Dyna Comp
An OTA compressor that flattens the attack and pushes the tail up.
Dynamic range, narrowed
A detector watches the signal's own level and turns the gain down when it is loud. The attack is pulled in and the tail is held up, so the note keeps going where it would have faded, and the sustain everyone hears is really the quiet part getting louder.
- Uncompressed
- Compressed
Drawn to illustrate the description above, not measured from a specific unit.
What the circuit does
An operational transconductance amplifier whose gain is driven by a detector watching the signal's own level. Loud passages are turned down and the quiet tail of a note is turned up, so the dynamic range is squeezed into a narrower band.
What to listen for
Notes that all arrive at the same volume however hard you pick, and a tail that hangs on longer than it should. Turn it up far enough and you can hear the gain moving between notes, along with the noise floor rising with it.
Where it goes
The compressor slot
Near the front, where the dynamic range is still wide enough to be worth squeezing. Some players put it last instead, to even out everything the board has done rather than what the guitar did, which is a real choice rather than a mistake.
Controls
- Output
- Sensitivity