Compressors are very common these days, and there are lots of varieties of them out there. We opted for a simple but elegant version of an optocoupler based compressor to lead our lineup of pedals. Using a ‘Light Dependant Resistor’ hooked up to an LED that is driven by the input of your guitar, this pedal gently applies a shallow compression ratio to your guitar signal. This balances some of the dynamics found in your playing, bringing a smoother overall level to your signal by boosting low dynamic valleys and taming high dynamic peaks.

The Opto Compressor’s controls are fairly simple.

1. 1.The Sustain knob affects the amount of compression applied to your signal.
   

2. 2.The Level knob affects the overall output of the compressed signal that is sent to the output.
   

3. 3.The gain trimpot located internally gives you the ability to add a bit of ‘grit’ to your signal post compression and pre output level.
   

At high compression you will retain a lot of clarity to your signal, without giving your signal a ‘coloured’ texture that is found in other types of compressors. Optocoupler based compressors are often appealing for their overall ‘transparent’ nature.