Most Favorite DIY Compressor?

Arn C. · January 05, 2006, 02:28:52 PM

Hello All,

I would like to build a DIY Compressor that keeps the same sound going in as is coming out but with as much sustain as possible.

What DIY compressor comes closest to this?

Thanks!
Arn C.

nelson · January 05, 2006, 11:51:22 PM

The dynacomp is known for its for lack of a better word "transparency".

mojotron · January 06, 2006, 01:05:08 AM

Not that it is a great compressor, but I love some of the little things that the Fender Compressor (COM-1) does - here's what it looks like http://filters.muziq.be/model/fender/compressor.

This is a little off topic - but I'm wondering if anyone has seen a schematic for this thing?

I would love to get a copy if available.

This would be a great DIY compressor as it's only issues could likely be corrected with some better components and likely some minor re-design....

MartyMart · January 06, 2006, 04:11:49 AM

I love Craig Anderton's comp, with some mods suggested by Mark Hammer, also the Flatline is
very good too and runs at 9v ..!

MM

Nasse · January 06, 2006, 04:29:54 AM

Local instro players have been hunting lately off evilbay discontinued DOD FX 80B compressors. I know the schems have been around but still do not have it.

bcreekmur · January 06, 2006, 08:27:11 AM

My vote's for the Flatline...

brian

Bernardduur · January 06, 2006, 10:53:58 AM

I love my CA compressor. It is really transparant

Arn C. · January 06, 2006, 06:49:18 PM

Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

I made a Q&D Compressor a long while ago with the SSM2165 chip, (which I still have two chips left and a few SSM2166's), but I neveer really got to check it out because I ended up giving it to my son in Canada. But I do have the SSM2166 compressor built in a rackmount case, which I think I will fire up and see how I like it.(This one I also never really tried much, as I made it for a bass player friend, who eventially bought a real nice rackmount compressor/limiter that he now uses and he gave me back the one I made him).

Has anyone else made the 2165 compressor and if so, anyone fine tune it to sound even better than the stock schematic?

Thanks!
Arn C.

phillip · January 06, 2006, 08:31:33 PM

I still like the Ross Compressor with the Hammer mods and a couple of other tweaks that I have at my website

http://fuzzcentral.tripod.com/compressor.html

Phillip

Marcos - Munky · January 08, 2006, 11:50:08 AM

Quote from: Arn C. on January 06, 2006, 06:49:18 PM
Thank you everyone for your suggestions.

I made a Q&D Compressor a long while ago with the SSM2165 chip, (which I still have two chips left and a few SSM2166's), but I neveer really got to check it out because I ended up giving it to my son in Canada. But I do have the SSM2166 compressor built in a rackmount case, which I think I will fire up and see how I like it.(This one I also never really tried much, as I made it for a bass player friend, who eventially bought a real nice rackmount compressor/limiter that he now uses and he gave me back the one I made him).

Has anyone else made the 2165 compressor and if so, anyone fine tune it to sound even better than the stock schematic?

Thanks!
Arn C.

I have a 2166 compressor, and I like it's sound a lot. It have a good gain, and if you play with the pots you can get lots of good sounds from it. I still didn't found a "definitive" setting, because I like almost all the settings I got in it.

mojotron · January 08, 2006, 10:30:01 PM

Quote from: mojotron on January 06, 2006, 01:05:08 AM
Not that it is a great compressor, but I love some of the little things that the Fender Compressor (COM-1) does - here's what it looks like ...

I would love to get a copy if available.

This would be a great DIY compressor as it's only issues could likely be corrected with some better components and likely some minor re-design....

I popped this open and poked around and found out that the Fender COM-1 compressor is really a ROSS compressor with the following mods:
Referring to the TonePad schematic:
1) The 150k resistor next to the Sustain control is 1.5M
2) The 10uF cap next to the Sustain control is 3.3uF
3) The above cap is immediately connected to the wiper on the Sustain control
4) Put a 10kA pot (Named "Attack") between the above cap and the collectors of Q3+Q4 and the Sustain control wiper/10uF junction

There's also a couple of other things: There's electrical switching through a dual-D-Flip-Flop - which I thought was kind of cool - more on this another day... And, there's a tone control right on the output, but really just yet another tone control... so I did not investigate that part of the circuit.

The main thing is this Attack control for the Ross compressor - this is pretty cool sounding on the Fender COM-1. I'll build one of these with these mods and let everyone know how it went.

warioblast · April 29, 2006, 08:24:40 PM

I'm bumping this old thread as I plan on building a compressor. I have many type of effects but I have never own. I'm also not very educated about how it really sounds, alone or stacked with other pedals. How they differ from one another...

RaceDriver205 · April 29, 2006, 09:52:56 PM

Its hard to tell the difference, as compression is the most subtle of all effects. Ive only built the dynacomp and it seems to do the job.
I would also like to here from someone how compressors differ in sound, so I can decide if I want another type.

petemoore · April 30, 2006, 01:05:30 AM

http://www.zzounds.com/item--DAVM102
All things considered...not too bad right there...
I find the Dyna / Ross, [my build is somewhere between these in the HF Rollof Dept.] to be very effective.

jokke · April 30, 2006, 06:36:48 AM

Send private-message, if ya want the DOD FX80b -schematic.

markm · April 30, 2006, 07:15:06 AM

I am a little torn between the Ross/Dynacomp and the Orange Squeezer for favorites.
I will say that I tried all the different mods for the Ross and found that for me, bone stock
sounded the best!
I was sold on the Dynacomp for a long time but, lately I've been leaning toward the Ross
version of that particular circuit.
That said, I have a Flatline on the bench beside me ready to test!
What a wonderful hobby......
Thanks for the Schem jokke......
I'm gonna end up in Stompbox Rehab

MarkM

comfortably_numb · April 30, 2006, 10:45:59 PM

Anyone have a schematic for the Flatline? I searched it, but the links were broken.

Thanks

Processaurus · May 01, 2006, 12:45:25 AM

I was very happy with the sound of a Ross clone after adding a clean blend control to it. They used to do that with old studio limiters, when they wanted to make them compress less obviously.
Here's how to do it:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=40292.0

The DA orange squeezer has a very nice, musical compression, but it is a bit noisy for using before any distortions.

petemoore · May 01, 2006, 03:09:19 AM

I've heard that before, but my OS is super quiet, it's boxes before a TS...instead of an input buffer like that, and is still...super quiet.

News:

Most Favorite DIY Compressor?

bcreekmur