Do you find compressor pedals boring? The Chase Bliss Clean compressor pedal defies this conventional perception by offering a rich tapestry of features that go beyond the typical compressor’s capabilities. Clean is anything but boring. I've spent many hours with this pedal and feel like I'm still discovering its nuances. Sure, it's a compressor, but it is so much more than that.
Cutting to the chase, the Chase Bliss Clean is a perfect addition to the creative minded pedalboard. If you are the type of guitarist or bassist who might not "need" a compressor, this one might change your mind. As a compressor, it can certainly be practical but then you start playing with the dip switches and twisting knobs and you're down the rabbit trail of sonic textures including modulation, envelope manipulation, tremolo, swell, and overdrive. First and foremost, as a compressor the Chase Bliss Clean is excellent with guitar and bass. It is a VCA style compressor, all analog signal path, and you've got all of the staple controls that makes for a versatile device. On the face of the pedal are six dials, four switches, three LEDs, and two footswitches. That's a lot. Let's start by looking at the Clean as just a compressor. By the end of this review, you'll realize Clean is so much more than just a compressor though. The Attack dial controls how fast the compressor activates or clamps down on the notes you play. Rotating the dial more clockwise slows the attack allowing more transients through. The fastest attack time with Clean is .5ms which is not as fast as many other compression devices on the market. Therefore, it is possible to get some duck and swell effect with very high compression ratios.
The dial labeled Dynamics sets the amount of compression. As you rotate the dial clockwise you will gradually rotate through various zones of compression. Between fully counterclockwise and noon on the dial is typical compression with a ratio range of 1:1 - ∞:1. Between noon and 3:00 on the dial is full on limiter territory with more of a feedback style limiter and transitioning to a feedforward style limiter closer to 3:00. It is beyond the scope of this review to define differences between feedforward/feedback compression. A quick Google search or ChatGPT inquiry will give you plenty of info. Rotating the dial past 3:00 moves you into full on sag territory which reminds me of tubes in a state of overload. It gets really quirky as your signal falls out and sputters are you hit the compression hard. I find the sag setting more useful with guitar than bass guitar because I feel the sag reacts better with higher frequencies than the lows of a bass guitar. See the official Chase Bliss Clean manual for precise positions of the Dynamics knob that coordinate with standard compressor ratios. A great place to start is about 10:00 for an approximate 4:1 ratio.
Clean is very sensitive to input sensitivity so dialing in the Sensitivity control is critical. One way to look at the Sensitivity control is to think of it like a threshold control on other compressors. The more you rotate the dial clockwise, the lower the threshold at which the compression engine reacts to the incoming signal. However, with Clean, the Sensitivity control becomes critically important with other aspects of the device outside of the compression engine too. The leftmost LED on the face of the pedal is there to help you see how much compression is being applied. The brighter the LED, the more compression. Watch this LED closely as you adjust the Sensitivity control. Single LEDs like this are not as precise or useful as multi-LED presentations from the likes of Becos, Darkglass, Origin Cali76, or Empress, for example. But it is better than nothing and the LED execution on Clean is helpful and fairly precise.
Compression release is handled by a 3-way toggle switch. Flipped to the left, release is set to its fastest setting, 50ms. Flipped to the right, release is set to its slowest setting, 1.5 seconds. In the centermost position, the release timing is user adjustable. Hold down both footswitches for a couple of seconds and the pedal is placed into hidden options mode which is identified with both left and right LEDs illuminating green. Once in hidden options mode, rotate the Attack dial left or right to personalize the release timing. All the way counterclockwise is 50ms and all the way clockwise is 650ms. Use it to set a release time somewhere between the defined fast (switch all the way left) and slow (switch all the way right). Nice! Press either of the footswitches again to exit hidden options mode. The dial labeled Wet controls the loudness of the processed (compressed) signal. There is plenty of boost available. The dial labeled Dry controls the loudness of the unprocessed signal. Like the Wet control, there is plenty of boost available. Bring in more of your uncompressed signal by rotating the Dry dial more clockwise. This is called parallel compression and can be very useful when dialing more extreme compression settings to retain some of original articulation and dynamics. Clean also includes an EQ control. This is something we are seeing in more compressors these days and can be a great way to quickly tweak your tone and help make dialing in an ideal tone when using a compressor with multiple instruments. However, Clean offers a more creative approach to the EQ design. Use the 3-way toggle switch labeled Mode to select different EQ modes. With the switch in the middle position the EQ is a classic fixed style. Rotating the EQ dial more counterclockwise sweeps away highs and rotating more clockwise removes lows in a tilt style EQ.
