Darkglass Breeds Hybrid Compressor Pedal

Darkglass Electronics has added to its pedal range with the new Hyper Luminal Hybrid Compressor.

The pedal digitally models the side-chain circuits in some of the best known compressors and has three selectable models: BUS: Modelled after the Solid State Logic Bus Compressor; FET: Inspired by the legendary UA 1176.
and SYM: the firm’s own Super Symmetry pedal.

Instead of using mechanical switches to select the compression Ratio and Mode in the Hyper Luminal Compressor, Darkglass implemented touch-through-metal sensors which detect when and where the chassis is touched and change parameters accordingly.

With the free Darkglass Suite for PC/Mac it is possible to connect the pedal via USB to load additional and upcoming compressor models, set Time settings and adjust other parameters.

The pedal also features a  10-LED gain reduction meter and four knobs: Blend: Mixes the clean and effected signals; Time: Sets the time constants (Attack and Release). Fine tuning and mapping can be done through the Darkglass Suite, so you can assign different constants to each model; Compression: Sets the amount of compression and
Level sets the overall output volume of the unit.

Although the pedal runs at 9V, it doubles the operation voltage internally to 18V for extra headroom, so audio from powerful bass preamps or line level signals like synths etc. will pass through clearer.

Features

• Hybrid Analog/Digital Compression
• Pure Analog signal path
• Blend control
• 3 built in yet distinct modes of advanced modelled compression
• Connect to your PC/Mac via Micro-USB (B)
• Free ‘Darkglass Suite’ software
provides additional fine control and compression models
• 10-LED gain reduction meter
• Touch-Through metal sensors
• Internal doubling of supply voltage to 18V
allows for extra headroom
• I/O: 6.5mm / ¼” Jack
• Input impedance: 1M Ohm
• Output impedance: 1k Ohm
• Powered by optional 9V PSU
(9V DC, centre -, 2.1mm, ~250mA current draw)