2 Track Tape-Style Compressor

BOOSTER

COMPRESSOR

DI

STEREO COMPRESSION/BOOST (Heavily colored, Mild Distortion) I spotted a diode compressor circuit in an electronics magazine from 1966. It was very rudimentary and had a few design errors. I built one and immediately loved it. It was muffled and smooth and changed the sound of my guitar in a noticeable way. It reminded me of the way cassette tape squeezes and expands your instrument. So I changed a few things to reduce white noise and get better performance, added a VU to roughly show the squish, and then added a whole second circuit in the same box to run in stereo. Then add in dual XLR outputs for good measure and I figured this thing should cover anything from pedalboard color box to studio gadget. The input volume knob adds gain before the diodes, so the higher it is, the harder the squeeze. At the highest 1/4 of the input volume control it starts to distort in a pleasant way. It's not going to win fuzz pedal of the year, but there's some tasty sparkle to make things interesting.