There's plenty of compressor-sustainer pedals on the market, but why, Carl Martin wondered, hadn't anyone designed a stompbox based around an optical compressor circuit before now? He didn't just sit around "wondering," though; Carl Martin is a doer, and he just up and released the Classic Opto-Compressor pedal. Other stompbox compressors can't hold a candle to it. Literally! Stompboxes do not have opposable thumbs!

Why is an optical compressor better than a non-optical one? The answer, invariably, requires math, so I'll let others explain it for me. Here's Carl's take:

"An optical compressor performs gain reduction control via a light source into a photo sensitive cell... as the light source gets brighter, the photo sensitive cell sends a signal to reduce dynamic range, or what becomes a compressed signal."

And now, here's Mercenary Audio's take:

"An optical compressor performs gain reduction control via a light source into a photo sensitive cell... as the light source gets brighter, the photo sensitive cell tells the amplifiers to turn down the volume... hence less dynamic range, or what is known as a compressed signal."

Man! Those two sources TOTALLY corroborate each other! That's why the internet is so great. But what makes the Carl Martin Classic Opto-Compressor itself so great?

Besides the opto-compressor circuit, the pedal features Gain (pre-compression), Level (output compensation), Comp (when you play the same bar over and over under a soloist) and Attack (see "Bush Doctrine"). The pedal is also part of the Carl Martin "Vintage" line, so it features retro-styling, a die-cast housing, and can run off both 9v batteries and a regulated power supply, though Carl recommends the power supply, and not just because they sell one; optical cells require quite a bit more power to operate correctly than transistor circuits.