Orpheus Compressor

Once you Understand Compression, you will Never Turn Back
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to describe this pedal. After all, it’s not as evident as a distortion or a delay. A mild compression will tighten up your cleans, add a bit of twang and punch. Your overdrives and distortions gets more focused and sustained.
Increase the compression and your cleans sings and it feels like your fingers are dancing up and down the neck. Your overdrives and distortions are covered in smooth velvet with the sweetest sustain imaginable.” … Bjørn Riis
Although Bjørn was talking about another pedal, that pretty much sums up what the Orpheus compressor pedal will do for your tone. Based on the much-loved DynaComp circuit, these tones are enshrined in rock history by artists including Pink Floyd, Dire Straits and Red Hot Chilli Peppers to name a few.
At the heart of the Orpheus compressor is a CA3080 Operational Transconductance Amplifier (OTA). Just like in the original script DynaComps. Building on that as the core, Orpheus adds a Blend control and selectable Release setting. The Blend control allows the dry signal to be blended with the wet (compressed) signal. This is useful when a faster attack and more dynamics are desired. The Release setting (via an internal jumper) provides the choice between fast, medium and slow (original) release. With the Blend control fully counterclockwise, the output is all dry signal and the pedal acts like a clean boost with up to 12 dB of gain.
With a large input resistance of 1 MOhm, it won’t “suck the tone” out of your guitar even if it is fitted with super-hot high impedance humbuckers. And with a very low output resistance and large signal drive capability, Orpheus can drive long leads or any other difficult signal chain with ease.
See what others are saying about the Orpheus compressor pedal in our on-line forum or visit one of our distributors and try one out for yourself.
 
Design Philosophy
There are quite a few guitar compressor pedals on the market. However, two captured the attention of the guitar legends more than the others. These were the Orange Squeezer and of course the DynaComp. The latter, in our opinion, being a more versatile pedal because it provides control over the amount of compression and the output volume.
Over the years a number of aftermarket modifications for DynaComp have become available. The original units did not have a LED indicator to show when the effect was on. This seemingly simple “mod” is actually very useful when the compression is set low, because in a band context it can be hard to tell if the effect is on or not. The “attack mod” which is actually a “release mod” is another useful feature. This allows selection between fast, medium and slow release times to suit different playing styles.
We have added two further modifications. The Blend control allows the wet and dry guitar signals to be blended together. This provides the ability to add back some of the guitar’s dynamics to the compressed signal which can soften the “sucking in” effect when the Comp control is set very high and still retain the benefit of long sustain. Also, when set fully counterclockwise, the pedal becomes a clean boost. Finally, we chose to add a FET output buffer so that the tone is not adversely affected by loading effects from the input of subsequent equipment.