Becos FX releases CompIQ Stella Pro Compressor MK2

March 7, 2024 · 2 sources

Becos FX announced the CompIQ Stella Pro Compressor MK2 on March 7, 2024, from Vienna, Austria, five years after the release of the original Stella Pro¹. The company describes the pedal as a full-featured compressor for bass, guitar or any electric instrument¹.

The MK2 removes the saturation engine on the dry line, a feature the maker says was intended to add controlled harmonic distortion, and adds Feed-Forward and Feed-Back selectable compression modes, four Voicing options and a refined dual-band Side-Chain Filter with cut or boost in the control signal¹. In Feed Forward mode, the maker says, the pedal uses a pre-VCA copy of the input signal and can provide subtle compression up to brick-wall limiting; Feed-Back mode uses a post-VCA copy for a smoother response¹. Voicing options are Flat, Spark, Tight and Punch, selectable by internal DIP switch, and can be turned off¹. The side-chain filter includes a variable Lo-cut/boost filter for bass at ±12dB at 90Hz, 12dB/octave, and a Hi-cut/boost filter at ±7dB at 3kHz, 12dB/octave¹.

The pedal retains the 4320 THAT Analog Engine with Burr-Brown signal conditioning, a true RMS-level detector and a Blackmer VCA, per the maker¹. Listed specifications include ratio from 1:1 to infinite:1 (limiter), threshold from -45dBu to +10dBu, make-up gain from -6dB to +20dB, a soft or hard knee, manual attack of 0.12 to 12 ms/dB of gain reduction and release of 1.2 to 120 ms/dB, fast or slower auto timing, an X-EQ with a 330Hz pivot for bass or 1kHz for guitar, a dry/wet mix and a 9-LED gain reduction meter¹. It runs on a 9V battery or a 9-18V DC external supply, center negative, and carries a 3-year transferable warranty; the maker says it is hand-assembled in Vienna¹.

The optional DITOS transformer-coupled balanced output DI is an add-on board that can be pre-installed or added later, and the maker says it fits in the 9V battery space inside the pedal²¹. It offers a 1/4-inch TRS balanced output for direct recording or signal sending, and can also serve as an unbalanced floating output to another pedal or amplifier¹.

The CompIQ Stella Pro Compressor MK2 has a list price of 279,00 €, or 325,00 € with the DITOS, excluding VAT, and is sold directly from Becos FX and through select retailers¹. It is an analog circuit with true bypass in a black powder-coated aluminum Hammond enclosure²¹.