Review: Aphex Punch Factory Compressor Pedal

Andrea reviews the Aphex Punch Factory Optical Compressor pedal for guitar and bass...


The Rev throws stuff at me so last minute sometimes that I really have no idea what to do. Thankfully, this week, it was this pedal. Because it's not only simple, but badass. So it made this review pretty easy.

I've mentioned that we're giving away this pedal in conjuction with the MSI Hitlist show on Wednesday, July 11th (tomorrow), so what you need to know about that is that to qualify for gear through that show, you have to submit your music for review to the MSI weekly song review show. So get over there. Submit. Get career changing feedback by some top audio and songwriting pros. If you win, you get to go to Hitlist and possibly win a cool piece of gear and a featured spot here on Live2Play. What you waiting for? Go there.

And now...for the review pieces. I've broken this out into pieces for easy viewing. Part 1: Features, Part 2: Bass demo, Part 3: Guitar Demo; and Part 4: Final Summary. And I've also included a little video on what makes an optical compressor special. So...watch away, and don't hesitate to throw your comments up over at Youtube. We do our best to answer those over there.


Since I'm putting this together REALLY last minute - for more detailed spec info on this pedal, please go over to the Aphex Punch Factor page. Let's face it - you don't really want to read about it anyway - do you? ;)

Oh - just one last thing. It can be really hard via video to get how a pedal sounds across online. Sometimes you can't hear it and sometimes the camera mic feeds back. In a perfect world we could simultaneously record these and sync them up afterwards, but by the time this gets compressed over at Youtube, there's no telling what you'll hear. As always - do your homework. Try to hear it live if you can. And if you can't, make sure you can return it to your retailer. If this pedal isn't for you, chances are you'll only have determined that by hearing it live. So cover yourself on that and use our reviews as a simple guide to start figuring out whether this pedal is for you or not.


Online price: $199

Pros: Solidly built, high-end optical compressor that can be used on bass or guitar, wicked cool XLR out with phantom power, ground lift switch, easy to use, super clean and transparent

Cons: A little spendy for just one pedal in your rig, differences can be subtle depending on your rig and axe


And away we go...