Flipping the switch to the left is called "Shifty" and the EQ shifts while you play. Whenever your input signal passes the Sensitivity threshold the EQ will move away from the setting of the EQ knob and towards full frequency. When you stop playing it will shift back to the knob setting. The speed of the sweep is set by the Attack and Release controls. Flipping the switch to the right creates a modulation effect as you play. The EQ knob selects the center point that will be modulated around, and the Attack knob sets the speed. The motion will smoothly fade away when you stop playing.
Both are trippy and you need to experience it for yourself to really understand it and feel the vibe.
As a typical compressor, most people are going to leave the switch in the center position to benefit from the tilt style EQ. It is especially useful for guitar. With bass, rotating to the right gets pretty brittle sounding quickly. Rotating to the left just a little adds some bottom end, but too much and it gets undefined sounding quickly. Still useful though. Clean is technically a 2-stage compressor meaning the first stage is your typical shape-shifting compressor using the various controls identified above. Stage two is a variable limiter. While the first stage is more relaxed and flexible, the second stage is an always active limiter in the sense that you never actually control it. It simply reads the settings of the primary compressor (that you've dialed in) and follows behind, catching and transients and peaks that get by the first stage. Whatever is going on in that "black box" approach seems to work. Finally, Clean offers what Chase Bliss calls an Envelope Balance which is accessed from the hidden options. Think of it like a high pass filter function found in the sidechain circuit of some compressor designs these days. This envelope balance feature lets you filter out low frequencies from the audio being used to control Clean’s dynamic response. You can use this to make Clean more sensitive to the upper register of your instrument instead of allowing the energy of the low frequencies to trigger compression. Or go even further and ignore bass sounds (e.g. a kick drum or a B string on a 5-string bass) while still responding to higher frequency sounds (e.g. a snare drum or the higher strings on a bass guitar). It is important to understand that this feature is only filtering the input control signals, not the frequencies being compressed themselves. You won't hear the audio filtering. I find this helpful with 5-string bass guitars where you might not want the lowest lows choking the compression engine.
Let's pause here and reflect on how the compression engine sounds. I was impressed when using the Chase Bliss Clean with guitar and various basses (passive and active).
No matter what I threw at the Clean, the compression was natural feeling and easy to dial in.
It sounds great with bass. It handles a low B with easy and doesn't choke the low end at all. In fact, you can dial it in such that the low end can feel huge and punchy. There is a nice weight to the tone, and you can feel the compression as much as hear it. What I mean is that you can easily dial in the Clean to make it feel like you're playing becomes more effortless and quicker. In my opinion, this is a sign of a good compressor. To my ear, the compressor isn't completely transparent sounding. In some ways it reminds me of how the Origin Effects Cali76 compressors respond and sound. It also has some added presence and fullness that reminds me of the likes of the Diamond compressors.
If you are the type that likes to dial in a compressor to not get in the way and evens out your playing but also appreciate a bit of extra "umph", I suspect you will like the Clean.
In my opinion, this is a compressor that sounds very good. It's one of those compressors that put a smile on my face with any instrument I played through it. This is not always the case. Sometimes a compressor sounds great with guitar and not bass. Other times a compressor sounds great with a passive bass but is overwhelmed by a higher output bass with onboard preamp. There seems to be plenty of headroom with Clean and no real distortion or artifacts that I noticed. Just nice, rich, big, full, smoothed out goodness with a bit of extra spice in the mids. I didn't want to turn it off. It isn't exactly transparent sounding, but not overly colored either. Chase Bliss Clean is extremely quiet, even when the Wet and Dry controls are gained up. It seamlessly handled any instrument I threw at it, so headroom is not an issue in my experience. Frankly, there is a ton of compression available in this thing. You've got a huge range of ratio. You've got the ability to dial Clean in to be an excellent limiting device. Whether you care for the sag sound or not is one of preference, but it is another form of compression not offered in other devices. Clean can be a subtle as you want and as squished and heavy handed as anybody could possibly desire.
