Compressor questions

[Dave_P]

I just bought an old ('87 ish) DOD Fx80b compressor after reading up on it. It is a very transparent/warm comp but the effect is very very subtle even on extreme settings.
This is the first compressor I've ever owned, just wondering if anyone else has had any experience with this particular compressor? Is it supposed to be that subtle, or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks,
Dave

[jonc]

what are you expecting it to do. give you more sustain, "singing" leads, level control, funky pop and quack? the dod is not one of my favorites from that era as it's on the "polite" side, but again it depends on what you're looking for. i've found the compressor's i like best have a blend knob so that you can add in the level of clean signal to compressed that you want. a good example of this is the Barber Tone Press but there are many on the market that work for a number of purposes. i also have an Opto Stomp and while it's a good opto compressor the lack of a blend control makes it limiting (no pun intended) for me. take a look at the 1st link for a good x-section of what's on the market and don't stop checking those 80's/90's bargains. A really nice 90's-era pedal is the ST2 from the Guyatone micro series (2nd link) which has a blend control (fixed at 50%), and if you come across a Peavey pedal compressor from the 80's (massive, heavy-built casing made in the USA) for cheap then grab it. and if you don't like i'll buy it. looks like the one in the 3rd link. btw, this whole line of Peavey pedals from the 80's are pretty cool and include a great reverb, companded chorus pedal, and a distortion /OD that's a great take on a MXR D+ type of sound but smoother and with more depth and gain. happy hunting


http://www.musictoyz.com/Merchant2/merc ... _Code=COMP

http://cgi.ebay.com/Guyatone-ST2-Compre ... 500wt_1107

http://cgi.ebay.com/Peavey-CSR-2-Compre ... 212wt_1134

[Dave_P]

Thanks jon!
To be honest I'm not really sure what I was expecting it to do, I just had never used one and the transparency (and price) of the DOD appealed to me vs the demos I've seen of the dyna-comp type compressors. The thing is this one doesn't seem to do much of anything. That said, I've had to play pretty quietly at home so I'll give it a whirl at band practice and see what I think of it then, but this one might head back to ebay.

-Dave