if I didn't keep them, so these are just my personal thoughts on what I heard while testing each unit. See the links below for other bass samples with the keeper compressors.

Clean Bass Setting
   • Nite in Buffalo play-along 500 Series...  

Dirty Bass Setting
   • Testing 500 Series Pre-Amp & Compress...  

Live bass play-along (semi-dirty bass setting)
https://rumble.com/v1vljmq-drink-her-...