Compressor Pedal - recommend me a project

[Joel]

Hi all,

Following on from my successful single channel Deluxe Reverb build, I've discovered I "need" another pedal board.  I'll need another compressor.  I've built plenty of drives (not too many, because you can't have too many!).  My curretn compressor is a cheap and cheerful Biyang job (Dynacomp style knockoff).  It's OK. 

I've been impressed with the demos of the Cali76 compressor done by the "That Pedal Show" guys and want to build one or two.  I can't seem to find a 1176 style stompbox layout on any of my usual pedal project sites.  Can anyone point me to such a thing, or recommend me a similar good DIY compressor project? 

[uki]

Hey there !!

I'm about to build a compressor as well, I've found this "Really Cheap Compressor" and it looks to be very interesting,
I have all the parts and I'm going to put it on a bread board first to see what it sounds like.

check it out
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com.br/2012/03/really-cheap-compressor.html
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=110831.0

[BetterOffShred]

I built a few of those, designed by Mictester from FSB.   It's not bad, but honestly if you're going to spend the time to build one, I'd go with the Keeley one from Tagboard blog as well.   It's a much better unit, though its harder to build.

http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/search/label/Compressor

The janglebox is nice too.   I guess I just don't like optical compressors.  There is too much variability in the LDR/LED Combo so you have to fool around with it for a while and find the best combo.    The Engineers thumb and the Janglebox are both nice chip/transistor based compressors that can be built easily too.   I think they have really nice sound too.   

-Brett

[Joel]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I've gone for the optical Diamond Compressor layout by Sabrotone.  I spent some time with the vactrol VTL5C3 datasheet and managed to make a DIY version that very closely matched the current/resistance curve: a 3mm Green LED, a Tayda LDR with one piece of standard biege masking tape over it, all heat shrinked together.  I chose this layout because it has the multicolour LED indicator the original uses.  Tagboardeffects layout omits the multicolour LED.

My next comp will be the Engineers thumb.  I haven't found a bad review of it.