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Strymon unveils The Compadre, a dual voice compressor and boost

The Californian device builders make their return to Compression, following the discontinuation of their flagship OB-1.

Strymon Compadre

Image: Strymon

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Strymon has returned to the realm of compressors – unveiling The Compadre, an analogue/digital dual-voice compressor with boost. This follows Strymon’s discontinuation of the OB.1 compressor, the company’s first-ever pedal, earlier this year.

The Compadre aims to equip guitarists with “true studio-quality analogue compression”, featuring two distinct voices for smooth transparent, or vintage squeeze. Like the OB.1, they’ve coupled this with an independent Boost circuit – albeit this time, it’s been equipped with the option to select between clean or soft-clipped dirty boost.

Under its hood, the Compadre combines a Class A JFET preamp input, along with studio-grade analogue compression, and musically-voiced analogue boost circuitry to make an amp sound like “it was just modified by a world-class boutique amp designer.” The use of the Class A JFET, in particular, affords the pedal its touch-sensitive dynamics, low noise floor, and high headroom.

The characteristics of the Compadre’s Studio Mode compression voice offers silky smooth, transparent compression more akin to something you would find in a vintage studio rack compressor. In Squeeze mode, the pedal reveals its classic stompbox compressor qualities – providing heavy-and-hard compression with maximum sustain.

Dialling in just the right amount of compression is also made easy through the Compadre’s Dry knob, which dictates how much dry signal is added back to the tone. Running a parallel compression process like this allows guitarists to attain a natural-sounding tone, adding ‘air’ back to a squashed signal.

The Compadre’s onboard Boost circuit – which runs independently to the compressor – offers three EQ profiles that tell the pedal to boost either the top-end (Treble), mid-range (Mid), or the entire frequency spectrum (Flat). The Boost’s tonal characteristics can also be flipped between Clean, and Dirty – which brings in the soft-clipping characteristics of an overdrive pedal.

For players seeking even more control over their tone, the Compadre packs full MIDI functionality for interfacing with other a MIDI-equipped ‘board. Add to that, the ability to save up to 300 presets – which can be recalled as ‘Favourites’ through Strymon utility pedals like the Multiswitch.

The Compadre lists at $299. Pre-ordering begins 27 April through Strymon distributors, including musicpsych.com in the UK

Learn more about the Compadre at strymon.com

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