Ngr Blue Spot Compressor

Description

The Blue Spot is a FET compressor with feedback-type compression control, 1176-style. The controls are Volume, Compression, a switch to activate an input buffer, and a switch that provides three Release times: Fast, Medium, and Slow. Similar to the 1176, the increase in the compression ratio is determined by increasing the gain of the signal entering the gain stage: in practice, the higher the gain, the more the compressor increases its action. All this translates into compression that is transparent and smooth at low levels, while becoming more aggressive as the amount of compression/gain increases. For the same reason, increasing compression also results in an increase in volume. For release control, I opted for fixed values rather than a potentiometer, to make choosing a particular compression character easier and more immediate. The values were chosen after numerous tests, at the end of which three settings emerged victorious: the slow one is excellent for full rhythms, the medium provides an excellent flourish for single notes, while the fast one makes it possible to even out note attack. Compression is more easily perceptible with the slow setting, and becomes less intrusive as the Release shortens. I chose to include a switchable BJT buffer, to provide the musician with two different modes: a dark one (without buffer) and a bright one (with buffer). The internal trimmer relates to FET calibration. The standard setting I chose is obtained by calibrating the trimmer so that, with compression at zero and volume at maximum, when the effect is activated, a slight increase in volume is obtained compared to the bypass position. However, I do not recommend adjusting the trimmer from the standard setting, as small variations produce large and potential