Loving my Empress Bass Compressor!! Within 30min of tinkering my tone was dialed in and I've been in love ever since! The final pedal to my current board and LONG over due. Legit features and build quality. Hoping to put miles and miles on this. Cheers SW and Empress Team!

I have been very impressed with this pedal. Its transparency and ease of use are amazing. I can quickly dial in the compression I want and my bass still sounds like my bass but just a bit better. What more could I ask for?
I use this pedal with the Empress Bass ParaEq pedal and the 2 together are really helpful dialing in my sound for live LOUD gigs. I wish I had purchased these sooner.

The metering (both in and out) are really helpful in dialing in quickly, and every setting sounds good. Great update to any bass board.

This will take your bass and turn it into 10 different basses depending on the setting.
Combined with a decent EQ (Empress Parametric?) and a nice amp, you're all set.
4:1 ratio is full of great settings and has just a touch of vibe to it.
10:1 offers that thick tone.
I think a lot of people miss the 2:1 setting though - it's just incredible at taking your bass tone, letting you even it out with the settings, and give it a nice sturdy professional tone with complete transparency. If you love your bass and amp tone as they are, don't forget about 2:1!
This has to be the best bass compressor on the market, not to mention it can work perfectly well on guitar as well.
You might be surprised that it's smaller than it looks, but it's really portable, beautiful and the thing just works beautifully. Metering is an absolute joy to work with, attack and release are awesome, sidechain is SO helpful in dialing in your low end, and the colour circuit along with the mix knob just add so much versatility.
My only complaint is the Output - it's got so much gain on tap that I have to bring it down to near zero to keep my signal the same level after the Input adds volume to trigger compression. Having that much gain makes the pedal a bit of a potential preamp. But it's not my favorite preamp - when I run the Output higher and lower my lovely bass amp, the tone isn't quite as pure. Nothing wrong with bringing the Output down to near zero though - it just looks a bit weird. This comment is just for future iterations.

Overall this is a dream compressor and you won't find a better one on the market!

As the writing of this review, I just received my Empress bass compressor as an upgrade to my MXR bass compressor and I must say, WHAT AN UPGRADE!!! The transparency is insanely amazing and I love the overall design and studio design of this pedal and I'm already eyeballing the ParaEQ. By far, one of my favorite compressor upgrades! Thank you Empress and thank you Sweetwater for a speedy delivery, I definitely recommend this company and this pedal.

This is the only compressor pedal you will need as a bassist.
The sound is true and powerful.
The extra tone controls let you dial in the subtleties within the songs.

Title says it all. Studio-grade compression in a small pedal format.

I've been a bass player for many years and I've never used a compressor like the Empress Compressor. It sounds great and I totally recommend it.

I have mid to high end basses and amplifiers, so I didn't need anything to help with tone, was just going to buy a barebones transparent compressor pedal. Decided to try this one out after reading the reviews. Let me say, this pedal brought my already good tones to life. And with a little tweaking, can add in some grit, just a touch, for that space between nothing and an overdrive pedal. Has a great amount of control over compression levels. I found squashing the signal a little more than usual and then using the Mix control to blend in the uncompressed signal works out great. Definitely love this one.

I've had this pedal for am hour and I'm not sure why I played without it. The noise-free boost and sustain takes a good sounding rig and makes it sound top of the line. I'm excited to explore more what it can do in a live setting.

The Empress Bass Compressor is a little wonder. The pedal it's built with very high quality. The finish, the controls and the amazing metering are top notch. It's very quiet and intuitive to use. You can dial it effortless. It has all the controls you want in high grade compressor. At first I doubted a little for the discrete number of ratios available but finally I was happy with the selection of them (2:1, 4:1, 10:1). Mine's sparkle blue and looks great. Always good to deal with Sweetwater. I absolutely recommend this little wonder compressor

It looks amazing and has so many features and is very versatile it's my favorite purchase of any pedal

I've been hesitant for years on getting a compressor. I've been geared towards a more minimalistic approach for a long time. This Empress compressor truly was something I didn't know I was missing. Now when I play and I think my tone sounds off, I will look down and realize that the pedal isn't on.

Excellent build and quality.

I love the visual feedback of the LEDs on this compressor, so as I change basses, I get immediate feedback of if I need to adjust the input level. This pedal does wonders to push my tone just that little bit to make sure I'm audible in the mix.

If mine got hit by a meteor today, I'd buy another one immediately.

The Empress Effects Bass Compressor is truly amazing. I was looking for something to tame the transients in my playing. This pedal delivered. As others have said, it is an always-on pedal. During the course of my research, I kept coming back to this pedal. I am pleased that I finally took the plunge.

