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OVNIFX Smoothie Compressor

#362
Mine arrived today. I am very impressed. The pedal is essentially silent. That is very important to me. The tone knob covers a lot of territory. It is the perfect tone fattening tool. It adds body without getting too round. It also doesn't "puff" your notes when the compression kicks in. It took me less than 5 minutes to dial in the tone I wanted. Fantastic work Bongo! This is a keeper.
 
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#364
First time i read about this comp. Reviews look fine. Short questions: is the bypass a relay based one or 3dpt? Internal voltage? A voltage doubler? Can i take awesome hot signals? Amps fx loop?
Any pictures about internal design / wiring? Is it neat?

Im sure the answers are in this thread but...

Thx for any help
 
#365
I'm taking the slow road with the Smoothie. Starting with Cyrus's suggested setting, I got a nice fat tone. The whole thing is really cool. Silent, for one thing. The controls are solid feeling and very responsive. The tone control is very cool. The attack and sustain interplay is nice too.

I'm going to run it all by itself for a few days and really get to know it.

Very happy so far!
 
#366
Tyand said:
is the bypass a relay based one or 3dpt? Internal voltage? A voltage doubler? Can i take awesome hot signals? Amps fx loop?
Any pictures about internal design / wiring? Is it neat?
Click to expand...
Bypass is relay based. It doesn't use a voltage doubler, so it doesn't have super high headroom. Most people won't have a problem, but line level signals are probably going to get some distortion, or at least heavy squashing. Whether it will work in your amp's loop depends on the design of the specific loop; some cases will be fine, others not. The guts are very tidy, here's a shot:

smoothieguts.jpg
 
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#367
bongomania said:
Bypass is relay based. It doesn't use a voltage doubler, so it doesn't have super high headroom. Most people won't have a problem, but line level signals are probably going to get some distortion, or at least heavy squashing. Whether it will work in your amp's loop depends on the design of the specific loop; some cases will be fine, others not. The guts are very tidy, here's a shot:

smoothieguts.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. I prefer relays. Makes the smoothie very attractive. Amazing that a battery fits in. Although I'm one of the guys that would prefer a DI-Out instead of the battery.
 
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#369
Yes, I am finally wearing down my builder guy about the "value" of using batteries, so odds are good that in the near-ish future we'll be able to use that space for something else. And the DI/filter box should be next in the product queue. So... I wouldn't hold my breath, since these things move slowly, but your requests are likely to come true at some point.
 
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#372
Batteries? We don't need no stinkin' batteries! But seriously, it may be I know I'd be one to vote for high-end enclosure version with etched metal and no battery. Even if it's just a smaller enclosure, or with an added DI. I hate to criticize anything you do Bongo, the pedal is amazing; just saying my wishlist might include a different enclosure design is all.
 
#375
I am ALSO wearing him down on the point about top vs side jacks. We have a new, very slick looking stainless steel enclosure that we'll be debuting in the near future, and I have been really pushing for sizing it to accommodate top jacks.

Unfortunately just removing the battery box would not be enough to make that happen, because it would mean a whole new circuitboard redesign too.
 
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#376
Since it's black Friday and I've had the Smoothie on my wishlist for a while, I figured today would be a good day to check up on it. I love the update Bongo, I look forward to seeing the etched version! Keep wearing him down on the top jacks, glad to hear you're pushing for it.

So how's everyone doing with their Smothies? Just wondering how a running a compressor affects other effects in the chain. Like I imagine that running a compressor would make the signal more consistent, so I'd assume that it could make the dynamics of an envelope filter more consistent as well. And in the same way, ensure that distorted levels run more consistent as well with fuzzes and overdrives.
 
#378
Kosko said:
So how's everyone doing with their Smoothies? Just wondering how a running a compressor affects other effects in the chain. Like I imagine that running a compressor would make the signal more consistent, so I'd assume that it could make the dynamics of an envelope filter more consistent as well. And in the same way, ensure that distorted levels run more consistent as well with fuzzes and overdrives.
Click to expand...

I just posted mine for sale, as I unfortunately have to cut back on some pedals, but mentioned in my post: What's really magic is that the tilting EQ applies only to the compressed signal; it leaves the dry blend alone. I found that using this after my envelope filter (or envelope and octave) with a bit of dry mixed in and playing with the EQ, I was able to preserve the dynamics completely but make the bottom fatter and punchier. It really made the filter sound more "articulate". My Wonderlove (which sounds fantastic on it's own) sounds even better with the Smoothie after it.
 
#380
I've been thinking about doing some house cleaning. More than thinking, really. I took a stuffed van full of crap to the dump today. What better way to spend black Friday.

I'm eying lots of the music gear and thinking about turning it into cash, but the smoothie would stay. It's a keeper. I'm still finding cool things with it.

It certainly blows away every comp and limiter function on my B3.
 

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