What Compressor?

EricTheWeary

StuartMac290 said:

Pete Cornish OC-1

Thorpy Fat General

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Others

The Echoline Vactrol is a clone of the OC1. 

Lebarque

A timely new video from the TPS boys landed at lunchtime with some new offerings:

Matt_McG

I built an OC-1 clone, and I'd be curious to compare the Echoline Vactrol, because I don't love the OC-1 clone I made. The clean blend works well, but it doesn't quite have the tonal character that the Fat General has, and I also find it quite hard to dial in the compression amount. Higher noise floor than the ThorpyFX, Mad Professor, or the JoeMeek.

I'd like to try the Echoline to see if it's the specific clone PCB I used (or my build) or if that's just the character of the OC-1.

skay

@Matt_McG I bought the Echoline Vactrol to replace my Fat General on my gigging board but it lacks the liveliness and presence of the FG, so it failed to usurp the king!

It sounds a bit dull to my ears in my rig, much like a 2-knob Keeley compressor I sold off many years ago, unless the blend is run really high and then you can’t really hear the compressor doing anything.

If I run the blend at 75% on the Vactrol then it sounds closer to the Fat General’s lively character, but still sounds 2-Dimensional and a bit flat compared to the FG that has an almost 3-D effect going on and sounds good whenever you set the controls, and again you might as well not have the Vactrol pedal on with the blend @75% as you can no longer hear or feel the compression happening.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh and have been spoilt by the FG, as it has some good sounds in there, but just doesn’t suit me like the FG does.

stickyfiddle

OK so I borrowed the Cali Bass from myself to try on the guitar board at last night's rehearsal. Early indications are good, so I'll stick with that for another session or 3 for now before I buy anything guitar-specific. I can compare that against some of the patches in the HX One to get a fairly good idea of what feels right I hope.

Matt_McG

@skay That sounds very similar to my experience with the OC-1 clone I built. So that’s helpful and saves me some cash!