The controls seemed a bit daunting at first, but with a little time and effort this pedal has helped me to understand how to apply compression to my signal chain to achieve my desired results. While my sound is primarily in my hands, the Empress Effects Bass Compressor goes above and beyond to polish that sound.

Far and away the best compressor for the bass that I've ever tried. Easy to use. Indicator LEDs give great feedback on what it's doing. Started with the "Smooth & Warm" settings shown in the quickstart guide. Tweaked just a little for what I was after. Sounds absolutely fantastic.

I have a Sadowsky NYC PJ bass, and every other compressor I've tried with it actually didn't seem to improve it, because the Sadowsky preamp is so good. Then, I got the Empress bass compressor. The clarity improved, and even the notes on the G string now sound big and alive--even past the 12th fret. Do yourself a favor and get one--and your compressor search will be over.

A compressor is one of the essential pedals for any bassist. You can get by without one, I certainly did for many years. There comes a point where I felt that no matter how much I tried to squeeze a certain note out of my fretless it just disappeared in the room and live sound. I generally am not a pedal guy. But, I purchased this one because it was highly rated in the community, and the amount of adjustability is great. Now, I have played my first paid gig. I'm not saying this pedal is responsible for that, but it is now in my normal rotation. This compressor is one of the best available.

The pedal works very well, the sc hp is great because it does the job of a 2-band pedal without so much dirt

Empress has absolutely outdone themselves with the Bass Compressor, this is truly an always on pedal. This thing has fattened up the sound of every bass I have plugged into it and the level of control you have makes tweaking for any setup a breeze. The included setting suggestions were fantastic starting points to dial in the effect you're looking for. It's such a great pairing with my MXR Envelope, just makes it pop so hard. The LED light meters are icing on the cake, but now I don't want to have a compressor without them!

Great job, Empress! If you are looking for rack mount level compression control on your board, the search is over. Plus, that blue sparkle is just gorgeous.

This is a perfect compression pedal! I've been using it for every gig since I've gotten it. I have even sent a double bass through it. I initially was looking at the MXR, but saw amazing reviews for this one. If you're debating on a compression for bass, this one is it.

This is by far the best bass compressor I have used. My last one, Markbass tube model was ok, but was never completely satisfied with the sound. Took a chance on this after reading any review I could find online, and very happy I did. Was a little concerned on only having 3 ratio settings, but have had no problems or regrets after only a little time playing. I cannot say it's better than others that I have not ever used, but compared to the ones I have used, Markbass, Boss, MXR and an old Peavey, it is by far the best.

Really great all around compressor. There's plenty of ways to tweak it until you get the exact sound you're looking for, and it sounds great at all levels. It just makes all the other pedals in your chain speak a little better. The LEDs on the side are a nice feature as well when dialing in sounds just how you want them - and they look cool too. 5 stars.

Just received mine today and can't wait to really dive in and get the most out of it. Amazing control and dynamics right out of the box

This pedal is perfect. Very easy to dial in, excellent monitoring via the LED meters, very robust build, and the subtle tone shaping options truly make a difference. Also, the blue sparkle just looks awesome! This is already my favorite compressor I've used on bass.

I've been playing bass for 45 years. For most of those years, I've read that compression is an "essential" tool for a bassist. That makes a lot of sense because, when we hear electric bass in a studio or live recording, it has almost always been subject to compression at some point (or even multiple points) in the process. It's a tool that helps music reach our ears more effectively and to sound more pleasing when it gets there.

I've tried and (sigh) bought a bunch of bass compressor pedals in that time and, after an initial honeymoon period, have figured out that they're not for me. The reason has always been that the pedal squashed the sound -- especially the low notes -- of my bass in a way that sounded unnatural. If I was going for a funky, weird sound, that kind of squashing would be fine. But that has never been the sound I was after. What I wanted was a tool that allowed me to keep the sound I was achieving (through my choice of bass, strings, amp settings, and playing techniques) but that focused it and allowed it to sit higher and more forcefully in the mix.

The Empress Bass Compressor Pedal is just exactly that! Because the High Pass filter allows you to tailor the range of low frequencies that get compressed and because the Mix control allows you to add in various degrees of an uncompressed signal, I can determine if I want zero low note squashing (which is usually my choice) or some degree of it. And where many simpler pedals don't allow separate control of attack and release rates, this pedal does.