It is a surprisingly versatile compressor. It can definitely serve as an all-out limiter if that's what you need.
Here's the thing. You could stop there, and you'd have a sweet compressor. But the Chase Bliss Clean has a lot more tricks up its sleeve. Whether these tricks are useful for you is, well, something you have to decide for yourself and consider whether it is worth the price of admission. With that out of the way, if you are a creative guitarist in particular, I think a pedal like this will let your creativity bloom. It can be downright addicting. Maybe even magical. I know many will find it inspiring. Others, probably not so much and I suspect some will consider much of the following as somewhat gimmicky.
It's as if Clean is several pedals in one offering a creative canvas to work with. We've talked about the compression aspects but Clean is also an EQ/vibe modulation device. Then you have the physics modulation ability. It can serve as a marvelous swell modulator. Clean is a stereo design and offers stereo spread type modulation. Lastly, it can be a rather satisfying dirt pedal. Clean comes with a thorough full-color manual and you really need to review it in detail. It's beyond the scope of this review to cover all of the minutia of functionality baked into this thing. You really need to explore it all for yourself. How everything interacts is impressive and hearing for yourself is important to grasp the complete persona here. Here are some high-level thoughts though because this pedal is a lot of fun. Use the 3-way toggle switch labeled Physics to experience fluttering sag. The degree of the amount of sag is directly proportionate to the intensity of how the Dynamics dial is set. More sag as you rotate the Dynamics dial clockwise. Flipping the switch to the left delivers a subtle wobbly movement. In the middle position delivers a normal, stable movement. Flipping the switch to the right delivers a highly twitchy, unstable movement. The Physics functionality is highly impacted by the Sensitivity knob. OK, I'll admit. This is a lot of fun.
Use the left footswitch on the face of the pedal labeled Aux to engage a swell effect. There are two Swell Modes: Dynamic (default) and Manual. The swell effects are momentary by default, but this can be changed using the latch dip switch located on the top of the pedal. By default, holding the left footswitch will engage momentary swells. Alternatively, you can engage the Latch dipswitch which allows you to press the footswitch to engage swell mode. When you play something over the Sensitivity threshold your sound will swell in and then as your sound gets softer it swells back out. This too is a lot of fun. Clean can receive stereo input and also send stereo output. It can also serve as stereo splitter. Use the dip switch labeled Miso on the front of the pedal and your mono guitar signal will output in stereo via the TRS output jack. You might be surprised to learn that a pedal named Clean would have a dirt mode for some tasty not-so-clean tones. Especially with guitar, the dirt mode produces very nice overdrive. To engage the overdrive circuit, flip on the dipswitch labeled Dusty. Once activated it turns Clean's second stage limiter into a clipping circuit. Because it is the limiter doing the clipping the interactivity between the Sensitivity, Wet, and Dry controls are critically important to pay attention to. It is definitely a little tricky to get dialed in. Maybe better said, I found it took time to realize how to find the right balance. Use your ear and play around until you've found the sweet spot. The dirty tone is very nice though. We haven't yet talked about the preset feature available but now is a good time to bring it up because I can see where users will want to set a preset with the Dusty setting. Use the 3-way toggle switch located between the two footswitches to store a preset. The middle position is the live current settings. To save a preset into the right slot, hold the right footswitch for 3 seconds, then add the left footswitch for 3 seconds. Do the same for the left slot but start by holding down the left foot switch. The middle LED will blink to indicate success. There is a way to reset everything back to default. To reset all the Hidden Options to their default setting, flip the preset toggle to the left position and back to center three times. Once you see the blinking lights, press both footswitches to confirm.
