Simplest DIY Compressor Pedal? (Single Transistor Circuit)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 พ.ค. 2020
- This is the most stupidly simple compressor circuit I could come up with. It uses a MOSFET to control a small incandescent light bulb, which provides both RMS detection and optical isolation from a voltage divider with an LDR that passively attenuates the signal based on the brightness of the bulb. It's sort of like having true bypass even while the effect is enabled xD
Schematic: drive.google.com/open?id=1nci...
List of components: drive.google.com/open?id=1Zya...
Music in this video:
Modern Situations by Unicorn Heads
/ @unicornheads
#psychotenuse #diypedals - เพลง
Round of applause for how amazing this video is for where I’m at with pedal building right now.
So glad if it was helpful! :)
That was two years ago now- how’s the pedal building going?
@@generalleigh7387 You know... he's become wholly disenfranchised at attempting to compete with super cheap Chinese SMD based products, actually buying into them himself.
That way he can spend more time earning a little money in the electronics field by servicing "normal people" circuits.
Sadly, I'm afraid it will continue in that direction unless/until pedal designers can fully come to terms with a couple of the most fundamental factors which influence the business the most.
I'll be a chum and kickstart your road to discovery by giving you one of (if not THE) most important design rule.
Here goes ...
Although tone is considered a largely subjective facet, you MUST embrace the fact that virtually ALL guitar players definitely do know good tone when they see it!
If you keep this in mind and at the forefront of circuit design, you will succeed, despite wading into a highly competitive and oversaturated market
👍
Very nicely explained! No long-winded useless info. It lets us know you actually know what you talk about. Thank you for this
Ahaha. I try to keep the long-winded useless info to the end of the video xP
This kind of compressor was used in "Old" amps. This circuit was put inside the cabinets in series with de speakers....amazing adaptation
I think I know the ones you're talking about... they're more interesting, actually, because they exploit not only the slow response time of the bulbs but also their temperature-dependent resistance. Unfortunately they wouldn't work at signal levels.
Your content explanation, presentation, sound levels and personality are phenomenal. Love the content. You don’t act like an EE when you’re explaining the stage. Hope you the most blessings!
Haha, well I'm not EE. I actually sometimes wish I was, because I end up making a lot of stupid mistakes that someone with a formal education wouldn't :P
Glad you like the videos!!
Nice work, Man! The lamp as compressor Idea was floating on my mind for a whyle... But i never got a solution! Thanks for sharing!
Glad you liked it, haha! This is not a great way to do it but it is probably among the simplest :P
Vou esperar o projeto no teu canal, hein? Hahahaha
In portuguese:
Lisciel tem um curso sobre eletrônica para áudio, focado em equipamentos de estúdio. Tenho o curso e lá tem um projeto de compressor óptico usando LED e LDR. Já montei e funcionou bem, agora vou montar focado em pedais de guitarra. Basicamente o circuito amplifica o áudio para chegar num bom nível para o LED, depois passa por dois conjuntos RC, de carga e descarga, como um ataque e sustain. Além disso tem o Bias do LED, onde uma tensão DC de 1,2 V deixa o LED. a ponto de acender. Funciona muito bem o circuito, vale a pena conferir.
Your passion for music and electronics is crazy dude!!!!!!!!!
Hope you will have a great career
Hahaha, thanks man! :)
it's a super simple opto compressor.
Brilliant idea and great explanation. I can hear slight distortion but i bet this design could be evolved into something you can use in circuits as a micro compressor. Subscribed.
Thanks haha. The distortion is actually from the recording preamp :P
I now regret not re-doing the recording with lower gain to get a cleaner signal.
You know what? Simple is not the same as stupid. (KISS) I've built stuff for for years & still keep coming back to this. Great job & keep on having fun.👍
I agree, in principle. Thanks! :)
The way I interpret the phrase "Keep It Simple, Stupid" is to mean "Hey stupid, why are you overcomplicating things? Be smart and keep it simple.".
Sweet and simple. Thanks.
It's far from perfect but I do love the simplicity :) glad you enjoyed it!
Would be interesting to see what it does to some sine waves when compression kicks in - on an oscilloscope. Interesting circuit - thx.
Really fun project! Subbed.
Thanks! :)
you sir are a GENUS i just tryed to build a compressor pedal terable instructions it came with but now i under stand what the led and that thing is doing in my kit THANK YOU SO MUCH
Thank you for watching! So glad you liked it haha!
Huge thanks for showing how a vactrol compressor is made. I thought itd be super complicated but its pretty basic.
There are no vacuum tubes involved here
@dissectormusic
Hey, huge thanks for being such a smug, passive aggressive, b*tchBoi; meanwhile the guys just trying to share his creations with the world!! I think theres better ways to point that out anyways AND you were wrong, anyways, dummy
Awesome idea and circuit.
Thank you! Cheers!
