Behringer CS100

Easy enough to use if you are familiar with compression, if not it should not take long to figure out what does what.

I like that it has a wide range of control - not just knobs "suggesting" it has a wide range of control

behringer? its my first.

Ive been playing a little over 20 years, had my fair share of gear. I wanted to point that out early.

I almost didnt even try it because of behringers rep, but i heard alot of good things about the cs100 and had to give it a shot. Im glad i did. I have not used compression in years, but Im getting more into country/twangy chicken picken type stuff and decided to go for it.

this is one sweet pedal. I dont have another compressor to compare it to right now, but it works as cleanly as i remember my old boss, and the high end still comes through!

this is my 3rd compressor ever. ive had a crapload of other FX but like i mentioned, never really needed comp. my first was a boss but i hated comp. at the time and ditched it. 5 years later or so i picked up a cheap compressor and it squashed the signal so much and colord it in such a nasty way i was turned off of compression for years.


anyway to make it short i tried it and i have nothing but good things to say. you can actually set it so you cant tell its on, but still get some nice compresiion going. i love the fact that it does not color the tone. you can keep your tone and have compression too!

it really has a wide range of uses, from barely there to squashed, from added attack tp long sustain. and the when using long sustain settings the swell is so smooth and transparent that it overshadows what i do remember about the boss i had years ago. thats saying alot considering its $30 new

it is plastic, so we'll see. i treat gear pretty nicely. the plastic danos hold up fine so ...........

OK. ill try and keep it short.

i mentioned how long ive been playing because i know how alot of reviews get written by someone who just started playing and are new to FX. ive had at least 100 pedals over the years - not all at once of course but still.

this compressor is a fine pedal. again, i almost didnt try it and i feel like a fool for not at least waiting to give it a chance.

what surprised me most is how clean and transparent it is. yes, with higher settings you can tell a compressor is on, but as far as sound quality and operation, and wide range of uses this thing is great. i was pretty young when i had the boss but i remember it killing the highs and coloring the tone enough that i ditched it. this is not like that at all.

i keep it about half (all knobs) and its a nice amount for twangy comp. i play so loud i get slight natural compression from playing my amp at loud volumes - but this pushes it right wehre i was hoping it would.

tone is important to me, and i am impressed. i dont use alot of FX (tubescreamer, EQ, and occasional echo in the loop) but if i need something else one day i may give behringer another chance.

too bad they dont make a noise gate in pedal form this fine.


sorry about the long review, i just wanted to point out how thrilled i am with this, and again.....i was not expecting this

It is almost if not exactly the same as the B*** CS unit.

I am using this with a Crate GX 80 amp. This box is the same strength compressor as the B*** for way less money. I mean look at it... it's the exact same setup.

It is not noisy to me. It is very clean.

So far..

Didn't dewal with the company.

It is great. It sustains my guitar single notes about 8 more seconds. If you have it turned up louder on the amp / overdrive pedal it can be for longer than that. And it makes everything about the same volume level so you can strum as hard as you want or as soft as you want and you don't get any major changes which is good for live work in my opinion. If you want changes in volume use a volume pedal.

Easy to use, but ALL COMPRESSORS require a lot of fiddling and tweaking. I've owned several different brands, some acknowledged as being among the very best (not including the Barber Tone Press). Incredibly, this little guy is right up there with them, and sounds actually better than most! The compression is very clean and civil, and it has none of that annoying "swell" that some have in the control settings I use. I like it a bunch!

Nice and transparent. Very surprising for such an inexpensive pedal. I don't know what HC means by "Pristine", so I'll have to give a score of 9.

I've had several Behringer products for many years and never had any reason to complain.

Never needed them.

My only complaint about the Behringer compact stompies is the difficulty getting the battery out. I use wall warts anyway, so this is not a issue.

Compressors are difficult to rate because of the different expectations people have for a compressor. The more seasoned among you know that. Some like them set all maxxed out and they actually like the "snap" attack. At the other end of the scale, some people want the compressor to create sustain with NO indication that a compressor is in the line. Some people just use it as a limiter to smooth out the stream of picked notes in a run. I just don't see how one compressor can possibly satisfy everybody.

