gilmourish | 9 years ago
Review of the Gurus Amps Optivalve
Signal chain:
Guitar - Fender CIJ Stratocaster, with D Allen Voodoo 69 neck and middle pickups and Seymour Duncan SSL5 bridge pickup
Amp - Laney Lionheart L20, Laney LT212 cabinet with Celestion V30 speakers
Mic - Shure SM57
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A compressor pedal might not be on the top of your list but, when used right, they can seriously improve your tone and be the secret weapon you need to really shine. I recently got my hands on the Optivalve from Gurus Amps. Here’s my review.
My relationship with compressors has evolved from being something I felt I had to keep on my board but rarely used, to something I depend on for almost all my tones. Whether it’s cleans that needs a bit more definition or lead tones that needs more sustain.
A compressor controls the dynamic range of your tone by making the quiet notes louder and the louder notes more quiet.
Peaking transients will be smoother making the signal to appear lower in volume. However, the amplifying of the lower frequencies, will make the overall volume sound more consistent and fatter and therefore make it stand out more in a mix, with more presence and sustain.
Optivalve is, as the name implies, an optical tube driven compressor based on the classic Teletronix LA-2A studio unit. In addition to the input and output controls, the Optivalve also feature controls for ratio and tone.
Input: adjusts the input gain to meet the fixed threshold for compression
Ratio: adjusts the amount of compression applied once the threshold is exceeded
Output: adjusts the volume depending on how much compression is applied, as compression often lower the overall volume. This can also be used to lower or boost the volume beyond unity level.
Tone: allow some fine tuning of your tone depending on how much compression is applied.
Like the Echosex, which I did a review on a couple of months back, the whole front lights up in the dark and there’s also a “magic eye”, or pulsating light, that indicates the amount of compression.
Like all optical compressors, the Optivalve is subtle. Unlike the typical transistor compressors (MXR Dyna Comp, Boss CS2), which has a very distinct limiting, the Optivalve is more of a tone enhancer, carefully levelling nasty peaks and bringing out more of the lows. It’s more of a feel than anything else, although, at higher settings, you can get a really nice squeeze for more dynamics and sustain.
Read the full review here
http://www.gilmourish.com/?p=7073
