Guitar Pedal X names the CompIQ MINI among the 9 Mini Pedals State of the Art Smart Engineering

The CompIQ MINI Pro Compressor pedal has attracted a lot of media attention since its appearance in early 2018. Now, the specialty blog Guitar Pedal X writes about several mini pedals from builders around the world which “are ambassadors for the very best of the current Mini Pedals State of the Art in terms of engineering innovation and quality”, among which the CompIQ MINI. Stefan Karlsson – the author of the article – continues:

I’ve been long impressed with newish Romanian brand Becos FX, and as mentioned – covered off their original 13 Controls! compact format CompIQ Stella Pro Compressor in this site’s Edits section along with some early minis. This brand needs to be revered as much as Origin Effects and Keeley are in the Compressor sector – not enough players know about this best kept trade secret.

On this occasion we feature the smaller sibling – Mini Pro Compressor CompIQ which only has 6 controls compared to its older/larger sibling and in its latest iteration features the Mix/Blend control on the face rather than side of the pedal. Besides the essential Mix knob we have 3 further knobs – Ratio, Threshold and Gain, and then Soft/Hard Knee toggle-switch and Fast/Slow Timing (Attack & Release) toggle switch. We also get a colourful 5-segment LED Meter to show degree of compression.

I have a fare amount of history with Mini Compressors – starting with the Xotic SP Compressor, then Alchemy Audio Modded Xotic SP, and finally a Wampler Ego Mini before I moved up to the really clever footswitchable presets of Jackson Audio’s Bloom Compressor + EQ + Blooming Boost pedal.

Often in my pedal roundups I talk about the Jackson Audio Bloom, DryBell Unit67 Compressor + EQ + Boost, Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Deluxe and ThorpyFX Fat General – I also need to get used to mentioning the Becos CompIQ’s in the same breath.

While the Jackson Audio Bloom and DryBell Unity 67 are somewhat slightly different hybrid units, probably in the straight-up Pro Compressor stakes – the one to beat nowadays is the CompIQ STELLA Pro Compressor and the Mini iteration for more specialist applications.

I really like both those pedals and will likely acquire both eventually for different purposes, although I don’t think anything is replacing my Bloom for now as I use all it’s 3 functions far too regularly.

We are really honored for being included in this review. Thank you!

Read the entire article here.