127th AES Convention Coverage (New York, NY Oct. 9-12)
PRESS RELEASE

Carl Martin Presents Classic Opto-Compressor Pedal

October 31, 2008

One day while Carl was adding some compression to a guitar track in his studio, he thought, why hasn't anyone built a small opto-compressor for guitarists? An optical compressor performs gain reduction control via a light source into a photo sensitive cell... as the light source gets brighter, the photo sensitive cell sends a signal to reduce dynamic range, or what becomes a compressed signal. Welcome to the Vintage Opto-Compressor....an old-school compressor from the days where colouring was an important factor to the sound.

The four controls (from left to right) are the Gain, which controls the 'pre-glow' of the optical circuit (the more you turn this up, the fatter the sound); Level, which controls the overall volume of the compressor; Compression, which controls how hard or soft the compression is, and the Attack control which takes the signal from transparent to outright total squeeze. A short time with this compressor will allow you to find some of those classic guitar sounds which may somehow have escaped you before.

Like all the Vintage pedals, the Opto-Compressor comes in a solid diecast housing with cool chicken-head knobs, CM colour and graphics and a 9v battery compartment. Due to the nature of compressors, we highly recommend a regulated power supply (like the CM Big John) or a large stock of batteries...

 

(Click for close-up)

For more information, visit their web site at http://www.carlmartin.com/.

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