The Strymon OB.1 Compressor/Booster

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Hi There,

This is by far one of the very best compressors I have ever used. Hard to believe it's a guitar stomp...A pdf of the review is in the zip file...Text is below if you don't feel like opening it...more on Strymon here - strymon

Review of the Strymon OB.1 Optical Compressor/Booster – By: Pete Melton

First, it was the SVPre and that is perhaps one the best designed and executed modification products that I have seen in quite some time. The SVPre is exactly the input board that the Line 6/Bogner Spider Valve needed. If you have Spider Valve and want to experience what the amp was made to do; the Strymon SVPre is a must. Strymon has recently released the OB.1 Compressor/Booster pedal. So what is Terry up to? This isn’t a mod for a Spider Valve or anything Line 6. This is a completely analog optical compressor with a clean booster circuit. It seems that Strymon is branching out. But I was unaware of what exactly this new product was when I first heard about it.

Surprise!
Several months ago Terry contacted me and asked if I would be interested in participating in a BETA for something new. All I knew at the time is that it was for use with any guitar amp. I was an early adopter of the SVPre and was more than impressed with Strymon’s first product effort. How could I NOT be interested in something new from Strymon? The SVPre is an excellent product. What in the world might this be? A few days later, Terry sent me some info and pictures about the OB.1 and told me it was on the way. Strymon made a compressor pedal?! With a clean boost?! With a voicing switch?!

Shipping and Handling
Strymon did a great job packing and shipping the SVPre and the OB.1 had the same care. No shipping issues and excellent communication is obviously a priority for this company. Strymon kept me informed all along the way as they did on the SVPre and the OB.1 actually arrived a little bit earlier than expected as I remember. However, this OB.1 is built like a tank. You could likely just affix postage to the unit and drop ship it naked…Not that I would do that. I just want to convey how well built this pedal is.

First Impression
The OB.1 is a beautiful piece of engineering in a lot of ways. In terms of appearance, it does not get much better than billet aluminum in a custom color. Just holding it, turning the knobs and flicking the switch I knew that this was a very high quality and elegant piece of gear.
 
I plugged up the OB.1 in line between my guitar and SV112 and left all the other stomps out. Kudos to Strymon for shipping it with a fresh battery in the OB.1. The compressor is so transparent. This is the trademark of an optical compressor. They are very fast and the good ones are quite transparent. You can use this compressor in so many ways and it really works well in all of them. You can set it down so it is just taking care of the peaks and will smooth off the tone beautifully. Crank up the compressor and back off the output and it is a great sustainer…The attack transients are retained quite nicely with less pumping than a VCA compressor. And as with the SVPre, I am very impressed with how quiet this thing is. Even using it as a sustainer, the noise floor stays very low. The noise floor is something I noticed on the SVPre. Well, I didn’t notice it because it seemed not to exist anymore. The same thing is happening here. How can my noise floor be improved by adding a pedal and 20 feet more of cable…Although I am exaggerating a little on that, using 20 feet of cable on each side of the OB.1 did not seem to change the noise floor in the least.

The Real World
So this pedal works great on its own. I have a Boss BCB-60 pedalboard with the following pedals in it…
GTR->ToneCore Constrictor->AW-3->DS-1->FZ-5->LMB-3->DM-3->Amp Land
Well, the Constrictor is a pretty darn good compressor. However, I find the OB.1 is much better for me and I do think it sounds better. The OB.1 went in the first position right where the Constrictor was and now I have yet another couple of flavors of boost. My BCB-60 is basically boost and flavor board with the DM-3 acting as my amp splitter and dedicated pre delay (don’t need that all that much). I also have the newer boss switching PSU…Absolutely zero power issues. The power is pinned out and this pedal will likely work with any old 9 daisy chained VDC supply. I could not note any tonal differences between battery and using a PSU on the OB.1…I used the OB.1 in the pedal board at gig my band did a month or so ago and I don’t think I used my clean boost mod DS-1 at all that evening…A couple of guitar buddies asked about it also because…Well, it did not officially exist at that point. The most useful thing I found with it for me was using it as a compound booster. The compressor on its own has enough level to be a very nice booster. Some tones need more boost than others and this where the clean boost can really come in handy. One thing to note is that the clean boost is only effective when the compressor is activated. However, the OB.1 gives you indication of whether the boost is active or not regardless of the compressor state. This works very nicely.

