IK Multimedia Opto Compressor

Audiophile gain control

Optical compression has a special sonic character that audiophiles can truly appreciate. The technology behind its behavior and the way it achieves gain reduction is so ingenious and at the same time quite simple: the core of the circuit is an electro-optical attenuator, whose light source intensity is directly proportional to the level of the incoming signal. The second part of the gain reduction circuit is a photoconductive cell, which reads the light's intensity and in turn adjusts its resistance being applied to the signal. As a result, the output amplifier follows by adjusting its gain, thereby creating the compression.

This analog-modeled module faithfully recreates that particular (and extremely musical) "movement" that characterizes only the best opto compressors.

An important characteristic of optical compression is the total absence of distortion and coloration during gain reduction, and you can expect the same character and performance from this digital recreation.

Given these features, vocals are one of the most common applications for this module, but the quality of the compression is so gentle, yet very effective that the Opto-Compressor can be used on any source where clean, steady but distortion-free gain reduction is required.