recommend schematic or kit for compressor pedal

You might go to www.buildyourownclone.com and check one of their kits

 

BYOC has quite a few to choose from. Good instructions too and a forum for trouble shooting.

 

I don't get the part where the clone kit costs more than a used genuine pedal.

 

Do you know what type of circuit you want your compressor based off of? Ross, Orange Squeezer, optical, etc.? Also, what are you using it for?

I think Switchy is right, depending upon what you’re looking for you might be better off finding something used.

 

I’m a Ross Comp fan and built mine on the General Guitar Gadgets board.

 

Also check out tagboard effects for lots of veroboard layouts. I've been meaning to make an EHX black finger compressor based on the layout there. I've had all the parts sitting in my parts bin for probably the better part of a year now but I haven't been in a pedal building mood for quite a while I guess...

 

I’ve made a Bear Hug comp and a Really Cheap ( I think is the name) comp. both from the tag board website. Both work well, but I like the Bear Hug much better.

I think 1776 effects sells a pcb for the Bear Hug.

the Engineers Thumb is another DIY comp that people talk about a lot. I haven’t made one but the demos I’ve seen sound nice, and it seems to be very well liked.

 

1. Economy of scale. Dunlop is getting bulk discounts on 100s of thousands of parts and taking advantage of automation and assembly-line processes. Once they spend the capital to setup, the per piece costs is cheap
   
2. The thru-hole, solder-lead components we use for DIY and boutique pedals and amps are all considered obsolete in an industrial sense, they are mostly only made for restoration and hobbyists

Building is a hobby all to itself, you don't build kits to save money.

 

Five-knob Engineer's Thumb is my favorite compressor build, and I also like the Bear Hug and the circuit it's derived from, the Rothwell Love Squeeze. You can get ET boards from DeadEnd FX, and there are layouts on Merlin's (The Valve Wizard) site as well as on Tagboard Effects.
I've been messing around with the ET for months and barely scratched the surface of what it can do.

 

Building your own may not help — There's a ton of DIY options, too.

You don't mention what your needs/goals are.
First decide what your compression goals are... Limiting? Tone-shaping? Evening (bringing soft parts up, loud parts down but still allowing for some dynamics); for effect such as super-squashed with no dynamics left); getting some "spank" or "twang" for chicken-pickin?: sustain for daze or doom?...

I've been fascinated with and researching compression for a few years now, and still feel my understanding of it is lacking. One thing I've come across frequently is people disliking a compressor because they either don't know how to use it properly or it is the wrong type of compressor for what they're trying to achieve.

Store-bought or DIY-fraught, either way you're still going to have to do some homework...

HERE'S some excellent reviews that may help you narrow down which circuit you want to DIY or buy second hand:
http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/
Ovni has a great comp FAQ, and Sound On Sound has some great explanations of types (FET, VCA, Opto) and suggested uses, too.

There's also another guy on Talkbass who's constantly reviewing compressors and has set up his own website for that, in addition to posting on the forum. What's good for the bass goose may be great for the guitar gander.


LIST OF VERO
http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/search/label/Compressor


LIST OF PERF
http://effectslayouts.blogspot.com/search/label/Compressor



Here's a hodgepodge of notes from my own DIY compressor hunt (not much listed for the DynaRoss circuit as it doesn't interest me); sorry, the formatting was lost when I pasted it all into TDPRI; I'm sure there's way more out there, but this is the stuff I found interesting for one reason or another:





THAT JAM UK.ELECTRONIC, Musikding ; designed by a German website community IIRC

PUMPERNICKLE SCHALLTECHNIK ; based on a DBX 160

TADEK HEXE

PMBC BYOC's Parallel Multiband Compressor (good limiter), and BYOC of course offers other comps, too.

