Crazy Tubes Circuits has revised its φ (Phi) Golden Ratio Compressor, adding a trio of all-analogue compression circuits to the mix, each selectable via toggle switch and putting a slightly squeeze on your tone.
The compressor pedal is often overlooked. It's not as sexy as a wah pedal. It's not as cool as a fuzz pedal. But it's often a life-saver, gussying up your tone and taming your transients to even up your sound – ideal when playing blistering solos or for the hard chop of rhythmic funk.
Here we have three separate types of compression, with each having their own distinct effect on your sound. There is FET compressor that, as the name implies, uses a FET transistor for taming spikes in your gain and tightening things up, and might introduce a little bit of tube amp-style warmth and a little distortion to the your sound.
Then we have the OTA compressor, which is able to put a serious squeeze on your sound for taming fast transients and limiting, using what Crazy Tube Circuits calls a feed-forward detector circuit .
Finally, there is an optical compressor (OPTO), which uses a photocell for a more organic sound, its feedback detector circuit working in concert with the photocell to smooth out your tone.
As ever with compression, different types work better with different styles and with different guitars and amps, and it's about finding what suits your playing the best. With three types in one, the Golden Ratio v2 makes that easy.
Other controls include Volume for setting the units output, Blend for the mix of compressed/uncompressed signal passing through, and Ratio, which has an internal smart switching circuit a wide sweep from 1:1 to 20:1, controls how much gain is reduced after the signal reaches a given threshold.
Meanwhile, Threshold controls just that, and Attack and Release controls how quickly the compression kicks in and then eases off to return the signal to its uncompressed state. The Golden Ratio v2 uses parallel compression for studio-quality sounds, has a low noise floor, and can be used for guitar, bass guitar, or whatever instrument you need compressing.
The unit can be run at 9V or 18V for more headroom, and is priced €229. See Crazy Tube Circuits for more details.
