Skip to main content

Is there any use of this box that wants to share some impression about it?
It's kind of inexpensive isn't it/

thank you

Comments

KurtFoster Fri, 04/02/2004 - 11:10

I had a 1960 for about three minutes once. Using the compression was like trying to kill an ant with a steam shovel. The mic pre was noisy as all get out. All in all, I really sort of hated it. I ended up trading it in on a Manley EL OP and I never looked back.

I really like Drawmer noise gates but I hate all of the compressor line. Word is the Mercenary Edition is a totally different animal.

TanTan Fri, 04/09/2004 - 12:45

I have one fo these and i rarely use it ,
The preamps are noisy not accurate distorted with no headroom , the overdriven di is almost unusable the di's eq is crap the filters are crap
the compressors can be usefull from time to time , deffenetly not my first choice , but it is not a bad compressor at all , the release is a problematic issue ,but it is problematic with la-4 , la-2 ,avalons (the ones i know) and many other compressors that are good for a specific things not for universal use , i found the 1960 good for sax on several ocasions and for elec guitar sometimes , but the drawmers main problem is the sound coloration it is masking the sound (the coloration is tl audio crapy style)

anonymous Sun, 04/11/2004 - 20:33

I found a 1960 6 months back for $1100. I have worked at the
settings (and my hearing!) and know enough about it to put it
across the 2-bus. I really could use a real 2-bus comp (2500, mu,
stc-8) but cant scrape the scratch together yet.

I keep the release on the fastest (left most ) setting for 2-mix,
with the attack on medium, and move the threshold til the loudest
program material reads about 3db GR.

Character? Dark, not mushy, but not sparkling. On gearslutz
recently some told me it was a VCA comp. I thought with all those tubes, i thought it might be vari-mu or something exotic...

Mario-C. Mon, 04/12/2004 - 01:24

its a hybrid design, lately i've been getting MUCH BETTER results inserting a low pass filter in the side chain, I mean its a night and day difference, it still compresses a lot but it will sound more open...

try it, hi pass set @ around 120 HZ low pass depending on what you are mixing, it really works

Guest Mon, 04/12/2004 - 03:22

slicraider wrote: I've used the 1960 (Mercenary Edition) to compress a stereo bus of drums. I squashed it and mixed that under the original drum signal. It was way cool for this and pretty underwhelming at most other applications.

The only thing the Drawmer 1969 [Mercenary Edition] and the 1960 have in common are the basic chassis and face plate [except we put a couple extra holes in the face plate for stuff like polarity reverse switches], the power transformer, the meters and the Direct Input [but because the DI has totally different stuff behind it, it sounds rather different]

The 1969 was a ground up new design that is unfortunately often somewhat confused with the 1960 [which is indeed a complete turd... hence the creation of the 1969]. The 1968 is slated to be a 1RU version of the compressor section of the 1969... and there will be no confusion that it is a world class unit that can easily rival units costing way more than it's projected $2,250 USD street price.

Thank you for this opportunity to clarify the difference

KurtFoster Thu, 04/22/2004 - 14:27

I want to point out that almost everything Fletcher and Mercenary Audio have had a hand in designing has been excellent! In a time when everyone seems to be looking for a way to "dumb down" audio quality, Fletcher continues to strive for excellence. I only wish that other manufacturers had as good of ears and the sense of taste that Fletcher exhibits ... it ain't cheap but that's the point!