REVIEW > RIVERA
RIVERA
SUSTAIN SHAMAN
COMPRESSOR
BY CHARLES SAUFLEY
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at premierguitar.com/may2012
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Considering how profoundly a compres- sor can affect guitar tone—indeed a
guitarist’s very approach to playing—it’s
a wonder these devices so often fall into
disuse. Then again, ask most guitarists to
describe how a compressor works and you’re
likely to get a litany of abstractions about
squish, squeeze, and missing tone. On top
of that, the benefit to your sound can be
elusive. A fuzz? You can describe that sound
with any number of song citations or signature tones. A compressor? Not so much.
Even when the effects of a compressor
are clearly audible they can do more harm
than good if you haven’t done your tinkering and homework. And the truth is that
the best sounding compression you hear on
record is probably courtesy of some legendary vintage rack module worth more than
your entire freaking rig.
This convergence of forces says a lot
about why the compressor is a pedalboard
tool of untapped potential. It also explains
much about why the Rivera Sustain Shaman,
with its 2-channel compressor power, tone
shaping tools, and Super Sustain function is
so remarkable: It’s dynamic, highly tailorable,
offers colors from subtle to strong, and has
more than a few tricks up its sleeve.
Burly Build, Secret Sauce
Rivera’s Sustain Shaman is a sturdy stompbox built with the realities of frequent gigging in mind. The knobs are arranged in
recessed area to prevent accidental activation,
and the potentiometers have a taut resistance
that keeps you from shifting settings with an
errant boot. That latter aspect of the Sustain
Shaman’s design is especially important,
given the interactivity between the controls
and how critical small adjustments can be.
The heart of the Sustain Shaman is a
2-channel compressor, and each channel has
its own familiar-enough controls for attack
and sustain. The two channels also share an
effect level control. Unlike a lot of compres-
sors, however, the Sustain Shaman has tone
and effect blend controls that work for both
channels, and they’re some of the real keys
to the Sustain Shaman working as effec-
tively as it does in so many situations.
Effect blend control
Tone control
Super Sustain
function
Sustain Supreme
While it’s a fairly complex stompbox, it’s
easy to get down to business with the
Sustain Shaman. Where a lot of budget
compressors will seem to add little more
than noise and blunted attack and high
end, it’s almost impossible to get a lousy
sound from the Sustain Shaman.
The attack and sustain controls for each
channel are responsive and have a perceptible range. The attack control—this adjusts
the speed at which the compressor turns
down signals hotter than the threshold—is
the subtlest. At slow speeds, pick attack and
high end tones will sound blunted, but you
can also get a cool backwards-tape-like suction, depending on how aggressively you
set the sustain and effect levels. At lower
effect levels, the range of the attack control
becomes a lot less perceptible.
The sustain control has the most obvious
influence on your tone and playing, and is
more perceptible at lower effect levels. But
with the effect level at a 50-percent split
between dry and wet, it’s easy to hear how
much range and tone-shaping power it has.
2-channel
compression
with dedicated
attack and sustain controls
premierguitar.com
PREMIER GUITAR JUNE 2012 175
