Xotic SP Compressor
Not your average compressor.
A compressor is one of those pedals that you just turn on permanently to tighten up your sound. Some compressors, like the MXR Dyna Comp, have a very distinct sound and are effects in their own right. Not so with the SP Compressor. Xotic took a very utilitarian approach with this pedal.
In a nutshell, what a compressor does is lower the output when there is a spike in volume and boost the signal up when it suddenly drops. This evens out your playing dynamics and produces a smoother tone. In addition to the volume control, most compression pedals will also have compression, attack, and sustain knobs. Compression lets you control how much the signal will be attenuated. Attack lets you set how quickly the effect will be applied when there are changes in output volume (how much signal smoothing will take place). Sustain control how much a quiet signal is boosted. This has the effect of improving sustain, as notes will stay loud for longer. Volume is useful because applying attack and sustain can change your overall volume, so you can bring it back up or down.
Xotic have decided to steer off the beaten path and came up with something truly unique! The SP Compressor ditches the attack and sustain knobs and uses a 3-way toggle switch for setting the amount of compression. You still get a volume control, as well as an additional “blend” knob. The volume control offers up to 15dB of boost, letting you use the SP to push your amp. This works especially well if you are getting your overdrive sound from your amplifier.
The blend knob controls the blend of your original signal and the compressed sound. This is a very clever and unique feature. It serves a similar purpose to the attack and release knobs in that it affects how much your tone is compressed. The big difference here is that some of your signal will retain your playing dynamics! Turning the blend way down will leave your tone mostly intact, just adding a tiny bit of barely noticeable “smoothing”.
The 3-way compression toggle is tuned very well and you are unlikely to want more fine-tuning. At the highest setting you will get a very smooth tone, but not so much that your guitar loses its character. In contrast, maxing out the knobs on a Boss CS-1 will make your guitar sound very sterile. The low compression setting is also very pleasing, albeit more subtle.
Internal dip switches can also be accessed by removing the back cover. These let you control the attack and release parameters, as well as high and low-cut filters. Generally, the default settings will sound best in most cases and have a lower noise floor. Still, it would have been nice if these were more easily accessible, especially if you regularly use different guitars with different pickup types.
The SP Compressor will sound great in almost any setting. Keep the compression on medium or low for clean playing and set it to high for solos and distorted tones. It has a very smooth sound and can be used as an always-on effect in most cases. You can also run the pedal at 18V, instead of 9V. It is supposed to keep the pedal more transparent, but I did not hear much of a difference.
The build quality is what you would expect from Xotic. The pedal is very robust, all the controls are smooth to operate and designed with the user experience in mind. Another interesting feature of this pedal is that, despite the small footprint, you can use a 9V battery with it. Neat!
Bottom Line
The SP Compressor is on the pricier side, but in this instance you get what you pay for. The sound quality is a step above many other compression pedals. It is very easy to dial in a great tone and the small footprint ensures you will find space for it on your board. I just wish the internal dip switches were more easily accessible, as I find myself using different settings with different guitars.