Compressor / Limiter

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I know that this forums is a little biased against any form of altering the original sound...

But I need to make a couple active baffles and would like to incorporate some form of limiter. I've seen somewhere a LED-photorresistor arrangement that begins acting just near clipping.

The LED and the LDR are in a light-tight enclosure. As soon as the LED begins to lit, the LDR lowers it resistance and hence the volume.

What is your opinion on this system? I think that always limiting is better than distortion...!
 

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The LDR method has been the of mainstay of many compressors going back to the early 1960s (maybe before?) . TFPRO designed their product range around it. TED Fletcher has written some interesting articles about it.

The good side is that they SOUND quite natural.
The bad side is that they don't react quickly so they might not be great at taking out spikes. (That said I used an old TF designed Joe meek unit in my bass rig and it held back my unplug thumps well.). Also they are not linear, but then TF would say that they are aligned with natural hearing perfomance and make it sound louder ( google that!).
 
The earlier versions of this compressor used a lamp bulb, with it inherent low speed they would react quite slowly to peaks.

The version with an LED has a fast attack and low decay, much like the human hearing.

I am not much concerned about clipping a fast peak or two, as long as the sound is more or less undistorted. I find its sound acceptable.
 
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