TC-1 Titanium Compressor Review

A robustly made Compressor effect pedal. Great for reducing the dynamic range of an instrument and for increasing apparent sustain.

Ease of Use:	10
Sound:	9
Reliability:	9
Impression:	10
Overall rating:	9.5
Users rating:	9

overall: 9.5

Reviewed by: Just_Chaz, on february 10, 2007

Ease of Use: It is a Stomp Box so everything on it is pretty straight forward, three knobs at the top, level, attack and sustain and the stomp switch. Easy peasy, the thing with compressors is knowing what you want to use them for, if you know that, you're all sorted. I Personally use mine for balancing the volume through my various effects and it took a total of 3 minutes to get the settings I want whilst watching TV and drinking a cup of tea. Easy. // 10

Sound: Compressors have two main uses on a guitar, to sustain a note for longer or to equallise the total sound output. I personally use it for the latter purpose, using valves and several other inventions in my amp, it's important to keep the final sound at a consistant volume. Somethings I have noticed about other analogue compressors is they have 2 volumes very loud or very quiet and it is always a struggle trying to get it dead on, this one however is much more advanced and seems to just work without any fuss whenever you change sound. The other thing about compressors is that they don't turn the volume up, they boost the mid range and compress all the sound together, this can sometimes sound very punchy and sometimes muffled, however this one, although still sounds a little punchy, still retains the clarity of the sound. // 9

Reliability & Durability: The main of it is solid as a rock, I've bashed it and bumped and it isnt even scratched yet, the knobs are probably the weakest spot on the device, however they are easy to remove and they are a standard knob so if they did break, the local electronics shop will have a spare. // 9

Impression: I play a cross between blues/rock and ambient rock, my kit is a Marshall amp with a load of expression pedal experiments (valve/tone/wah/eq/etc) which can make it hard to keep the volume consistant when playing live. This compressor however does the trick, problem solved. I can't ask for much more than that. // 10