Serpens Pedal by Ground Control Audio

The Serpens is an organic, touchy-feely LED-LDR optical compressor. It’s essential for tappy guitars in math rock or midwest emo.

Ground Control Audio Serpens Review

Serpens Optical Compressor Specs

Power requirement: 12mA @ 9VDC

Power supply: center-negative 9VDC (does not support 18VDC)

Bypass type: Mechanical true bypass

The Serpens, which was released in 2017, was Ground Control’s first venture into non-drive/gain-oriented circuit design. The result is a raw, organic, and punchy optical compressor.

The Serpens is a feed-forward optical compressor that uses a simple side-chain. It features a half-wave rectifier circuit that is fed into the optical component and slowly discharges through a clever RC circuit that can be adjusted for decay time control. The side-chain also has its own amplification circuit, enabling control of the side-chain sensitivity to the input signal. The primary gain control operates in tandem with the sensitivity control, and together, they form a dynamic pair that acts in a similar manner to “threshold” and “ratio” controls on a conventional studio compressor. Additionally, the Serpens is one of the few optical compressors that features a highly sought-after blend/mix control.

While preserving as much of the tonal characteristics of the input signal as possible, the Serpens is often paired with our Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, or Noodles pedals as they allow for extra tone shaping that works well following the optical compressor.

What’s in the Box of our Ground Control Audio Serpens Pedal?

• Serpens Pedal
• Branded Pedal Box
• Ground Control Audio and DeathCloud Stickers
• Guitar Pick
• Info Card
• Candy

*Do not power with anything other than a center-negative 9VDC power supply. This pedal uses circuitry to double up the 9VDC power supply and you do not want to feed it any more. This kills the pedal and will void the warranty. You will be charged for repairs.

Ground Control Audio Serpens Manual

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