compressor Vactrol choice?

[yano]

I'm gearing up to order parts to build ESP's guitar/bass compressor/sustain effect.
http://sound.westhost.com/project92.htm

I'm thinking it would be cool to use a Vactrol. From what I've read, the VTL5 series is probably my best bet, with small bear recommending the VTL5C2, though the C1 and C3 look like they could be useful too.

I was wondering if any one had experience using Vactrols for compressors, what they would recommend, and maybe if anyone has built this project before?

[MR COFFEE]

E. Manley told me she and her chief engineer did an audition of every vactrol model and found the '2 the best sounding. I've played around with the '1, '2, '4, and '9, and I concur.

You might want to try something more sophisticated than the Elliot circuit if you're running bass through it and you want very low distortion. A sidechain with a little filtering would help keep the distortion down in the low bass range - although you may like it just fine with a smidgen of distortion. We're not talking overdrive here. The distortion won't be real pronounced.

Try different values of resistance in series with the LED (well, the bridge the way the ESP circuit is drawn). More resistance can make the threshold higher but also less abrupt.

mr coffee

[yano]

Try different values of resistance in series with the LED (well, the bridge the way the ESP circuit is drawn). More resistance can make the threshold higher but also less abrupt.

Do you mean the 100ohm R11 in that diagram?

[MR COFFEE]

yes, on R11.