My only hesitation before buying the Empress was that the Ratio control only has three choices: 2:1, 4:1, or 10:1. My thought was "What if I want a ratio of 6:1 or 8:1?" In use, however, the limited choices of the Empress has not been a problem at all. 2:1 is perfect for very gentle compression, 4:1 is perfect for pretty much every other situation, and 10:1 works beautifully for those few situations where I'd want something more aggressive.

So after 40 plus years of searching for a tool that allowed me to keep the sound I was achieving but that focused it and allowed it to sit higher and more forcefully in the mix, I've found it. Thanks Empress!

Love this compressor! Just the right amount of controls without being overwhelming. So far very happy with this pedal!

Very High quality build. Great switch. Cool lights to help you see whats happening. Can't get a bad sound out of it. It does not give the obvious choke that many other compressors can give. The input lavel helps tame hotter guitars.

Fantastic compressor! Easy to dial in the perfect amount of smooth compression. I highly recommend.

I recently bought two TC ELECTRONICS RS 212 bass cabinets online and a TC ELECTRONIC BQ500 from SWEETWATER. This gave me the lightweight tone print I was looking for. I was using a vintage TRACE ELLIOT rig 4X10 and 1X15 with a SMX 12 preamp/amp. Now my back is happy. The BQ 500 has built in compression (THRUST) with a one knob on or off switch. I have read where some people are not happy with the compression. I will say that just a slight touch of it is nice but not like the compression I have in my studio set up DAW and plugins. I listened to online demos from ORGIN CALI 76, TC ELECTRONICS SPECTRA COMP and many more. The EMPRESS COMPRESSOR just hit the sweet spot and has great user options and controls. TC ELECTRONICS SPECTRA COMP is cool with iPhone presets, but I just wanted hands-on user-friendly operation. The manual has several quick start diagrams that are good, but it took no time to really get that smooth but punchy sound I like. After setting the EMPRESS COMPRESSOR I turned the BQ 500 compressor to 9 o'clock and I'm ready to gig, can't wait. Gary McClain bass (LIVE N KICKIN BAND) EAST TEXAS CLASSIC ROCK

Ryan's Team help me decide on this pedal. His name was also Ryan. So many choices for bass compressors. I used it at a rehearsal the next day and was very impressed with the way it smoothed the bass waves and tightened up my sound. As if "I practiced More!"
My Five Star Advisor Ryan helped my dial it in the following day for different compression levels. Ryan is a Recording Engineer and knows how to set everything up for live and recording applications.
Empress is a great company and build very quality pedals. I would purchase additional pedals from this company. I was able to extend my warranty for Four Years just for registering online.
Sweetwater Sound is my main shopping destination for all of my musical needs. Ryan is very helpful and very knowledgeable.

I am new to pedals and bought this to improve my sound at church. It is fantastic - works exactly as described and totally changed my previous hollow bass sound. I have this in a small board and never turn it off. The sound board engineer agrees that this pedal also makes his job much easier.

Don't hesitate as this is a great, easily dialed in and modified sound, terrific pedal that will add quality to your sound. Thanks Empress!

I've gone through four or five brands, and frankly never really understood why some players swear by compression. Five minutes with this box and I was sold. With other products it seemed like I could spin knobs and nothing would happen until my tone was squashed. With this pedal, you can hear the difference with each control with even small adjustments. I love the addition of the Input meter to the compression level; it really helps a lot more than I expected. Anyway, now I'm one of those players that swears by his compressor.

I have the MXR Compressor for outdoor gigs and I love it, but wanted more control for playing on Sunday services. I needed an even tone, not to make the congregation sea-sick. The input meter allowed me to dial just the right amount of gain for a Squire P bass, and to fine tune the rest to suit my needs. It has made it easier to play behs, and to sound good consistently for sunday service. This is head and shoulders superior to the MXR one, or any of the ones "built in" to multifunction pedals or into combo amps.

All the different sound you can get from this compressor pedal is awesome. It's a lot of fun to play with. I can't imagine playing without it anymore.

This is a fantastic pedal. Makes my Ric bass sound so punchy. You can always trust Empress to put out great pedals. This is my third pedal from them. Thanks Jonathan Pass for recommending.

I've had at least 7 different compressor pedals over the years, but this one is going to remain a keeper!

Just received mine today. Out of the box this pedal sounded great. Quick little adjustment and it was dialed in. Easy to use and has a nice suite of features you don't see on a pedal. Can't wait to hear it the band a get some gigging time in on it.

This pedal rocks! Avoiding any technical mumbo jumbo, it just makes everything enhanced. If you are new to compression the manual gives you several suggested settings to get started with. Once you hear it you will not want to go without it!

