TC Electronic Vintage Compressor

its a pedal

Various basses ... Glockenklang Heart rock amp.

bought it for bass guitar.
i like it. little noise.live no problem.
Has a singing quality.

i like it more than the EBS Multicomp.
would buy it again.

Setup:
Yamaha NE1
TC Vintage Comp
TC Vintage Bass Distortion.
Sometimes Chorus.
Glockenklang Heart Rock.
Eden Cabs.

Versatile Setup.

I play bass for 25 years now.
Gigging twice a week.
i play from Dinnerjazz to Metallica.
All kinds of Music.
We have over 200 Songs in our Coverband.

This Setup delivers Top professional Highend Sounds for "ALL" Purposes.

You cant go wrong with one of the pieces above.
if you ever get the chance to buy the NE1 dont hesitate.

It's got three knobs to turn, so it should be easy. Anyway, it's not! The manual is small but pretty good in telling you what the Vintage Compressor does when you turn the knobs in this or that way. The rest is up to you.

Make sure, you know what for you need it, then reed how to get it and it should be easy. Although - if you never played with compression, you got to learn the right dynamic and when to use and when not!

That's the point. compression should only affect your dynamics, i.e. your guitars dynamics, not your tone. and therefor the TC shines really. All you could say is, it rounds up your tone. It's like a sharpening and softening a picture at the same time in the right places. That's what the VC does. Your Sound and tone stays the same, but still gets better, clearer, more present.
Of course you can do hard funky compression for pickings or super sustain, although it's still up to your playing. this isn't making up for bad fingerwork! but it smoothenes the edges as it's told.
AND - it's damn quiet. neber heard a more quieter compression.
Why it's called Vintage i can only guess - it's basic setup is like the old Compressors, but the sound is anything else than Vintage. It's very high-fi!

TC has a good name. i think you can rely on it. Great thing about it is, it is very light weight and still sturdy.

Again - TC is known for good quality. I also own a Nova Delay and mailed a question about it - received the answer in a day. That's good!

I think i had the same problem like many compressor users - to know, what i want to get from it. It sounds mad to pay good money for a product, you don't know if you need it, but are told in many ways that you should have! :-)
Mainly most great guitarists have at least one compressor in their effects-line, so there's got to be something...
This is not my first compressor. I had one in a Korg Multieffect, which was clearly audible, but everything else than subtle - too much for my taste. after this i suggested, i didn't need compression.
Then Line 6 came out with the Constrictor Pedal. A compressor for people who don't know what to do with compression - partly true, and quite good, but noisy and colours your tone.
Now TC. known for great quality, and it's pretty easy, kinda subtle and yet not.

Only small thing is - it could be a bit smaller. But sound is of course the thing, not space!

If you could get one rather cheap, buy it. If not, it's pretty expensive for an effect you maybe could live without!
It's not that expensive for what it is and does though!
Great quality!

This is a fairly easy compressor to use as they go, although compression is not the easiest effect for any novice to really understand and use appropriately - I have tried 'em all, and I find three knobs is quite enough for a compressor!

There is a drive control which sets the amount of compression, an attack time knob and an output level control. I don't want tone controls on a compressor so that is fine for me.

The LED is super bright so you will know when this baby is on.

I use an external DC supply (standard boss style) but there is a battery compartment underneath so swapping batteries does not require the usual screwdriver hunt.

The knobs are good - easy to see the setting and to use, unlike many cheaper pedals like boss with little mini controls.

This is a very transparent pedal indeed - it does not color the natural guitar sound. Very well behaved too, it is set up so that the 12 o'clock position on all the knobs is a good general settign rather than a pronounced 'squish' effect (not what I use compressors for - although many seem to).

I like the way the attack knob works, sometimes I wish I could dynamically change it while I am playing as it really makes an expressive difference to the way that notes articulate, but I haven't settled on one position yet.

The pedal is quiet and only introduces a low noise level at high compression settings - as good as any other I have tried.

Bypass does not affect the sound quality - I have a bypass looper box which I use to compare pedals completely bypassed and effect off but not bypassed - this one passes the simple test which is - I can't hear any difference whatsoever (some pedals I can unfortunately). So I am happy to use it in my chain, on or off.

Compression is matter of taste like any other effect but I know what I like - I have owned more compressor pedals than is healthy for a guitarist and this one is a keeper.

That all said, if you want people to know you are using a compressor, this may not be the one for you - if you want a dynacomp clone, this ain't it! However, if you want boutique clarity, impeccable dynamics and a very polished sound, it does the job better than most - I do not believe there is anything outide the boutique/high end market to touch this.

The pedal is well made in a rugged standard die cast box. I don't anticipate any problems. Looks well made inside and very tidy.

I have to say I don't know what is particulalry vintage about this pedal - it has a clarity and smoothness which I have not heard in a Ross or a Dynacomp (and I have owned good vintage examples of both) - perhaps modern would have been a better description!

I have played one other pedal which I must say bears more than a passing resemblance to the TC Electronic Vintage Compressor - a model from T-rex called the Compnova. I won't go as far as to say the are the same pedal but they sounded very similar indeed, they have the same sort of layout including battery cover, power access, jack positions, knob position etc - and they both come from Denmark... So I suspect either someone is copying someone or there is some shared technology going on there.

Anyway, the TC Electronic pedal has a beter LED in it and I reckon it is a smarter looking pedal, but if you like green compressors instead of black ones, you could check out the T-Rex...