Hermoso trabajo lo voy a probar, saludos desde Argentina! (lo voy a tratar de adaptar con LED) NUEVO SUB
No offense but you have the clearest accent I've seen of Indian youtubers
Hahaha glad you can make out what I'm saying! I think I pretty much have a "South Indian big city" accent, though I don't live there anymore xP
Well done sir. I really like this circuit thanks
Glad you like it! Thanks for watching :)
Awesome!
It's perfect!
Clever. Thanks.
Genius!
Oh wow this is super cool haha
Thanks! :)
Nice!
THIS IS GREAT THANKS GOD BLESS
I subscribed 😁 thanks!
Thanks for subscribing! Glad you liked it :)
Cool!
light encandecent reflector? aka red standy led... and LDR? light dependent resitor or part of voltage divider.. a voltage regulator... how mich did you take?
Great work!! What kind of other MOSFETs can be used? Any specific? 🙏?
You want an N channel enhancement type MOSFET.
Yeah so anyway this was amazing. Did you base this idea off of the LA2A?
Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching :)
Never heard of LA2A, what is that?
@@Psychotenuse the LA2A is one of the most iconic compressors ever, and it is an optical lightbulb-controlled compressor just like what you've built here. The LA2A is famous for being very smooth and musical on guitars, bass, and vocals.
I see! Well this wasn't based off anything in particular - I just wanted to make as simple a compressor as possible so I set myself the arbitrary constraint of using only one transistor.
That's genius
Thank you! Glad you liked it!
Could you put another master volume pot between the compression pot and the output to control volume leveling with high compression?
Yes, but of course a passive volume knob cannot bring back lost volume, it can only reduce it further. If you allowed a second transistor, you could fix many of the issues with this circuit.
did it today works great!
Awesome, thanks for the comment! Always feels great when someone builds something from one of my videos :)
@@Psychotenuse I used a LED to have a direct comp but I tested the voltage drop and it works just the same, you just have to be careful with the resistance you used, I grilled a couple LED doing so. Also I've used a irf520 mosfet and it works too! I'll try to find filament to switch it! Awesome build mate hope you do more of these!
An LED provides no smoothing at audio frequencies, but I guess it might still work if your LDR itself is slow. Thanks, you taught me something interesting :)
If you find the time, I would absolutely love to see you make a synth sounding pedal. I just bought a bass guitar and I’m trying to find ways to make it sound really cool and sci-fi without spending another 100 dollars lol
Yeah. Man, I've been so caught up in something or the other recently that I keep thinking I'll make videos and don't end up doing it. Soon, soon! :P
@@Psychotenuse I totally understand. I go through the same waves of experimentation lol
Many, many thanks for sharing your findings. I'm looking forward to attempt building it, but have only 50k pots: do you think that would do the trick/give me enough amplitude? I have to work on my electronic basics so i'm not able to answer myself...yet ;) but my musician Heart is ticking louder than my more academic it enginneer one haha, so i'm to curious and want to try your circuitry as soon as possible ^^'
It might be fine. It really does depend on your LDR as well.
@@Psychotenuse mate you're the man ;) now i got my tonight's project when everyone will be at sleep haha thank you soooo much
looks like 9VDC bias goes directly into the input + output jacks via the 100k VR? that's gonna do some funny things. Maybe try a blocking cap?
No that's not the case so don't worry. If you think about it carefully you will realize that the 9V is optically isolated from the audio.
What if you switch the wires from lug 1 and 3 of the potentiometer? The volume should go the opposite direction of what you had originally
Doing that would reverse the direction of action of the knob, but wouldn't change anything else.
I suppose you could do something similar with an led and capacitor, to simulate the lack of audio range response of an incandescent lamp.
You could, yes, and that's what I initially tried to do, but the incandescent bulb seemed the simplest and most elegant way.
More interestingly even, someone in the comment section here pointed out that this circuit _will work basically as is_ with an LED, because the LDR has a show response as well. You just need to use an appropriate current-limiting resistor to protect the LED.
Yeah, the attack and release would be easy then!
Question; does using a different colour of LED have any impact on the effect?
This uses an incandescent bulb, not an LED.
I subscribed. This is a nice video! Could you upload or email me a diagram and parts list? Also, do you have any other videos you would recommend?
Glad you like it, thanks for watching!
The circuit diagram and a component list are linked in the video description. If you can't access them from there, let me know; perhaps I need to fix something. I could absolutely email them to you, but that seems like an unnecessary step.
You might not readily find the exact MOSFET I used, but any small n-channel enhancement-type power MOSFET should work.
I'll link something that I think was a pretty cool project that doesn't get a lot of views, probably because the video itself is not particularly engaging (sorry xP): th-cam.com/video/tsPuhO7EOPA/w-d-xo.html
Sounds like it is being clipped or distorted a little. Did you use a drive there?
Hahaha no, that's just the recording... I thought of redoing it but figured the dynamics were clear anyway :P
@@Psychotenuse Btw, you used p-type channel for the transistor?
