Walrus Audio Highpoint: Studio Grade Analog Optical Compressor
4,8 / 5,0 | 
The latest Walrus Audio release is the new Highpoint Analog Optical Compressor pedal, which follows their series of high-end pedals, including the Meraki and Mantle.
Contents: Walrus Audio Highpoint
Analog Optical Compressor
The Walrus Audio Highpoint is essentially a studio-grade analog optical compressor in a compact pedal format and with full control over the compression circuit. If you need a compressor to help ‘glue’ your sound into a mix, then Walrus Audio thinks this could be for you.
Studio Grade Compression
It offers both high-headroom and parallel compression, plus neat side-chaining high-pass control and an easy-to-read 10-LED VU meter, so you can see it working and hear the results.
The aforementioned side-chaining high-pass allows users to keep the low end defined and is perfect for anyone who deals with a lot of low-end frequencies.
A lot of musicians really need that visual feedback to understand how their compressor is set (we have all twiddled the controls of a compressor with it accidentally bypassed and wondered why nothing was happening), so this is a great feature.
It has controls for Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release, Output, and Makeup Gain, plus the Blend control, which sets the parallel compression amount. This makes the pedal much closer to rackmount studio units, as it has dedicated controls for compression. There are no control options for the Knee, but otherwise, it has just about everything you could need from a compressor.
Who is it for?
Priced at $349, this is not your average guitar/bass guitar compression pedal, so it is aimed at musicians who want to control every aspect of their sound. If you need to retain your low end, have your chords ring out and play with a defined sound, this is probably what you are looking for.
I use parallel compression a lot, so that aspect appeals to me, and side chaining can also be super useful.
MSRP – $349
It follows Meraki and Mantle in Walrus Audio’s high-spec pedal series.
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