Build Your Own Compressor

[honki-bobo]

Hey everyone,

I hope you're all doing well and still find the time to be creative and experiment with modular synthesis.

Just wanted to share this little patch I've made to create my own compressor. It is a very versatile and flexible compressor patch with wide room for experimentation.

Compressor.png (272.69 KiB) Viewed 4284 times

The cables are color coded as follows:

• red : audio
• blue : envelope
• black : gate
• orange : constant

The input signal first passes an envelope follower followed by a threshold. This is basically the gain detection stage of the compressor. The threshold then triggers an envelope, which gives control over the attack and release time of the compression. The envelope signal is then inverted and added to a constant 5V, so it attenuates the level when the envelope does its thing. The attenuation of the inverted envelope gives control over the compression amount.

Parameters to experiment with are certainly the release time of the envelope follower in the gain detection stage, attack and release times of the envelope generator and switching between linear and exponential reponse in the amplifier, but this is of course not the end of the line. Please feel free to download the patch, play with it and share your experiences with it.

This is just a mono patch, but it can easily be extended for stereo compression.

Best regards and stay safe and creative!

Compressor.voltagepreset

(8.11 KiB) Downloaded 421 times

[Kozzerog]

So cool! Thanks for sharing.

[UnbalancedBeats]

Elegant solution.