Source Audio has unveiled the Atlas compressor pedal, a stompbox that aims to serve up a buffet of classic compression sounds in a small, pedalboard-friendly enclosure.
Said to be more than a decade in the making, the pedal features the Massachusetts company's take on both high-end rack compressors, and classic compressor stompboxes.
At the pedal's heart is a choice of six types of compression, accessible via a three-way switch, and stored in two banks of presets that can be switched between via the pedal's top-mounted control/Alt switch.
Among these are the company's take on the Diamond Compressor pedal, and emulations of high-end rack units such as the LA2A optical and 1176 FET compressors. Peak, RMS, VCA, and a dual band compression also come aboard.
All of these can be tweaked by a quartet of control knobs, all of which have alternate functionality via the Alt switch – Threshold, Ratio (Tone), Blend (Attack), and Output (Release).
Threshold's Alt-triggered function is Makeup Gain, which allows users to recoup lost output volume caused by the compressed signal.
It's also worth nothing that the Atlas is bass guitar-compatible, too. The low-end mode is activated by holding down, you guessed it, the control/Alt switch.
Speaking of the top of the pedal, the Atlas also features dual inputs and outputs, and a USB port from which users can connect to Source Audio's Neuro app, access MIDI features, or connect to a DAW.
The Neuro app is available for free on mobile or desktop, and provides Atlas users with yet more varieties of compression – including an attack-smoothing "look ahead" compressor and one modeled after the legendary Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer pedal – and advanced editing tools, like 3-band parametric and 8-band graphic EQs.
The Source Audio Atlas Compressor features buffered bypass or true bypass functionality, runs on an included 9v DC power supply, and is available now for $229.
For more info on the stompbox, visit Source Audio.
