Clear and Uncolored Compression Power
Looking for a compressor with crystal-clear transparency? The DSM Humboldt ClearComp can take you from a slight squash to full-on limiting, all while perfectly preserving your instrument's base tone. The Clearcomp is a brilliant piece of audio engineering, utilizing DSM Humboldt’s DT Topology to dynamically modify the threshold with a fixed gain reduction. In plain English, that means you get a greatly reduced noise floor, lower coloration, and a significantly greater dynamic range. Thankfully, DSM Humboldt have outfitted this cutting-edge design with a highly intuitive control scheme that will be familiar to any fan of compression, allowing you to quickly dial in everything from a subtle sustain to a full-on slammed tone. When testing the ClearComp out at Sweetwater, we found the built-in LED bar graph to be an incredibly useful tool — a standard feature on rack compressors that rarely makes it way onto a stompbox format. Finally, the threshold switch allows you to adjust the ClearComp’s dynamic threshold, making this compressor the ideal pedal for musicians who regularly switch out their guitars or cover multiple-instrument duties.
Related Videos: ClearComp Compressor Pedal
Monitor your levels
If you’ve ever taken a look at a rack compressor, you’ve noticed that they almost universally have some sort of meter to help you visualize your levels. Well, if it’s such an important feature on a rack unit, why not put it on a pedal? That’s exactly what DSM Humboldt have done with the ClearComp’s 5-stage LED bar graph! When adjusting the ClearComp, this bar graph gives you a clear visual indication of the resulting envelope level, offering rack unit power and control in a pedalboard-friendly form factor.
Versatile threshold switching
The ClearComp’s HI, MID, and LOW settings adjust the starting point of your dynamic threshold, making this compressor an excellent choice for musicians who need the ClearComp to cover a wide range of sonic sources. This control optimizes the ClearComp to your specific instrument’s output, with LOW being ideal for old-school single-coil pickups, MID to cover standard guitar and bass outputs, and HI for active instruments or super high-output pickups.
DSM Humboldt ClearComp Compressor Pedal Features:
- Highly versatile compressor that’s designed to remain as transparent as possible
- DSM Humboldt DSM Topology modifies the threshold with a fixed gain reduction for an exceedingly natural and low-noise compression tone
- LED bar graph offers a clear visual indication of the envelope level
- Ratio control goes from a subtle compression (1:2) to all-out limiting (1:20)
- Wide-ranging 5–100ms attack and 30ms to 3s release to cover everything from a smooth, round tone to gritty aggression
- Threshold switch allows you to optimize your dynamic threshold to your instrument’s output