CLEAN Boost
Optical compressors are very cool for guitar and Strymon has certainly created a compelling compressor for guitar. As good as that is, the clean booster is off the hook and finishes out this piece with a feature that most all guitar players need at some point. It will drive the ever living snot out of the SVPre. In terms of using it in front of the amp it works very nicely. As always in that usage, the higher the gain on the tone, the less effective any clean booster becomes. The excellent low noise floor of the OB.1 make it more practical in this position than most other boosters I have tried. In the loop, the OB.1 is to die for. I have used the OB.1 a lot of ways. On one rehearsal with my band, I stuck the OB.1 between my XT bean the POS Crate amplifier I use over there from time to time. I used a conservative setting on the compressor to get the peaks and just used the boost for solos, intros and those spots that need boosting…And as always with new gear I went a little over the top setting the boost level and used it more than I needed to. My band and I were astounded by just how much level this little box puts out. At 1PM on the dial, it was more than enough…and did I mention that this thing is quiet? The amount of headroom in the boost level is mind blowing. So much for a push off the cliff as the OB.1 can certainly do that easily. It seems that the OB.1 can also literally throw you off the cliff all the way out to the horizon if needed.

Voicing
The eq voicing is a very nice shaping feature. I tended to like the middle position for most of my usage but the other modes are very usable. The flat is excellent for clean tones that need fattening for a lead passage. There are also some toggle switches on the board that allow you to tune the pedal even further to your liking. Terry told me about these switches, but honestly the pedal sounds so good to me like it is that I have not even opened it up yet to check those out. I don’t want to let the mojo out. But that is a very nice touch that you most often see in modified pedals. I am sorry that I don’t have more on this as I am sure many of you tweakers would be very interested in this feature…It is very nice to know that it is there and that feeds into the next section.

But Wait There’s more
This OB.1 is so clean I decided to inject it in my DAW and run a few tracks through it to hear how it works…After all; it seems the noise floor might be low enough and an optical compressor is always welcome. I have not done much more than run a vocal track through it, bass and a drum bus…It seems like it would be up to the task and it does have its own unique vibe that is very pleasant. I have not incorporated the OB.1 onto any tracks yet but what I heard was great and comparable to my favorite optical comp plug, the UAD-1 LA3A. Actually the OB.1 seems slightly better in terms of LA3A compressor mode. I can’t tell you if the attack on the OB.1 is faster or slower. It just seems slightly better if that makes any sense. The OB.1 has a very pleasant sonic footprint and my first instinct is to start using the OB.1 on vocal tracks. One question I had for Terry was when is the dual rackmount version coming out?

Summary
I am not too sure about the battery life. It is probably pretty good as I have put at least 2 or 3 hours on the battery Terry included and since it has been in the pedalboard on the BOSS PSU and the battery still has some life left in it (not sure how much).
The OB.1 is by far the best compressor I have ever used in a guitar rig. The clean boost is exactly that…CLEAN. It works in front, in the loop and in the studio. The price of $199 might seem a little steep for a compressor. However, the quality speaks for itself sonically, esthetically and structurally. The price is completely in line with the quality of the product.

Strymon is a company to keep your eye on. The first two products out of the gate are nothing less than stellar offerings. The OB.1 sounds and behaves a lot like a studio piece in the form factor of a guitar pedal where the SVPre is the missing link for the Spider Valve. It makes me wonder, what Strymon going to blow our minds with next?