Anyone Compared the OTC-201 to the Diamond Comp?

[Feral Feline]

it probably just some filtering between the bass and guitar version. But given how good the regular one sounds, I bet the bass version kicks butt as well. But hasn't Diamond Pedals changed ownership a few times in recent years? Who designed the original compressor?

Diamond has NOT "changed ownership a few times"— rather the powers that be/were retired, the plug was pulled and Diamond shut down and the brand put on the market.

Within a year or so of Diamond's demise, fellow Canadian company Solid Gold FX bought the rights to the name (and all the circuits etc) and revamped the Diamond product-line to be more uniform, to increase economies of scale and thus reduce costs.
ALL the new Diamond pedals under the SGFX-ownership now share the same form factor, ie a common enclosure size and knob layout.


SGFX was one of the few companies clinging tenaciously to the nearly-dead paradigm of side-jacks. I even queried the owner about it (either here or on TalkBass, I forget which), and he seemed firmly resolute in maintaining side-jacks in the SGFX product line.
However, today's pedal-buyers must've forced a capitulation, because many (if not most) of the newer SGFX products I've seen of late are now sporting top-jacks.

While I love my Diamond Bass Comp (yes, it's essentially just some filtering differences and yes it kicks butt!), I've never been happy with the side-jacks on the 1590BB enclosure that could've and should've easily been made with top-jacks; sorta same for my original Diamond Vibrato (one of the best chorus pedals ever, btw, a real sleeper 'cause the pedal was branded "Vibrato").


Behold the coveted DIAMOND LEGACY PRODUCTS (I have examples of the yellow and purple on the far right):



A sea of sidejackassage savagery !



Given SGFX's capitulation to top jacks, the best thing SGFX has done for Diamond is standardised on top-jacks, and maintaining a small form-factor ("small" being relative to legacy products) for new iterations of the Diamond classics: each and every Diamond now has four (4) knobs and a Switch!




So the circuits are based on the Diamond classics, but tweaked as needed to reduce/expand the controls to accommodate the 4xknob+Sw paradigm — save for one deviation, dual footswitches:



Note, it's not the Memory Lane "Jr"; how close it is to the original Memory Lane circuit(s), I don't know.


The current Diamond lineup includes the following:

1. F-Octave
2. Boost/EQ
3. Vibrato
4. Comp/EQ
5. Bass Comp/EQ
6. Dark Cloud
7. Tremolo
8. Diamond Drive
9. Memory Lane

Surf Green versions of the Vibrato, Comp/EQ and Tremolo are now an option.

Comp/EQ is also available in a patriotic "Limited Maple Leaf Edition".


I guess the other thing to mention is the Diamonds are no longer mined in the Maritimes,
but manufactured in Montreal (home of SGFX).


Again, I don't know how close the new SGFX lineup is circuit-wise to the original classic Diamonds — perhaps Robert should trace the entire new SGFX-Diamond lineup as well as the OG classic-counterparts to compare new to old.

 

[MichaelW]

Diamond has NOT "changed ownership a few times"— rather the powers that be/were retired, the plug was pulled and Diamond shut down and the brand put on the market.

Within a year or so of Diamond's demise, fellow Canadian company Solid Gold FX bought the rights to the name (and all the circuits etc) and revamped the Diamond product-line to be more uniform, to increase economies of scale and thus reduce costs.
ALL the new Diamond pedals under the SGFX-ownership now share the same form factor, ie a common enclosure size and knob layout.


SGFX was one of the few companies clinging tenaciously to the nearly-dead paradigm of side-jacks. I even queried the owner about it (either here or on TalkBass, I forget which), and he seemed firmly resolute in maintaining side-jacks in the SGFX product line.
However, today's pedal-buyers must've forced a capitulation, because many (if not most) of the newer SGFX products I've seen of late are now sporting top-jacks.

While I love my Diamond Bass Comp (yes, it's essentially just some filtering differences and yes it kicks butt!), I've never been happy with the side-jacks on the 1590BB enclosure that could've and should've easily been made with top-jacks; sorta same for my original Diamond Vibrato (one of the best chorus pedals ever, btw, a real sleeper 'cause the pedal was branded "Vibrato").


Behold the coveted DIAMOND LEGACY PRODUCTS (I have examples of the yellow and purple on the far right):

View attachment 101456

A sea of sidejackassage savagery !



Given SGFX's capitulation to top jacks, the best thing SGFX has done for Diamond is standardised on top-jacks, and maintaining a small form-factor ("small" being relative to legacy products) for new iterations of the Diamond classics: each and every Diamond now has four (4) knobs and a Switch!

View attachment 101461


So the circuits are based on the Diamond classics, but tweaked as needed to reduce/expand the controls to accommodate the 4xknob+Sw paradigm — save for one deviation, dual footswitches:

View attachment 101460

Note, it's not the Memory Lane "Jr"; how close it is to the original Memory Lane circuit(s), I don't know.


The current Diamond lineup includes the following:

1. F-Octave
2. Boost/EQ
3. Vibrato
4. Comp/EQ
5. Bass Comp/EQ
6. Dark Cloud
7. Tremolo
8. Diamond Drive
9. Memory Lane

Surf Green versions of the Vibrato, Comp/EQ and Tremolo are now an option.

Comp/EQ is also available in a patriotic "Limited Maple Leaf Edition".


I guess the other thing to mention is the Diamonds are no longer mined in the Maritimes,
but manufactured in Montreal (home of SGFX).


Again, I don't know how close the new SGFX lineup is circuit-wise to the original classic Diamonds — perhaps Robert should trace the entire new SGFX-Diamond lineup as well as the OG classic-counterparts to compare new to old.

Ok I amend my comment, "Changed ownership one time....."

 

[Greenfield]

I’ve built both of the Aion versions. They would both work for your purposes and that is how I run them. I have one on each of my two pedalboards and set them so they *just* start to smoooth out arpeggios. I also set them to generate a very slight signal boost.

I generally believe two things that most do not. Firstly, blend on a compressor is stupid. Second, compressors should not brighten your tone, at all.

Given all of the above, the Quartz is the best of the two. It is better than the Convex set to compression only mode as I find the Convex brightens my tone slightly.

However…tone being subjective…I have to confess that my favorite is the Convex set to blend mode . In that setting, it seems to fatten my tone a bit with the blend (guessing) around 50-50 and the compression knob set high.

Question: did you build the Quartz with the three leg LED? I did, but I may reverse it as the warnings were correct. It doesn’t really work with current LEDs.

I skipped the LED compressor indicator part of the circuit on the quartz and just wired a regular LED.
Between the Quartz and the Convex, which one is more transparent?

 

[Noodles]

I skipped the LED compressor indicator part of the circuit on the quartz and just wired a regular LED.
Between the Quartz and the Convex, which one is more transparent?

Good call.

They are both pretty transparent. I’d say Quartz by a small margin to my ears.