MXR Dyna Comp
Released in 1972, the MXR Dyna Comp quickly became a hit due to its competitive price and ease of use. Producing dynamic range compression, smoothing out the volume difference between notes, it was widely cloned and adapted
the dyna comp adds a great deal of colour to the signal
Asuccess on its release, and a classic by the time MXR was bought out by Dunlop in 1984, the Dyna Comp is nevertheless probably one of the least ‘sexy’ vintage pedals. Designed by Keith Barr and Richard Neatrou, the pair wanted to deliver a pedal formfactor voltage controlled amplifier (VCA) that worked well on guitar, basing the design around an operational trans-conductance amplifier, or OTA. After a period of experimentation, the original Dyna Comp was born. The finished unit still didn’t have a particularly great signal-to-noise ratio, but in the context of the time, it was more than adequate. In addition to its core task of dynamic range compression, the Dyna Comp added a great deal of colour to the signal. This, plus the ‘fattening’ effect of the dynamic levelling led to its popularity among country players, who often favoured Telecasters with thinner-sounding single coils. The compressor’s fixed attack speed leveled off sharp plucking, or percussive pick sounds, while the OTA added sustain and brought the guitar forward in mixes, or live, by allowing for additional gain. There’s been a lot written about the ‘mojo’ of the originals, and besides two obvious additions - an indicator LED and true-bypass switching - the main difference between units centres around just three things. First, the IC used; originally a tin-can CA3080 IC, on some models it switched to a Dip-style chip; second, the type of transistor used at the input; third, the move to multi-layer PCB and SMD manufacture. Whatever the technical details though, the real magic comes from the players, and the Dyna Comp has seen action with artists as diverse as David Gilmour, Sonny Landreth and Adrian Belew over the years, appearing on countless other boards and records.