Empress Effects Compressor MKII Blue

Excellent compressor for metal at lower practice volumes.

I use this compressor in the front of my board as an always-on when playing at low volume, even when playing high gain. It does a perfect job to compensate for the lack of interaction between amp and guitar with an attenuated sound. I love the mix knob to retain my pick attack and the sidechain HPF switch makes this pedal super useful when playing heavier styles with a lot of palm mutes. Perfect for metal!

You get what you pay for.

I’m a retired sound engineer and as you can appreciate, quality dynamics on a signal source are paramount for me live and in the studio.

I’ve tried several compressors over the years but my search for the holy grail is finally over.

This is a hell of a bit of kit, it gives me very precise control over my every guitar sound.

I would highly recommend this pedal professionally as a sound engineer and as a guitar player….it’s smooth, effective and unobtrusive….if that’s what you want of cause! It’s also very capable of being a bit of a savage.

It’s not the cheapest on the market but if you’re serious about your sound then that little bit extra is always worth it….most of the time, you do get what you pay for….. In this case it was definitely so!

Excellent Compressor

Does not colour the sound, works well for guitar, and with reamping, for vocals and synths.

Best compressor evah!

I spent a long time researching this purchase, kicked (and sold!) 2-3 pedals off my board to *cough* justify this fabulous purchase, and darned if I’m not still quite happy almost, well, 3-4 months later. The metering is super useful and interacts intuitively with the compression ratio. Haven’t had time and opportunity to play with the side-chain input function but that’s a mighty tempting tool to play with. You won’t be sorry with this! And really, it’s Empress top-of-the-line compressor, so what else would you expect?! 🍁🍁🍁