Clean has a built-in noise gate feature. Flip on the Noise Gate dipswitch to activate a noise gate that will mute the input when you’re not playing. This allows you to filter out hum and other noise that gets amplified through the compression process. A hidden option under the Sensitivity knob sets the gate’s threshold, and another under the Dynamics knob sets its release time. Switch on the Motion dipswitch to modulate the amount of compression being applied. Use the Dynamics knob to set the depth of the modulation. The Attack knob will set the rate. The motion will only occur while you are playing and gently fade out when your input signal goes below the sensitivity threshold. Pretty cool. Whew, that's a lot. But yes, there's more. Activate the Sidechain dipswitch and the compression circuit will follow the signal of whatever is plugged into the 1/8" sidechain input on the side of the pedal. Doing so allows you to use an external signal to trigger the compression such as syncing to drums. Then there is something called Ramping. I'm not sure this functionality is going to be one of the wider used features but it's worth noting that Clean offers the ability to automate Clean's knobs. Either as a one-time movement (ramp) or continuous motion (bounce). By way of example, activate the Bounce dipswitch and then select which knob(s) you wish to control, choose the sweep and then set the ramp using the Sensitivity control. The position of the knob you’re controlling is important, because it either sets the maximum or minimum point of the range (depending on the SWEEP setting). Chase Bliss has a document on their website that will really help. See the Dip Switch 101 document. This is one of the features of Clean that you really need to experience for yourself to fully grasp.
The combination of an impressive array of EQ control, dirt, and stellar compression as a tonal foundation all baked into one small pedal is crazy cool.
Not to mention all of the other modulation and physics effects. Add in a noise gate and external side chain and it doesn't take long to realize how much the Chase Bliss Clean has to offer. Might even make the cost of entry seem like quite the value. This thing is impressive in how much it has to offer. The Chase Bliss Clean is also compatible with MIDI, CV, expression, and external footswitch. CV range = 0-5V. Important: higher voltage or any negative voltage could damage the pedal.
If you are the creative type or the kind of musician never satisfied with the norm and status quo, you owe it to yourself to give the Chase Bliss Clean a try. While it isn't exactly inexpensive, it offers a lot of functionality (and fun) crammed into a little box. There is really nothing else like it on the market.
I love the creative spirit at Chase Bliss and the Clean is an example of how to reimagine something like a compressor which can often seem ubiquitous today.
Chase Bliss describes their creation as "a brand new exploration of how far a compressor can go." I say nice job with this one! For me, I'll be using Clean mostly as a plain old compressor. And I think that's OK because it really is an excellent compressor. I really did not know what to expect with this one. Would it be just a ton of half-baked tones crammed into a little box? Would it be simply an average compressor with a whole lot of modulation and quirky stuff thrown into the mix? No, all of it is executed well. Even if you don't have use for all Clean has to offer (or maybe even think much of it is unnecessary) it won't take long to appreciate what is there. And it is a lot of fun experimenting.
This is easily the most fun I've had with a compressor. There truly is nothing else like it.
If you’re not fond of adjusting settings and experimenting, Clean might not be for you. However, if you thrive on trial and error and enjoy pushing the limits, Clean is definitely worth exploring.
Clean offers a canvas where each user’s experience can lead to uniquely different creations. Rather than delving into specifics, the essence of Clean lies in its ability to inspire creativity. It’s designed for artists who want to break conventional rules and craft something musically imaginative and original.
The true value of Clean is in the journey of discovery and the personal touch each artist brings to their music.
Clean requires a 9V DC, center negative power supply with at least 300 mA of current. Input and output jacks and power input are side mounted. All of the dials turn with nice resistance and a precision feel. Everything about the Chase Bliss Clean oozes quality.
In summary, as a compressor, Clean sounds fantastic. It is versatile, warm, full, punchy, and handles the low end of bass guitar incredibly well. And here's the thing. You could use it as just a traditional compressor and you'd have a fine compressor on your pedalboard. I've been enjoying it as just a compressor for several weeks now. But then it is also so much more. I’m fascinated by how much Chase Bliss fit into one pedal enclosure and managed to make every feature not feel like an afterthought.
This might be a pedal that is not so much about whether you need it but more about whether you will enjoy it.
If your interest is piqued, my guess is you will enjoy it. I know I have. Pros: • A whole lot of fun • Amazing amount of functionality crammed into a small pedal • Versatility • Excellent tonal canvas to create amazing tones • Warm, full bodied, punchy compressor tone • Great compressor for bass and guitar • Quiet • Extremely unique product in a crowded market
Cons:
• Not for the faint of heart
• Price
• You've got to want to spend time experimenting
• Not always all that intuitive
Retail price: $399
ChaseBliss.com