I use a compressor to improve sustain as much as possible without any obvious swelling or sagging of the signal.

My opinion is this: I've had compressors made by BOSS, Digitech, Ibanez, and one "legendary" Dyncomp, and this Behringer is as good as any of those.
I hope that helps explain what I mean.

Controls are standart. Same knobs every compressor pedal has. So it is easy if you know how compressors operate.

Tight and sweet. Pretty musical indeed. However noise becomes an issue if you push sustain a lot. But it still delivers enough compression and sustain before the unit starts making noise, so noise cannot be told to be a really big issue there. But it still could be better. May be the plastic is one reason for the noise. Chassis can be tricky with a plastic case.

I would give it 8 normally but at this price it deserves a 9.

Well it is plastic. And the battery replacement is so lame. There is a spring in the middle and you push the slots on both sides with something angular and the top cover gets separated from the unit. Then you replace the battery. And while doing it you always get the feeling that the cover will never fit in there again because it will tear into pieces.

Anyway use an adapter. :)

Never called them.

Well it does the job in a decent way. Has its own character which is pretty musical but still transparent to a degree. Delivers out a pleasing tone which you would not expect at that price. It is a good unit in terms of sound quality.

But with the plastic case, I would not feel comfortable stepping on it on the stage. Well compare... Metal and plastic. ;)

It's a simple pedal Level, Tone Attack and Sustain, very easy to use and intuitive

It's so bad, I'm using a Yamaha RBX372 and it's cuts all of the bass tone, the sound it's so flat and without that great low tones. The only thing that it does right is the sustain, but this sustain is a bit artificial so I don't like it much

For 29 euros what do you want?? A s*** of pedal and a horror for your sound

It's as easy as twisting a few knobs. Set the sustain knob to the compression level you want and the levels knob to the desired volume and you've got a good compression set. Though you have to watch the quality of the power supply (see below). The manual is simple, though it's all you need really.

With a clean tone, I can get lots of pop from the picking (a la Country Chickin' Pickin') or just a nice, smooth rock compression for a strong presence in a lead by backing off the sustain knob just a little. Keeping the attack knob dimed seems to make this quite a transparent pedal beyond the compression. If it's backed off, however, it will be very noticeable as the boosts will come in discrete steps.

However, as I said before, you have to watch the quality of your power input. If I use a cheaper DC power supply and turn the sustain past 12:00 or turn up the level knob past 9:00, I get lots of hiss. But if I use a battery, no hiss at all. Though you will still get some hiss if you turn up the level knob since that will just boost whatever hiss is present in the existing signal as you'd expect. I don't have Behringer's own power supply, so I can't say whether that would be good enough for this pedal.

It's made of plastic, feels like plastic, but looks like a Boss without the shine. I'm just a casual player, so I don't know how worthy it would be for professional use. But hey, it's cheap and easy to replace.

Haven't dealt with them. Hopefully won't have to. But their warranty seems reasonable enough.

It's a compression pedal that's not noisy (provided you do your part) and doesn't compromise your tone. I haven't used other compressors so can't really compare. If this were lost, stolen or broken, I'd probably not cry over it and just buy another. It's not a magic pedal that makes me play better, but this pedal does have one feature that I find quite valuable - it has me playing more often.

I like it better than Boss CS-3. I A/B'd and found the Boss to be dull - definitely lost some highs, for which the tone knob did a poor job of compensating. The behringer keeps the original guitar signal a lot better, and I like the range of the tone knob better. The CS100 does a good job on both subtle and unsubtle compression types for guitar. The ranges of the knobs are relatively narrow - I was originally a little put off by the fact that they limited the ranges of the knobs, but I understand why: to prevent against reviews and customer service calls from people with no sense. The ranges do span the whole useful range of the pedal, tho - you can get all the good sounds out of it.

