Looking for Compressor Suggestions

[stringfellow_Hawke]

I've never owned or played though a compressor, so I'm considering building one next. I found a vero layout for the Philosopher's Tone over at FSB and I'm leaning towards that one, but I thought I'd look to the peanut gallery for suggestions before I make my decision. So, what's your favorite compressor and why?

[GoranP]

First of all let me just throw in a disclaimer that I'm not good enough a player (or have a bum ear for these things) to warrant a quality compressor nor can I discern sound quality nuances of various units.

Having said that, I've built this one just to have a compressor in my stable. A friend borrowed it and I never got it back. I don't actually know why, I can only observe my current lack of it.

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/03/demeter-compulator.html

[induction]

It depends a lot on what you want it for.
 
- Orange Squeezer: retains the pick attack, so they sound clicky, which is great for chicken picking, but won't give you a super-squashed Chili Peppers sound or a metal solo sound.

- Dynacomp: for either of the above sounds. lots of country players also use it for chicken picking.  apparently noisy as hell (I don't have one, so I can't say for sure).  The Engineer's Thumb allegedly can get you the same sounds with much less noise.

- optical: cheap compressor/hollis flatline/etc.  Great for volume leveling on clean settings to bring out the subtlety of your playing.  My cheap compressor has much more squish at high settings than I expected.

This list is far from comprehensive.

I personally use compressors in three ways: volume leveling clean (chicken picking/strumming/finger picking/etc.), volume leveling post-dirt (so you can roll back your volume knob for clean tones without getting too quiet), and boosting pre-dirt (to put your solos into the sweet spot of your dirt boxes).  I can use the cheap compressor for all of these, but it's nice to have dedicated boxes for each function so you don't have to change the settings all the time.

The thing is, you really have to play through them to see what their strengths and weaknesses are and whether they'll get you where you want to go.  The practical effect and feel of a specific compressor can be difficult to put into words.  I would say just build one and see if you like it.  It will invariably have shortcomings, so you can build another one to fill in the gaps.  Soon you'll end up with 5 or more different types.  I've built an orange squeezer and a cheap compressor.  The Engineer's Thumb and the Philosopher's Tone are both on my to do list.

[GoranP]

Wow Henry that's some great info!

I guess I'll need to look into some more compressors and figure them out.

[stringfellow_Hawke]

Cool man, thanks for the in depth reply! I honestly hadn't even considered a compressor until I saw the Philosopher's tone thread, so I don't know what I would want out of one. My compressor knowledge increased by approximately 1,000% just reading your post, which is pretty awesome!

I might just start with the Really Simple Transistor compressor, since I have all the components on hand and will probably have time to build it tomorrow night. I'll be out of town for a couple of weeks, so I'll probably put a few orders in and get what I need to build a few others. That way they'll be waiting for me when I get back.

Keep those suggestions coming fellas! I'm still more or less a blank sheet of paper here!


-Ian

[johnk]

I built all of these on vero boards.
they are all very nice but my favorite is the diamond comp, followed by the Keeley, the pigtronix philosoher's twin ge, the and the emma transmorgrifier  (in no particular order).

[HeliosPAF]

Hi Jhonk, I know this is an old thread but where do you get or can share please the philosopher's twin layout?

[johnk]

i'm sorry but it's been so long i can't seem to find the layout or the schematic on my computer.

[fx-fidden]

After some research...
Schematic: http://guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com/Pigtronix-Philosopher-s-Tone-td11681.html

Layout: http://guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com/PIGTRONIX-PHILOSOPHER-VTL5C6-td45218.html
(https://www.sabrotone.com/pigtronix-philosophers-tone/)

I can't find any other layout. But that one, though I never built it, I think it's ok.
The only issue that this circuit could have seems to be a lack of boost.

[HeliosPAF]

Ok np... thanks anyway

[HeliosPAF]

thanks, I found that Harold layout too but I was looking for the twin germanium version.