If you like the SSM2166...

[Mark Hammer]

I see Banggood is offering an SSM2167 board for peanuts:  https://www.banggood.com/SSM2167-Microphone-Preamplifier-Board-Low-Noise-COMP-Compression-Module-DC-3V-5V-p-1900062.html?currency=USD&utm_source=criteo&utm_medium=cpc_brand&utm_content=all&utm_campaign=cs-electronics-am-en&cur_warehouse=CN

From looking at the datasheet and the board, it appears the board simply follows the "typical application circuit" shown in figure 15 of the datasheet, and provides pads one can simply jumper to use the resistance values provided on-board, or connect to pots for variable control, similar to Jack's SSM2166-based Q&D Compressor.  Given how hard the 2166 chip itself is to come by, and how awkward it is for some of us to work with SMD chips, this provides a very usable headstart to a very decent and quiet compressor.

[Mark Hammer]

The boards arrived on my doorstep this morning.  You wanna talk small?  How's THIS for small?  All I need to do to make a high-quality compressor/limiter/noise-reducer is connect power and pots to the pads provided.  The squash has been squished.  I included my hand to give some sense of size, but the boards look a little bigger in the picture than they really are.

[Kevin Mitchell]

Nice!
Are you aware of the Sound Semiconductor/SSI catalog?
I wonder if we'll see more parts to use in pedals in the years to come.

[Mark Hammer]

Thanks for that, Kevin.  No, I was not aware of them at all.  I gather that Behringer is likely to become one of their primary customers, given the resurgence of interest in SSM and CEM-based analog synths from the '80s.  I still have a quintet of unused SSM2040 chips I bought in 1981 or so.  They were 5 for $10 at the time, in 1981 dollars.

[Kevin Mitchell]

No way!
Funny enough I have a project on the backburner and wanted to see about adding options to use SSM2040 or CEM3320 on a synth voice board.
An example of this has been done in the recent Prophet 5 rev 4 synth where they've included both to replicate Rev 1/2 & 3's filter. New SSM2040 chips are out there!

[ElectricDruid]

Thanks for that, Kevin.  No, I was not aware of them at all.  I gather that Behringer is likely to become one of their primary customers, given the resurgence of interest in SSM and CEM-based analog synths from the '80s.

Behringer have their own Coolaudio clones for most of their stuff, so I dunno whether they'd bother. Maybe. Mostly they seem to keep it "in house" to keep the price down.
What's definitely true is that some of the SSI stuff is really amazing - the sort of thing 1980's synth designers would have killed for! The SSI2130 VCO produces a ton of waveforms and includes a CV-controlled mixer into the bargain. Plus the fact that now we have powerful processors to control all this stuff instead of a Z80 at 4MHz. We're in clover!!

I still have a quintet of unused SSM2040 chips I bought in 1981 or so.  They were 5 for $10 at the time, in 1981 dollars.

Lol, amazing. I still have a SSM2047 that I bought from Maplin, but aside from trying it out on the breadboard, I never did anything with it. That project has been back-burnered for probably thirty years now. One day it might get finished!