I believe it was an N-channel enhancement MOSFET. You'll find a list of components in the video description
Can I used this for vocal compression?
Well I've never tried it with vocals, so I really can't say what kind of results that would give. I think plugging a mic directly into it might not work well, though, because of the low signal level. There is no fundamental reason that this wouldn't work for vocals.
Can u make a easy distortion circuit with lm386 ....
I did do a distortion circuit using an OP Amp, I used the TDA 2030, but you could just as well use an LM386 :)
Here's the link: th-cam.com/video/pKXopgA_Hso/w-d-xo.html
Hey bro how are you doing right now? Is youtube your main thing or?
Haha no, I'm a student.
@@Psychotenuse what are you studying?
@@jodymcdougle8810 Mechanical engineering now, after an illuminating but ill-fated dalliance with computer science.
Hello man, where did you buy that input jack from?
I tend to buy components from brick-and-mortar stores, less so now with COVID. This particular type of audio jack, you will probably find at PA system spare parts stores. However, functionally similar products are often available at music supply stores or general hobby/electronics stores. If you search on Amazon or AliExpress etc. for "female 6.5mm audio jack" or something along those lines, you should find relevant products.
@@Psychotenuse Thanks a lot man.
Glad to be of help 😁
I suspect that the 9 volt battery won't last very long driving an incandescent bulb. Any figures on battery life?
You're right, of course. I think my bulb was drawing about 100mA. That's 5 hrs on a 500mAh battery.
If you're concerned about battery life, you could actually use an LED and current limiting resistor instead. Someone in the comments discovered that it works (slow LDR response).
I couldn’t find the mosfet on aliexpress or ebay. Is there any alternative for the mosfet?
Any small n-channel enhancement type MOSFET should work.
@@Psychotenuse Can you pls recommend a model
@@sathniduyahatugoda362 tbh I really don't know, I've only ever tried it with this one. If you just search n-channel enhancement mosfet you should find some stuff. The IRF540 for example.
Irfz44 will do i guess..
what is the name of the component you are using at 2:09 ?
It's just a potentiometer.
How does it handle bass frequencies?
Nothing in the circuit is particularly frequency-dependent, so it should handle them just fine.
does this fx work for bass guitar??
It should, yes.
so cool can you do a guitar booster diy pedal
That would be relatively easy, I might try and make a super-simple boost circuit if more people ask. Meanwhile you can check out this video: th-cam.com/video/pKXopgA_Hso/w-d-xo.html the circuit can be used as a boost, as well as many other things, it is very versatile :)
so its like an opto comp
Fuckn smart
Fuckn thanks man
im using resistors instead of pots for now, (waiting for pots to arrive). and im having issues where the bulb barley changes intensity when i strum, any reason this could be? (resistors are 47komh in the middle and 100m across, just like pots set to the middle)
That won't work, because you need to bias the FET as I show in the video.
@@Psychotenuse so thats whats causing it then? thanks
@@Psychotenuse got the potentiometers and did just that (made the bulb really dim) but it still doesnt change intensity when strumming
I checked the wiring 5+ times and tested the mosfet to ensure it works byt still nothing
That's strange. Perhaps the issue is with the bulb you're using? Do you have a way to measure the current though the bulb?
@@Psychotenuse does the current change with brightness? the bulb is a normal christmas bulb (full brightness with the 9 volt battery)
Could you make a guitar pedal which can pitch shift. When pressed forward it should raise the pitch by a whole tone or whole step. And when pressed backward it should change the pitch to half step or semitone.
oh man, I been brainstorming and hitting a wall with something akin to this, but never even thought of using an incandescent bulb, my god, you're a genius. I tried like every color LED on the planet, making them complicated as fuck with arduinos and PWM and blah blah, this is easy as hell.
you could deal with the output impedance with an opamp buffer, and it'd still be a 1 transistor circuit I suppose if you dont count all the ones inside the opamp lol.
Haha yes, the incandescent bulb is the secret sauce. It's obviously not a new idea, incandescent bulbs have been used in compressors and compressor-like analog instrumentation circuits for a long time.
You're right, an op-amp stage after this circuit could fix most of its problems. That's definitely cheating, though xD
Diy distortion pedal pls)))
I did one! :D It's here: th-cam.com/video/pKXopgA_Hso/w-d-xo.html
I wonder how this would sound with bass..
Something to try out!
@@Psychotenuse is the volume reduction severe? when you turn up the compression?
Yes, fairly. In my case I would guess about 20dB or so. It would depend on what kind of LDR you are using.
thanks, now i feel guilty for owning nice gear.
Haha, no cause for guilt; we all spend our money on things we enjoy :P
Just so long as we understand that "You get what you pay for" only applies to mass-market goods, not to niche boutique hobby products.
its like a LA2A in little format ?
Haha, yeah someone else mentioned that too. I'm not personally familiar with the LA2A though.
Thanks for watching :)