bought a BBE opto-stomp

[LoKi6922]

hey everybody, just wanted to let everyone know that i picked up a BBE Opto-Stomp optical compressor yesterday.

sounds pretty damn good! was very cheap and came with wall wart and batteries, and it is a manufactured pedal that is REALLY true bypass.... pretty amazing.

very soft Knee, and VERY transparent... 2 knobs, volume and compression, and a 0 to -15db pad switch, which is very nice. the compression knob seems to act as a ratio from bypass to compressed... but its not quite like your usual 'hard limiter' dyna comp or noisy cs-3. kinda more like the cs-2, at least to me. i still can't get over how transparent it is. i was expecting your usual stomp box compressor coloration, but it keeps your tone true!

and like all compressors, rocks on the clean channel *which i never use on my JCM 800* but is still a nice unit on the dirt channel. i was suprised at how clean the unit was. i picked it up for $100 Canadian *taxes included*.

would probably be a great purchase for bass players, but does a nice job on the guitar as well.

very little noise, which makes me happy.  once i get it apart i'll let you guys know what i really think. maybe i'll try to whip up a schematic if anybody is interested. i've never tried to draw out anything complicated, but you gotta learn sometime!

[robbiemcm]

and VERY transparent...

Better hope R.G. doesn't see that one

Anyway, sounds like a good pedal.. I'll google for it now.

[stm]

very little noise, which makes me happy.  once i get it apart i'll let you guys know what i really think. maybe i'll try to whip up a schematic if anybody is interested. i've never tried to draw out anything complicated, but you gotta learn sometime!

Well, if you have the time and patience please do it! 

[Mike Burgundy]

I wonder if they blend the original signal back in after the compression stage - one rather nice way to get very natural sounding compression. You're not so much squasing the peaks, but bringing up the lower levels. Often used in studio situations.

[stm]

Another aspect that helps in transparency is to have dual time constant and/or multiband compression.

[Jaicen_solo]

wonder if they blend the original signal back in after the compression stage - one rather nice way to get very natural sounding compression

We call that parallel compression. Works wonders on acoustics where you don't want that razor blade strings effect when the player digs in.

[LoKi6922]

I wonder if they blend the original signal back in after the compression stage - one rather nice way to get very natural sounding compression. You're not so much squasing the peaks, but bringing up the lower levels. Often used in studio situations.

it seems thats how it works. the manual is pretty useless, but i usually only skim them anyway.

and i already left my own comment on the 'meaning of transparency'. :p

its great with the acoustic, i tried it out this morning. so whether or not i use it in my live rig, it will get used on the acoustic.

[jimbob]

I actually was looking at one of those this morning and they did have a nice price for what you were getting. I tried one and liked it but ive built 4 compressors already i need to get some use of.