Wednesday, 14 January 2026

Boss CS-3 Compressor / Madbean Oracle

 Another great contribution by Chris Stelloh!

 This is a layout drawn from the Madbean Oracle project, which is, essentially the Boss CS-3 compression sustainer. I really like the sound of VCA-driven compressors, especially on sampled drum sounds. This Boss pedal has been around for about 40 years, and the Madbean version makes a few slight modifications to it based on stuff people have done attempting to improve the sound quality and lower the noise. I included a list of part values that are most commonly swapped to make this more bass guitar friendly.

This one is verified and good to go. 


 

5 comments:

  1. To anyone who may attempt this one - the 8 pin SIP chip (I used the Coolaudio reissue) has a flat side and and an indented side. With the indented side facing up, the pins are numbered 1-8 from left to right.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the hint, I definitely need to source one, thanks for the layout.
      Ps in the upper left part of the board, 4x 100nF in // = 400nF no?!

      Delete
    2. The power filtering MLCC's are in parallel - so yes, approx 400nF. The four individual caps are what is on the schematic. https://www.madbeanpedals.com/projects/_folders/Compressor/schematics/Oracle24.gif

      Delete
  2. Also - as far as the various 2181 SIP chips go - THAT makes three of them with suffixes A, B and C. Fidelity according to price - "A" is the most expensive at about $11. The coolaudio one I used is the least expensive at about $5 - and I don't know how it compares to the others with noise floor and all. This can be a bit of a noisy bastard when you crank the sustain, and a gate after it can be quite necessary for some applications. I will be sending Anders/Fuzzhead a layout for a modified NF-1 noise gate that I am currently working on verifying.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amazing! Thank you Chris!

    ReplyDelete