DR PHIL THCUSTOM (Philosopher's Tone clone)

ORANGE SMOOTHIE G TRANTER (orange squeezer variant with lots of control)

AFTERLIFE MadBean
4:1 MadBean
Flabulanche MadBean

VFE BUMBLEBEE http://vfepedals.com/bumblebee.html available at MadBean
VFE WHITE HORSE (optical comp) MadBean again

FLATLINE John Hollis

ENGINEER’S THUMB 
Valve Wizard DIY ETCH, Vero, Perf, 
OSHPARK EFFECTS LAYOUT 5KNOB, 
2-knob (JMK), 
Musikding, 
PedalPCB, 
THCustom, 
NUCLEON 4-knob, 
DeadEndFX 5-knob, but 
FUZZDOG’s prolly cheapest

BEARHUG 1776 & Perf
http://1776effects.com/product/bear-hug-compressor-new-version/

DIAMOND perf — clone not missing tone stack like some other DIY versions

ZIRCONIA/DIAMONTE DIAMANTÉ vero or PCB LECTRIC-FX
http://lectric-fx.com/product/zirconia-optical-compressor-v-1-1/
Zirc Jr.



MAXON CP101 :: OPTICAL, PERF LAYOUT

MXR COMMANDE SUSTAIN :: PERF
 The circuit in question today is a better design than the DynaComp, offering less distortion and more sustain. It does have a little less compression range than the DynaComp, but also less noise.

TOADWORKS MR SQUISHY :: slightly modded Orange Squeezer, can do it on Vero/Perf/PCB-adaptation


GGG (General Guitar Gadgets) 
- COLORSOUND SUPASUSTAIN 
-
Ibanez BP-10/CP-10 uses BA6110 IC, unlike other dynaross cousins.
- GGG's schematics show only 2 differences between the BP and CP, could put the differences on a switch and have both the bass & guitar version in one pedal.

AMZ Q&D 2
SSM2166 Compressor PCB by AMZ [NOTA BENE: component labels differ REVB to REVC]


FAT N PRETTY : MOOSAPOTAMUS see also Madbean’s Holy Roller

Fat 'n' Pretty is a two channel optical compressor/overdrive based on a circuit that Johan Blomdahl dubbed the LA-Light, because his design mimicked the functional blocks of the well known LA2A Levelling Amplifier (compressor).



DiSCO pSeudo compressor & OD :: Parasit vero

ZORG Dirty Comp

LoveSqueeze Rothwell :: perf/vero, Lovely Squeezer Fuzzdog, Rullywow

Elektor Comp & Dist :: Parasit layout

DOD280 : Squishy GPCB , Grind 280lb Gorilla, Nucleon
DOD FX80B Compressor Sustainer : vero

EHX old Black Finger
http://www.freestompboxes.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2718&start=40
EHX Low Frequency Compressor [shares the PCB of the Black Finger, supposedly]
EHX Soul Preacher : effectslayouts perf version is NOT DynaRoss, but rather Orange Squeezerish…

Korg CMP-1 / Yamaha CO-01 Compressor vero

LM13700 Janglebox

Guyatone PS-021 Guitar Exciter / Compressor stock or LM13700

Way Huge Saffron Squeeze MKI — A modified Ross Compressor.

Univox Uni-Comp

Madbean Holy Roller / Bajaman LA2A Optical Limiter

EQD WARDEN ON HOLD @ tagboard, but perfed @ effects layouts…hmmmm
RECOMMEND DON’T BUILD, perf problems as well.

BJFE Pale Green Compressor
Bearfoot Pale Green Comp
Mad Professor Forest Green :: Perf
2 perf versions… one for SGD layout and the other for GSD


Really Simple Transistor Compressor — tagboard

Emma TransMORGrifier


Demeter Compulator :: RULLYWOW, 3pdt, perf

LM13700 to CA3080 Conversion Board

Carlin comp :: Moody Sounds “Thor’s Hammer”

Korg CMP-1 / Yamaha CO-01 Compressor VERO
 13600 here is just an dual OTA/VCA with the other channel unused. This means that the compression is created basically in the same manner as it is in MXR Dyna / Ross Comp.