Tl;dr, get this pedal.
After spending many hours looking at reviews, watching videos, reading through forums, and all of that, I decided to get this pedal. It absolutely met my expectations! I was using the onboard compression on my Tascam DM-4800 mixing desk but really wanted to get compression engaged earlier in the signal path while not losing the capabilities I have in the desk. The flexibility, tone shaping, metering, and sidechaining in the pedal does everything I want a compressor to do. I was unsure if I would use the tone shaping but it's actually pretty cool in certain scenarios.
Been putting it through its paces for about a week now and I absolutely love this compressor! It will be moving in to permanent place in my signal chain and will be an 'always on' pedal for me.

The Empress Bass compressor is high quality pedal with a lot of features. I'm still getting used to it, but starting to find the settings that work wonders for me.

I had considered a couple other compressors, but what really kind of won me over with the Empress was the metering (the other ones I looked at just had one LED, which may work fine for some...but I wanted to be able to better see what I was actually doing).

The mix knob...I love being able to mix in some dry signal...

The tone/color switch...that really allows you to customize the tone even more....

I like that the I/O's are on the top of the pedal...

The power LED is bright enough to see, but not blinding like some others....

I've had no technical issues with it...it's worked perfectly so far.

It really seems to be a well thought out pedal...I have no complaints about this thing at all.

It was a little on the pricey side...but, I think it was totally worth it (for me).

Lastly, although it doesn't affect the sound of the pedal, and is just a personal thing, I like that they are made in Canada.

As far as Sweetwater....it was easy to order, the customer service is always great, and they got it to me quicker than expected.

If you're looking for a bass compressor, I'd definitely at least give this one a look....I doubt you'd be disappointed.

I previously owned a TC electronics spectra comp, but wanted to make adjustments on the fly depending on what bass I'm playing. The TC has to be adjusted from your phone or computer. This pedal is easy to dial in and is very transparent. The tone+colour option adds some delicious, subtle harmonics. This has a permanent place on my board!
Tim

Short and sweet,, Sound Engineer love it
The band say that can hear and feel the notes so much clearer and I not a loud player I hate being loud but I have to admit every different style that I play sound so focus with out sounding underwhelming compressed now to clean up my mistakes

Top notch pedal as advertised. Great addition to my gear.

I just bought this compressor at Sweetwater a couple weeks ago and have played several shows with it. The sound engineers at all the venues I played at were geeking out over my tone and were very complimentary. They were surprised to see a pedal compressor get the sound I was getting out of it.
I do quite a bit of home recording and the nice thing about this compressor is that it is laid out quite a bit like the compressor plug-ins in my DAW
If you're looking for a great sounding full featured pedal compressor I highly recommend this one.

I'm continually amazed at what can be made in more and more compact devices.
This is a full featured compressor. It works and sounds like a much larger studio rack unit. But it's just a small pedal.

And on top of the great flexible compression, it has a tasty little tone switch that makes it a sound better pedal.

Big thanks to my Sweetwater sales rep Ryan Clapper for talking to me about this and other options, ultimately getting me the right device for my needs.

I'm still pretty new to compression, so it's hard for me to give a very informative review, but I will say that this pedal seems very nicely made. The blue paint has a cool-looking shimmer, and the LEDs are pretty badass. I put some velcro on the bottom of the pedal to stick it to my pedalboard. When I went to slice the rubber feet off with my pocket knife, I realized I didn't have to. The feet pop right out, and you can pop them back in if you want. Compression is a very subtle, elusive effect, and I did A LOT of research before deciding which compression pedal to buy. I'm looking forward to learning the art of compression with the Empress.

The Empress Express bass compressor was well worth the wait! Being able to see your input level (green lights) and the amount of compression (red lights) is such a useful feature. The tone color switch is nice when you want it. And the control you get from the wet/dry, attack and release knobs is top-notch. The power light is a bit bright, but some may like that and tape fixes all bright lights. Overall, very pleased with the sound this always-on pedal gives me.

I have enjoyed this compressor more than any other compressor I have used over the years. I bought this pedal for the features it included and the sound quality.

Does just what it does. Im really digging the compressor. Thank Derrick

While compression is technically a "subtle" effect in terms of modification to your sound, this pedal is extremely powerful. Everything about the pedal, from the HPF, the parallel compression that is possible from the mix control, to the brilliantly laid of LED level meter, it's got everything I was looking for in a compressor. And then add on top of that, the tone switch, allowing you to cut some mids or boost a bit up top, this pedal just rocks. This one is an "always on for life" pedal and at a price better than the rest in its class.

