WALRUS AUDIO: Mira optical compressor

WALRUS AUDIO BROUGHT studiograde compression to guitar effects with Deep Six, a pedal inspired by Universal Audio's industry-standard rackmount 1176 FET compressor. Now the Oklahoma City-based company has introduced Mira, an analog optical compressor that offers smooth, transparent compression in a pedal that boasts studio-quality features, specs and headroom.

- CHRISTOPHER SCAPELLITI

If you're among the guitarists who have incorporated a compressor into your rig, you undoubtedly appreciate how the device can tame dynamics and transients, add detail and improve sustain. Mira does all of the above but has a few additional tricks up its sleeve, as we'll see. It also has, like all Walrus pedals, eye-catching graphics, in this case a smoke-grey enclosure with art by Adam Forster that depicts bodies rising heavenward from a barren desert plain, a cunning hint to the pedal's impact on your tone.

Like most compressors, Mira has controls for input level, threshold (where compression begins to take effect), ratio (the amount of gain reduction applied to your signal) and makeup, which adds back volume lost through compression. Two smaller controls govern attack and release. It's all fairly standard stuff for a compressor pedal, but Mira also has a handy button on the pedal's right side to engage a high-pass filter that cuts frequencies below 120Hz, preventing strong bass frequencies from assertively triggering the compressor.