Anyone built a 'What Compressor'?

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matta

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2005
Messages
1,640
Location
Cape Town, South Africa
Hey Guys,

I am planning on building a pair of 'What Compressors' and I am wondering if anyone else has built them?
Peter C has a nice board layout on his site here: http://1176neve.tripod.com/id5.html and I have compiled a parts list from
his design and the original found here http://dt.prohosting.com/hacks/what.html

I'd like to hear any comments from those that have built them, it seems like an easy build and great newbie project,
basic, kind of like a stripped out Joe Meek meets an LA-4 opto styled comp.

Anyone got any thoughts or comments?

Cheers

Matt
 
Nice...and interesting too. thansk for the post.
If I was goin to try a solid state unit ...I'd do this. happily
I used a Joe Meek SC 2.2 and loved it.
I sold it to a guy at Neve in NY.
TS
 
I've laid out my own pc board, but have not built it yet - soon, I hope! Fabio has made boards using 992 and transformers. I was very impressed with the with/without compression sound clips David made.
 
Well I know Peter C built it...

He no longer has his one as it was 'permanently borrowed' (read... he is NEVER getting it back...) from an engineer who has worked on some pretty big name projects who loves the way it sounds on vocal and bass.

Peter's boards look snazzy, maybe if we can get enough interest he might fab some boards???? What do we do to bribe him, maybe a couple :guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :guinness:

From Dave's comments on his site and the clips they sound pretty cool and are nice, easy to use, no frills comps that work great on Vox to Bass.

I've see Fabio's board with the injected iron... kinda of like an athlete on steroids.

Flatpicker, did you fab. your board from Peter C's layout?

There must be someone here who has built one? If not i think we should make this a project...

Cheers

Matt
 
Yea, you guy just remind me that I have to finish this...

what_rev2.gif


but output will be Melcor opamp + 4804 transformer.
This is a old pic, the thing is almost completed.
If you guys want I can run some boards for ya, there's some folks that already want it...

:guinness:
Fabio
 
See what I mean!!!!!! That 'What' is on steroids!

You wouldn't find that in the organic section of a supermarket, LOL!
I think Fabio is a madman bent on warping all things audio... just kidding!

It looks great, now finish it so we can hear it!

Any chance of doing something similar to the original without the iron and op amps?
I am think to keep it basic, and cheap, yet nice sounding. The iron and op amps add in a bit few more bucks.

Cheers

Matt
 
Man, I'm just in love with transformers and discrete opamps, thanks to this dudes here...

Will finish it...

:thumb: :thumb:
Fabio
 
[quote author="matta"]Flatpicker, did you fab. your board from Peter C's layout?[/quote]No. I wanted to use 5532s for the in/out amps and lay it out with a ground plane, so I had to make my own version.
 
[quote author="Bauman"]Man, I'm just in love with transformers and discrete opamps, thanks to this dudes here...[/quote]A common illness we all share! :green:

Can you show us a schematic for that thing?
 
[quote author="Bauman"]in love with transformers and discrete opamps[/quote]

It's funny how people in this board love transformers, yet in the rest of the audio world people hate them for no good reason, to the point that manufacturers actually promote their designs as being "transformerless". like it's a good thing!!! :green:

I just bought like $500 worth of iron from Cinemag!!! Woo-hoo!!!

BTW, that board is just gorgeous, Fabio!

Peace,
Al.
 
I made one with yet another output stage. I'ts a j-fet/op-amp hybrid.
I didn't like the tone of the amp with oep output tx (too "round")so I ended up using a profile api-tx that sounded great and solid.
I liked it on drums but the attack didn't work for me with vocals (the main usage) and bass so I modded it a bit. After modding it's very transparent and it works very well as a vocal tracking compressor. (the mod is not a scientific one but rather a "let's see what happens if I remove these"- kind of a mod).

I don't say it wasn't good before (actually i liked it alot) but in this application
the modded version worked better.

I think the original is pretty transparent with modest gr and it acts smoothly. Attack is little slow for some sources though. The sidechain works great with drums because it doesn't pump. That's because the low cut filter in the sidechain circuit.

This is just my opinion so don't take it too seriously :roll: .

-Okko
 
Intersting. Could you share more about the mods?

I have two WHAT compressor boards here from Fabio! It DOES looks GREAT!
 
Fabio is the (not so secret) weapon when it comes to PCBs. The audio world will never know what hit it. This handy Brazilian will overtake the market in about five years. :thumb: :green:
 
I promisse to spend all this fortune in beer, which I will have with each one of you at your local pub! :green:

thanks for the kind word!

:guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :guinness: :guinness:
Fabio
 
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