Madbean Holy Roller / Baja Optical Limiter
This is Brian’s version of Bajaman Optical Limiter. Here you can find the original thread. Note: You could swap D3 with 100R resistor and 100uF cap with 220uF if too noisy.
Compressor
5-knob Compressor
Drew this one up some time ago and thought i’d post it up. It’s basically Mark’s layout for Keeley 4-knob style compressor with slight tweaks and more notably, an addition of mix/blend/ratio knob. As some of you already know, the basic CA3080 compressors like Ross, MXR and derivatives reverse the signal polarity and thus, the … Read more
LM13700 to CA3080 Conversion Board
A lot of older circuit designs (DynaComp, Ross Compressor, etc.) use the CA3080, which is now obsolete and rather expensive. The LM13700 is essentially two 3080s in one chip, and much more affordable. Here’s a conversion board to use the 13700 in place of the 3080. Use long header pins, mounted from the solder-side of … Read more
BearFoot FX Pale Green Compressor
Here’s another great circuit by Bjorn (who also designs all the Mad Professor stuff). It’s an optical compressor that’s very similar to the Mad Professor Forrest Green Compressor. It’s not too heavy handed, and is, as Bjorn has said, “The compressor for people who hate compressors.”
Bearhug FET Compressor
Here’s a simple compressor design by Jon Patton (aka midwayfair) that’s good for guitar and bass. In Jon’s words: The Bearhug is a tonally transparent, ultra-quiet, tiny, and easy-to-build compressor. It occupies some middle ground between the ultra-subtle compressors like the Flatline/Afterlife and Orange Squeezer and the super squishy compressors like the Ross. For more … Read more
DOD 280 Compressor
The DOD 280 was DOD’s first compression pedal made in the late ’70s through the ’80s. A great sounding compressor, this fairly simple circuit uses an LDR and LED combination (in the form of a VTL5C2) to compress the signal. This one’s laid out for on board right angle PCB pots, mounted from the solder … Read more
MicTester’s Guitar Compressor
Here’s a compressor design from MicTester. Here’s what he had to say about it over on FSB: Do you remember the old-fashioned way of doing bass compression? It used an LDR across the volume control illuminated by an incandescent lamp across the speaker terminals! It was a simple method back in the 60s….This compressor is almost that … Read more
Oz Compressor
Here’s an interesting LM386-based compressor designed by Brett Robinson (DIYSB member Toney). I found the schematic for this while searching for something else. Apparently there are various incarnations (and names too) of this circuit, but this seems to be the most popular version. Should fit easily in a 1590A, though, I’m not sure about board-mounting … Read more
Walrus Audio Deep Six Compressor
The Walrus Audio Deep Six is a versatile compressor that gives studio level compression in stompbox form (that’s what their website says, anyway). It’s very similar to the BYOC 5-knob compressor, with the only difference being a few component changes in the blend and output stages. I set out to try and make a layout … Read more
MXR DynaComp
Here’s the classic DynaComp compressor from MXR. This frequently cloned and copied effect has been an industry standard since it was introduced in the 70s. It uses the CA3080 IC, which can be a bit expensive and/or difficult to source as it is a rather obsolete chip. It might be a good idea to use … Read more