Recent content by rossbalch

The jelly bean 2n3903 and 2n3905 both have pretty low hFE as well. The BSX20 is also quite cheap and still available for now.

Hey folks, this is one of the first circuits I designed with intent rather than just sort of circuit bashing. The idea is that's it's essentially a buffer. Except it has a bit of an upwards compression effect, reducing dynamic range slightly but by bringing up the body rather than reducing the...

Do you have an example schematic of the mods? I picked up a few of these myself on the recommendation of the DIYSB forum, but I'm not exactly sure what the safety circuit looks like

You might get more help on a forum more dedicated to embedded devices.

Same, I don't know what I might want to build in the future, might as well build up a bit of a stash and save on later shipping.

You should notice one side is beveled and the other isn't, the datasheet should tell you how that affects the orientation.

Check the data sheet, there is indeed an indicator for which side is "up".

As a FET based compressor I'm pretty sure this will have the distortion you're so keen to avoid.

Maybe post the schematic of the Carl Martin comp, usually variable attack and release isn't too hard to implement depending on the design. Let's look at this fairly simple compressor from DIY Recording Equipment, you can kinda work out pretty well how the various parts of it work.

Just to reiterate some points, Opto compression will never be as fast as you are looking for, the opto cell simply cannot react, or recover fast enough. Regardless of the rest of the circuit, or the method by which compression is occurring, fast compression produces distortion, always. It's...

I think you are going to struggle to find a pre-made PCB that does what you want, most guitar comps either compress really heavily, or have a long attack time for more subtly. I still think your best option might be that compressor I linked to earlier, the Sonicake one, I think you'll struggle...

For which circuit?

I also have a little library of building blocks I can easily copy paste, generic op amp blocks, buffers, common emitter BJT amps etc.

I guess the thing is once you have your library in the state you like it's bit of effort to make the switch.

Is KiCad better than DipTrace? Cause I'm pretty happy with that for the most part.