I'm using the Ashly that I use now, and I would be using the channels of the Alesis if I went with it, as a limiter rather than a compressor. I like a wide uncompressed dynamic range. The Ashly is just there to protect the speakers from a spike. Past experience has shown this to be a good idea as I have a rather wide dynamic range of techniques, and in the past there have been times I've heard the speakers pop when I've been playing aggressively. The Ashly also serves as the last gain control before the Elf to get the level of signal going to the power amp where I want it to be to drive the speakers safely and efficiently. The idea of a second limiter in the chain has come up recently as every once in a while I'm getting a high frequency pop in my signal when I've been playing rather aggressively. It appears that I may be overdriving my rather sensitive effects unit. I have reduced the trim pots on my bass, and that seems to be helping. However, I'm going to be having my preamp looked at for a problem that may or may not be related, so I probably won't do anything else until I get the preamp back. If I decide that reducing the trim pots on the bass solves the problem, then I might just go with that. However, as I write this and think through it, I'm now wondering if reducing the output of the bass reduces the degree to which I'm driving the preamp tubes. Might have to think about that for a while.