This is just one compressor, and there are many. If you only had a little cash and you were choosing between this and saving for months to get a $250 boutique Ross clone that uses $15 worth of parts, I would either (1)get the behringer cs100, or (2)learn to operate a soldering iron and read a schematic and make your own Ross clone. If you are a session player or producer, buy this one to throw on the pile, because it has its own character; it has IMO the bizarre distinction of being better than the pedal it imitates.

it's pretty easy once you get a grip on the compression fundamentals. like another behringer single effect pedal i have, every knob does what it says, the trick here is to know exactly what you want from the unit. Manual is a single sheet and very self explanatory.

this review is about the compressor sustainer used on a bass. i own a shecter diamond series custom 4, with emg hz pickups -passive, of course - with an active eq unit. i run it either thru my old and great fender bxr100 amp or a gallien krueger head and cab (don't remember the model). It really makes them alive. Level is surprinsingly smooth, and even though extreme sustain will always cause a clik and a hiss, almost overdirving the sound, it's a great sound when properly set up. it works great for a bass cause it eliminates the "quanks" and gives body to the thiner strings - now a phrase in the upper frets with the thiner strings sound full, and even. it doesn't suck bass. Attack control, that i don't like. Seems to only add ugly clips n clicks. sustain is spectacularly distinct, you will hear your bass without braking your fingers. Ideal for bass tapping. TIP: DON'T PUT IT AFTER ANY DISTORTION. THE INTELLIGENT PEOPLE PUT THE COMPRESSOR BEFORE IT. OTHERWISE IT WILL TAKE YOUR OVERDRIVE ALL OVER THE PLACE IN THE BAD WAY! my behringer bass overdirve is a completely new stomp box.

my first behringer was the BOD100, bass overdrive, wich i love. I've been giiging with it A LOT and the plastic is not an issue. Somewhere today I read another review about this new behringer stuff, and said "why everyone is pissing on plastic? safety helmets and pipes are made of it!" He was absolutely right. So, when i got this little gem, i knew better. This pedals are sturdy and reliable. Trust them. Only issue must be the loose attack knob, but it seems to be desingned that way. Who knows why. German fellas, explain to us, please!!

never dealt with them. never needed to. They seem to be a really customer focused company, thou. if not, why put killer stomp boxes for real people pockets? if that's not loving the musicians, i don't know what is

I'll state here that I've been playing non stop for 15 years. I've been rip off my money one too many times, bewitched by the tradition of certain companies, and the weight of their name. Guess what, it's really painful to see that your expensive and "original" gear sucks big time, fails every year, and, most of all, that all other musicians don't believe that a boss thing can sound like crap. The eyes have never been good to hear. USE YOUR EARS!! that's why i don't buy Ibanez, that's why i lov behringer. End of story. Besides, they really tempt you with the prices. Finally someone understands that a metal casing and a fancy list of famous artists endorsing is not what a musician want's. We all want good sound, and low prices. Am I wrong? fantastic value. Solid 10

Very Very Easy

Sounds almost like a BOSS COmpressor that i used to have. However I do have a problem though with the 3rd knob, which is "ATTACK". Somehow I cannot seem to get any response from it. From Min to Max still sounds the same, it's as if it aint working. Got a friend who had CS100 before and he said his unit had the same problem, ie the ATTACK knob dont seem to work.

But overall the sound was pretty cool, compared to the ZOOM 3000 Digital Multi Effects that I have.

Made of Plastic, Looks and Feel like Metal. Should be alright I guess. Havent really dropped it or anything just yet.

Dealt with the Dealer here in Malaysia and he was pretty damn superb.

For the price I paid, it's a gem!

Anybody can figure it out in seconds.

If you like compression, you can dial in the sound you want with this pedal.

Plastic body but seems solid enough. Treat it right and it will probably treat you right.

I've been playing forever. Back in the early 80's, Boss CS-3 compressor pedals were going for about $129. I had one back then and loved it. Now you have all these amps with all this stuff built in so why would anybody want to pay that kind of money for one pedal? But still, when you're playing onstage, individual pedals are much easier to manage than those "multi effects" units or "modeling" amps. So, individual pedals... For what these Behringer pedals cost, buy 2 of each (keep one as a spare "just in case") for less than the Boss CS-3 will set you back and you're money ahead and covered to boot. Oh yeah, and apparently they're a pain to change batteries so just get a good fully-regulated 9V power supply for 'em and forget the batteries!