Walrus Audio announces Mira Optical Compressor pedal

August 2, 2022 · 4 sources

Walrus Audio announced the Mira Optical Compressor on August 2, 2022, a true-bypass optical compressor pedal the company describes as studio-grade¹². Guitar World reported it as available now at $249²; gearnews gave the same figure as an MSRP¹, and Guitar.com listed $249 with free two-day shipping³.

The pedal is built around an analog optical circuit. Guitar World reported it is voiced for electric guitar or bass guitar and arrives in an enclosure painted by Adam Forster². It has seven controls: Level, Threshold, Ratio, Make-Up, Blend, plus mini-dials for Attack and Release²³. Guitar World described Level as controlling output volume, Make-Up as controlling how much gain is applied to the compressed signal, and Threshold as setting the volume at which compression engages, with a lower setting engaging it sooner². Blend mixes dry and compressed signal². A push-button high-pass filter in the side-chain lets frequencies of 120Hz and below pass, so they engage the compressor less than higher frequencies¹². A gain-reduction LED on the front brightens as more gain is reduced².

Guitar.com reported the pedal runs at ±15VDC internally for more headroom³, and Guitar World reported it takes a regular 9V DC center negative supply drawing 200mA minimum, with top-mounted jacks². Walrus also offers the Deep Six, a FET-based compressor inspired by the Universal Audio 1176².

Guitar.com quoted Walrus president Colt Westbrook, who wrote in an Instagram post announcing the pedal: "Compression is the salt of the audio sphere"³.