Silly compressor idea "convoluted effort"

[Eddododo]

In that moment of sleepily watching my dog poop while I drink my coffee I was puzzling over my lack of idioms for attack controls for compressors etc, and likewise my poor understanding of the examples I found. 

I had a notion to use limiting on the envelope generating signal. My first thought was to have an active limiting circuit.  I suppose it could be done with diode limiting .. maybe even using current to affect Vf (that's a thing right? ) to affect the threshold.  Hell since the theme was convoluted effort maybe a dual pot could simultaneously control the input envelope signal pre diode and inversely the output gain of the envelope signal


Who needs a good understanding of Engineering when you're just willing to do it the dumb hard way...  ......

[Digital Larry]

Interesting.  Inspiration comes in many forms.  Are you looking for a new sound, or a new way to do the same old thing, or just having fun up there between the ears?

[Eddododo]

Interesting.  Inspiration comes in many forms.  Are you looking for a new sound, or a new way to do the same old thing, or just having fun up there between the ears?

Probably mostly the latter 2.. I've never even breadboarded compressors because of the sexy choices for bass these days,   so really have a poor grasp of anything beyond the gain reduction itself

[Eddododo]

Another facet is that I've kind of been romanticizing overly-component-laden circuits because I've been playing with dead bugging cIrcuits onto a piece of wood and then clear epoxy ing over it, so if the circuit has alot ofv parts its almost better

[midwayfair]

This can be done, of course. If you use diodes to square off the signal, you can have a predictable cap on the threshold regardless of how the other controls are set. You'd need a buffer of some sort between where the signal is tapped from the audio path and the envelope generator, which isn't too much more complexity.

However, in a compressor, the part that's actually doing the compressing sort of already does this. So the question becomes whether it's more profitable to play around in the envelope section or in the audio path. If you're using a photocell, for instance, you will know the range of volume or gain reduction you can get from it, because it has a set on and off resistance. Or if you're using the variable resistance element to reduce gain, there will most likely be a lower limit on the gain ... for instance, an op amp won't go below 1x gain.

The other thing to consider is that an envelope already has a limit: the power rails. If you have an envelope signal that's large enough to clip at the power rails, it's not getting any larger.

[Eddododo]

This can be done, of course. If you use diodes to square off the signal, you can have a predictable cap on the threshold regardless of how the other controls are set. You'd need a buffer of some sort between where the signal is tapped from the audio path and the envelope generator, which isn't too much more complexity.


The other thing to consider is that an envelope already has a limit: the power rails. If you have an envelope signal that's large enough to clip at the power rails, it's not getting any larger.

Aha duh!  As in amplifying the EG signal becomes the attack