PCBGUITARMANIA SEA LION COMPRESSOR 9.9 euro
- Walrus Audio Deep Six [another modded RossDyna] http://guitar-fx-layouts.42897.x6.nabble.com/Walrus-Audio-Deep-Six-td26464.html


- WAY HUGE SAFFRON SQUEEZE :: YAR (yet another Ross/Dyna derivation)





AION CONVEX: DINOSAURAL OTC-201 (Optical)
http://www.ovnilab.com/reviews/dinosaur.shtml
“The tone is very close to transparent. There is zero loss of highs or lows, and in fact the entire frequency spectrum is ruler flat at all settings, except for an interesting time-based change. The most unique feature of this pedal is it was designed to accentuate the treble at the very beginning of each note, to emphasize your pick/pluck attack, and then gently lower those highs as the note decays. The amount of this effect gets stronger as you turn up the Sustain knob. So even under heavy compression, the sound from this pedal stays crisp and articulate.”asdg

AION MERIDIAN AKA GUYATONE LIMITER/EXCITER

AION OCEANID Cornish OC-1 Optical Compressor “CORNWALL”?
Aion GALE: SCHAFFER-VEGA DIVERSITY SYSTEM




PAIA Infinity Plus : HAVE JC MAILLOT DRAWN SCHEMATIC, BUT NO LAYOUT YET

http://www.lynx.net/~jc/pedalsInfinity.html

This is a "character" comp/sustainer - ie. it can easily produce an exaggerated non-linear envelope response - great for textured "squashing" effects ... when no signal is applied to the input the gain of the VCA increases to a value set by the gain limiter - I use a pot with a switch to open the circuit, yielding unlimited upper gain - great for sustained feedback effects ... this is quite different than the usual limiting circuits such as a DanElectro "Orange Squeezer" or MXR "Dynacomp", which are really limiters not compressors ... anyway, a cool experiment and a basis for other comp/limiter ideas and designs ...


ISSUES USING 13600 (13700) to replace 3080
https://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=117684.0


PEDALPCB
Byrdhouse — Janglebox
Constrictor — Demeter Compulator
Delegate Comp (optical)
Muffler — MXR Noise Gate
Muzzle — Fortin Zuul Noise Gate

1776
Bear Hug

THCustom
Dr Phil : Pigtronix

Lectric-FX


WEB
That Jam, Perf or PCB from UK-Electronic or Musikding


BUDDHA COMP : Have schem and perf




HERE’s A COOL LITTLE LIMITER AND EXPLAINED WHAT DOES WHAT IN THE CIRCUIT:

by w2aew PCB on oshpark, there are a few variants so choose the best-for-me option
https://oshpark.com/profiles/LRY/page/2 and page 3
- W2AEW audioleveler w amp : newest version
- Audioleveler by W2AEW (C4, new value) : improved or just different cap value?
- Audio limiter/leveler by W2AEW : Original

NEW Ego Compressor Clone [“NEW” is relative(ly old)]
By MullisMan
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/KuBD7Q5N

cs-3 and dyna commentary
https://el34world.com/Forum/index.php?topic=17969.0
"*I think changing the OTA chip also helps a lot in a Dyna. … nicer clarity with chords & notes helping you be heard a bit better in the overall mix."

 

I don't know your skill level so I will make a three-tier recommendation
beginner - byoc mimosa - orange squeezer with clean blend
intermediate - aion aurora - I'd use the saffron squeeze component values and metal can OTA. I did one that way that was perfect ... board has options to build all kinds of variations.
advanced - I had a hard time choosing but aion has either the dinosaural or cornish optical compressors, either of which would be challenging and rewarding efforts. honorable mention to the lectric fx diamond comp.

 

Engineers Thumb. Awesome. Deadend FX board looks nice.

 

Tagboard Effects Really Cheap Compressor is the one for me. I built it a few years ago. The designer, Mictester is a member here and has posted some in the Burnt Finger part of the forum. It's a optical compressor meaning the signal is isolated from the circuitry that controls the compression so it stays really clear. I can't say enough good things about this one: http://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2012/03/really-cheap-compressor.html

 

I built that one once, sounded great but had tons of boost.



It’s the little one. I call it the Ray Palmer Compressor.