Build Your Own Clone Message Board

I wanted to retrim my classic compressor (vintage upgrade) I had the trim at about 2 a clock. But the sound seemed to 'kick' in after the input signal reaches a certain treshold and the note seemed to cut off after the signal droped below the treshold. Level was at unity and comp knop at max.

I turned the trim more towards 12 - 1 o clock and the pedal reacts better to the input. No more threshold and the note decayes very nicely. I can hear the noise go up when the note decays as is to be expected I guess because it is amplifying noise together with a low input signal.

But now when the comp knop is at max the pedal is really noisy when I don't play. Is this normal? Is this due to the vintage components maybe?

Compressors definitely add a bit of noise, especially when you have the "sustain" or "sensitivity" knob turned all the way up. And as you've noted, their maximum gain/noise is when there is no input signal. So, yes. You'll need to expect some noise, but it's hard say if your noise level is normal or not. If there is some extra noise, it's usually caused by the power supply. Do you notice a difference when you use a battery?

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*patience is a virtue*

Please do not PM me. email is prefered. keith@buildyourownclone.com

I tried the battery. But noise was the same. Switched from 18v to 9v. Still the same. But then I shortened all the purple wires to a minimal length and now it's much much better.

Didn't expect that the wires would pick up so much noise.

Love the byoc kits.

In many cases, the wire length doesn't seem to make any difference. But in some circuits it has a significant effect, as you found, so it's good build practice to keep them as short as reasonably possible. For this reason, I like to mount all the hardware in the enclosure, set the unwired PCB in place and then measure (by eyeball) the length of each wire connection. I leave ~1/8" extra on the ends that will connect to the PCB, footswitch and DC jack and ~1/4" for the connections to the I/O jacks. Here's one of my better efforts, FWIW:

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“My favorite programming language is SOLDER” - Bob Pease (RIP)

My Website * My Musical Gear * My DIY Pedals: Pg.1 - Pg.2

So nice! Beautiful.