Compressors based on optical circuits can sound very good but the latest EU regulations have outlawed the use of Cadmium Sulphide so light dependent resistors (LDRs) are now banned and so are compressors which use them.
But, beneath the stench, I can catch the faint whiff of credibility.
People have been using non-CdS LDRs for years - the OC81 transistor was a favourite until they started putting them in metal cans. What it would mean, if CdS is to be banned, is that you'd lose the mojo due to differences in characteristics - people would say "it doesn't sound like the old CdS LDR based circuit".
It didn't take much digging to reveal that the Diamond Compressor uses a Vactrol CdS opto-isolator, so they will definitely be hit by this. Anyone know of other pedals that use Vactrols?
Is this like when Japan banned certain circuits from being imported and all the vintage analog synth fans in Japan protested. They actually got their government to make an exception for Music Gear.
jcyphe wrote:Is this like when Japan banned certain circuits from being imported and all the vintage analog synth fans in Japan protested. They actually got their government to make an exception for Music Gear.
Exactly. Music gear is innocuous enough that any reasonable group can get an exception; like when all the new airline regulations came in after 9/11. The Musician's Union got an exception to allow instruments as carry-ons.
Exactly. And they don't have much use on a pedalbaord. In recording, sure, I use a fw different digital compression programs, but jesus fuck, never on guitar!
Any pedal with any kind of modulation- whether envelope, triggered, sequenced, whatever can have LDRs. Some wahs and volume pedals (Morley, DOD) use LDRs.
Somehow I think it probably doesn't matter though, because how's the gov't gonna know if you've got some illegal tech?
dots wrote:exactly! why try one for yourself when you can just take somebody's opinion as biblical?
compression has its place, even in a live rig.
I have watched some demos, it doesn't seem all that useful for me but anything described as squished ass can't be that great...
i'm a firm believer in getting out what you put in. trying a cheap ass compressor as you said probably wouldn't have done anything special, and you'd likely on fulfill the prophecy of squished ass. i'm pretty minimalist when it comes to fx, but you'll rarely find me dismissing any type of them simply because i can't make it sound good.
dots wrote:exactly! why try one for yourself when you can just take somebody's opinion as biblical?
compression has its place, even in a live rig.
I have watched some demos, it doesn't seem all that useful for me but anything described as squished ass can't be that great...
i'm a firm believer in getting out what you put in. trying a cheap ass compressor as you said probably wouldn't have done anything special, and you'd likely on fulfill the prophecy of squished ass. i'm pretty minimalist when it comes to fx, but you'll rarely find me dismissing any type of them simply because i can't make it sound good.
To be fair I said I wouldn't be getting one after others had dismissed them. Just as I won't be getting a flanger pedal in the forseeable future because they don't make a sound that I think I'll use. The guitarist in my old band used a compressor for solos and it worked great but I don't see myself using it for what I'm playing.
It's the dynamics game that many play, whether full bore and untethered into the front end of a cranked amp, or spiked bluesy compressed licks squashed like heck. At the risk of sounding like an anal insensitive prig, I've got three comps in regular rotation. I don't need them on a lot of what I do, but they sound so different from each other in good ways that I've got a specific use for them all:
Pedalworx McSqueeze: An Orange Squeezer clone (single knob) that fattens up everything nicely, though it must be kept below 10:00 to both not "over squish" or boost too much. I especially love it on bass, really expanding the girth of the lower midrange. It's a simple addition that has a million uses, from J.Marr-inspired Jonny Buckland lines (ultra ducks!) to gentle comp and boosted chunks into the next dirt pedal.
Janglebox: A mostly one trick pony(though decent in other settings) that adds more sparkle to your jangle. Dumps twinkling fairy dust on single coils in a wonderful way, though I limit my use to mostly arrpegio dancing on the Ric 360-12. Sounds so good to introduce a bright guitar tone into a busy mix that doesn't overpower things, and curiously helps retain the fullness of mid-position-pickup jangle action without sounding fat and squashed.
Moollon Compressor: I wish I could talk nicely about this thing without tooting the company horn. It's ridiculously quiet and colorizes the guitars tone in a very tasteful way, and is a great addition to doing funk on the ol' Strat along with excellent sustain on distortion lines with a really sweet decay. Needless to say, Blues Saraceno's praise of it when he visited the booth at Winter NAMM '09 was a pleasant surprise none of us expected.
I also spend a few weeks with a Demeter Compulator, and loved it on both bass and guitar. Very little colorization whatsoever(i.e. fantastic on bass), but the way it slightly softened the ceiling sounded extremely natural. Don't need, but really liked it.
Oh, OK. The issue is with Cadmium Sulphide (CdS), a material that predates transistors. There are other materials whose resistance varies with illumination, e.g. doped germanium or silicon. They're often used in opto-couplers - see >>this one at Banzai<< and others referenced in >>Bajaman's "Optical Limiter Revisited" thread<<
