11.5

132 Effects and effect plug-ins
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Comp (opto compressor)
After the contour circuit, the signal passes through the
compressor stage (Comp). This is a simple but extremely musical
"optical-electrical" design: the bass triggers a light source (e.g. an
LED or a luminescent film) that is coupled with a photo resistor.
The louder you play, the more light falls on the photo resistor, which in turn
dampens the signal. This may already be familiar to you from the most famous
studio compressor for bassists, i.e. Urei LA2A, which functions according to
the same principle.
There aren't that many settings to change in such a simple compressor. The
control times are mostly determined by the sluggishness of the photo resistors.
The comp control only sets the signal strength, which is routed to the light
source.
Drive
After any possible compression, "Drive" provides the option to
take the bass sound to the next level. The drive circuit is an
additional amplification stage, which is proportionally mixed to the
main signal. Signal distortion takes place depending on the
frequency:
In spite of a level of distortion, the basses remain relatively clean and
contoured. This guarantees complete "traction" of the signal when the
controller is set all the way to the right.
Equalization
The following equalization
stage offers 4 frequency
ranges, in which case the
two mid bands are variable.
Some bass amps allow their EQ circuits to have a drastic effect on the signal.
We decided on a softer filtering with an edge slope of 6 dB/octave to avoid
fully counterfeiting the essential character of the instrument in spite of the four
bands.