Vaccinator Compressor
A rather timely addition to our range, The Vaccinator is a compressor kit. Its based on the OTC-1 Compressor, which is also pretty much the same circuit used within the Fat General Compressor.
The circuit is an optical design, with two knobs for sustain and volume. There are two non obvious quirks which make this really interesting. The volume knob is called Balance, and it takes the output of the compressed signal from 0 to 11. However, when combined with the mode toggle (SW2) you can choose either 100% compressed or a clean blend. Clean blend layers the compressed signal at a fixed volume with the compressed signal on top of it. As far as I know, its quite a unique feature.
The second toggle is a 3 position switch for cutting or increasing the input gain. This feature ensures its really versatile for high or low output instruments. The optical compression goes from smooth and unobtrusive, to squishy. The tone is pretty transparent. The circuit was designed to accentuate the treble at the beginning of each note, which emphasises your pick attack. As the note decays the highs are lowered. This kit gives you a crisp and articulate sound. Your attack will cut through the mix without becoming too bright.
Finally, theres a cute little internal toggle to select buffered or true bypass switching.
Our kit includes my DIY friendly PCB design, with larger solder pads, and a spacious layout therefore giving you the best chance of a successful build from any kit supplier on the scene. Couple that with the in depth build guides and our Facebook support group, then you can see why we are ahead of the game.
This one fits inside one of our excellent JP125B enclosures and features the ability to use right angled pots to ensure a neat presentation. Pre drilled kits will come with top mounted jacks and power.
This kit is at the intermediate level. It has expensive parts to make it work and should be considered a challenge. Speaking of expensive parts, those vactrols are hard to source but very much needed here. You could try rolling your own LED/LDR combo, but take my word for it... you're peeing into the wind!