Compression is the only effect I use almost 100% of the time when I'm gigging or recording. So it's important to have a compressor that performs consistently at a high level. For years, I used a more expensive bass compressor pedal on my board. It worked fine and did what it promised, but I felt it lacked proper metering.

When I looked at the Empress Bass Compressor, I was sold! It did everything my old compressor did (parallel compression, HPF, etc.), but added independent controls for Attack & Release times, better implementation of WET/DRY mixing, WAY better metering, and a cool TONE+COLOUR switch for giving me a few quick variations to the tone without having to add an EQ pedal. Now that it has arrived, the initial tests confirmed what I heard and saw in online reviews, so I'm thrilled! Oh, and did I mention the price of the Empress was lower than the other compressor with fewer features? Well done, Steve and company!

I bought this compressor with the intention of having more freedom for adjustment when switching from bass to bass. While my other compressor was great, I didn't particularly appreciate that I had to hop on the computer to make fine-tune adjustments. The manual is straight to the point and gives a couple of settings to pave the way, while also explaining well what each knob does. The build quality seems to be here, the blue metallic is beautiful, and I love the gain/input reduction LEDs (which are super bright). Caught it on sale, but would totally recommend it at the normal price as well!

P.S. I highly recommend registering it, as they extend the warranty by 2 years.

Just received - one of the best ive used.

I have only played 3 gigs with the Empress so far, but I tried it on 2 very different rigs. The first gig was a low volume gig in a medium size club, using a Darkglass 900 V2 into a Hartke Hydrive 112. The next 2 gigs were in a large club at high volume, using a Phil Jones Bass M-500 head into 2 Phil Jones Bass C-9 cabs. The Empress was awesome in both situations. I love it!!

best clean/transparent compressor ive ever tried. beats the origin 76, mxr bass comp, keeley bassist, and the boss bc-1x. (the boss is 2nd best imo)

I've tried so many bass compressor pedals that I've lost count. Still searching for the right one, I tried the Empress and was pleasantly surprised! Very versatile control options, clean compression, and quality build. It's hard to find a bass compressor pedal that can handle an active input signal which the Empress does well thanks to the input & output controls along with the LED metering that shows the input level and gain reduction. It's also hard to find one that doesn't choke on the lower bass notes but the SC HP filter on the Empress allows the lows to bypass the compression circuit unaffected which, to me, is a crucial function. I'm very satisfied with the Empress and recommend it to anyone looking for a versatile, quality compressor pedal.

This pedal does as advertised. Quality construction and led display. Shape your tones and smooth out your attack, balance the sustain for how long you want compression. I get compliments on my tone, it's not from my fender rumble eq.

I have owned several bass compressors over the years. This is by far the best bass compressor hands down.

After cycling through several compressor pedals, this one is it! There are a ton of good compressors out there. However, every compressor I've tried has been missing at least one feature that I'd like to have. The Empress Bass Compressor has every feature on my wish list, and then some. I really like the LED Gain Reduction and Input monitoring. Ultimately, I like using my ears the best, but it's nice to physically verify what my ears are telling me (or to learn what they aren't!). I was a little concerned about the set ratio points, but the ratios that Empress has chosen are solid and I don't find myself missing another knob to twist to get it just right. The tone switch does add some color to the otherwise super transparent sound, but it's a very pleasing color to these ears. All in all, it's just an excellent pedal that I foresee living on my board for a long time!

Finally dived into the world of compression and I am so glad I went with Empress. The controls are very intuitive. The ratios of compression are just right and the metering is excellent for visualizing how the compressor reacts to your playing. And to top it all off, the tone/color switch adds that little something special to your tone to really make it stand out.

I have another brand comp that I thought was awesome and still do, however, I really like the features of the Empress and the metering. And though its new at this point the first gig was really good and I loved the tone I was able to get.

This pedal will never leave my rig. I've tried a bunch and owned a few others, but the Empress Effects is next level. The controls seemed a bit overwhelming at first, but the manual does an excellent job of explaining what everything does. Now, I'm happy to have all the options. Super high build quality and it makes my bass sound so much better. I would highly recommend this.

I have tried a handful of bass compressors, and this one is #1 for me! Aside from the stand compressor function, there are a few reasons why this pedal tops others:

SC HPF
Tone Switch
LED visuals

These features separate this compressors from others. The HPF does a great job of making the compressor more usable, especially with a 5 string bass. It keeps those low notes from triggering the compressor and losing their dynamics. The tone switch is magical! I think I they sold a pedal with just that switch in it, it would sell! It just has a magic effect on my tone in either position.

Lasty, the LEDs visuals are great to see what the pedal is doing.