Re: Really Cheap Compressor. New with LDR + compression led indicator
Posted by
induction on
Feb 19, 2018; 8:45pm
URL: http://guitar-fx-layouts.238.s1.nabble.com/Really-Cheap-Compressor-New-with-LDR-compression-led-indicator-tp40758p41809.html
nonost wrote
I tried a couple of bright green leds and it distorted and sounded awful. Even if both leds were pointing in the opposite directions to the LDR, it sounded bad. Then I swap the bright green led close to the LDR for a common green led and the result was the same. So I think I can say that you should take into account both leds, even if you use one of them as led indicator. At last I put two green leds and they are settled in.
I got some nasty distortion on mine, and found that it was coming from the ldr, not the led. I swapped the ldr out with one I got from Radio Shack, and it worked great. That may or may not be the case for you, but it's worth looking into. If you want to test it before buying a new ldr, maybe replace the existing ldr with a fixed resistor and see if you still get distortion from the leds.
Ha! That's my layout.
I didn't bother heatshrinking my led/ldr and it works great. Bear in mind, though, if you use a status led (either for on/off or for compression indication) and you don't heatshrink the led/ldr, you should make sure that the back of the indicator led isn't leaking light into the enclosure or it will screw up the compression.