Sounds goode.

Stereo Compressor is most definately in the pipeline.
Class A solid state optical attenuation LF roll off on sidechain/key linkable from 0 to 100% between channels totally discreet signal path variable ratio attack release lots of clean makeup gain goo goo gaa gaa wide headroom super low noise .

8)

I'm almost drowning in my own drool.

Do it, do it! What sort of price point are you looking at Seb?

Can't wait.

Matt

I called dibs on the first one in an earlier thread ;)

Haha, well I better let you have that after all your help Mark. Cheers Bud... but I bags the second one!

Lets just hope the taxman goes easy on me come July.. :-0

Matt

What sort of price point are you looking at Seb?

It depends.

Meters or not?Any E.Q?
With no meters or E.Q it could be just over the $1.2G USD mark.

.....What about a single meter with selectable metering options?
Located in the centre.
Meter options would include gain reduction ( L and R ) , inputs/outputs ( L and R ) , average out/in ((L+R)/2).
This could add a bit to it though ....

FWIW....Here's my suggestion.......

Dual mono solid state Class A optical compressor, stereo linkable.
No eq.
For input meters... maybe just three LEDs. Green for signal present, yellow for 12db before clip, and red for 6db before clip.......... This on both channels.
One single VU meter in the middle that measures gain reduction, and can be switched between channels A and B.

Do you feel a need for an input level control if the unit has separate threshold and output gain makeup controls?

Not really. I spose that will be controlled by the preamp output.
Just some indication of how hard I'm hitting it.

G'day Seb,

My vote would be for the selectable metering, no EQ but with the input level control. However I might just not get the various gain stages that are involved..

On my TL Audio Ivory compressor for example, I often gain the input right up, compress accordingly and back the output level off to get a huge warm bass sound (with the input signal coming out of a DAW and the output back into a DAW). Could I get the same sort of effect using only threshold and make-up gain? I'm guessing that if I drive the tubes hard at the make-up stage then I'd need to pipe it through another analog amp to drop the levels back before going back into the DAW so I don't clip right? Otherwise I could pipe it straight to my reel-to-reel recorder and bring on the real analog sound! But that's another story..

I'm not exactly sure of the differences between these hybrid designs and a pure class A, totally discreet valve compressor but if the same effect of driving the crap out of the tubes whilst keeping the output level from clipping can be got from using heaps of make-up gain then I guess the input level controller wouldn't actually do much assuming the threshold can go low enough?

I know what you're thinking, that's what compression is for right? But squashing the signal a little bit, driving the tubes hard and backing the level off just seems to sound better, I can still give the huge warm sound without killing the dynamics.

How far off the mark am I Seb? :-0

You're a champ keeping us all in the loop, keep up the great work!

Matt

Matt_Trix wrote: But squashing the signal a little bit, driving the tubes hard and backing the level off just seems to sound better, I can still give the huge warm sound without killing the dynamics.

We are talking solid state, so there are no tubes to drive.
But even if it was, turning up the output of the preamp would have the same effect of turning up the input of the comp.

It will just be where you are using a preamp with no output gain control that it could be a problem, and I can live with that if it helps keep the price down.

Err.. how did I miss that? Solid state? I'm in the market for a class A valve compressor! Oh well, this solid state one would still be very nice I'm sure and a great combo with the VMP series, but not what I'm after. I tend to record completely dry and apply all dynamics afterwards. Having said that, it's mainly because I've never had an analog compressor I trusted enough to put in the input signal chain like that so maybe it would change if this little beast was good enough. No one has ever demonstrated to me any advantage in compressing at the input stage as opposed to afterwards.. I realise that in theory compressing the input signal allows you to use the gain of a top quality mic pre instead of the make-up gain of whatever compression you apply later, but I've just never _heard_ any advantage, and there are certainly plenty of disadvantages.

About the input level control, I was talking about for compressing DAW tracks, so you can't turn the output from your DAW up past 0db of course, that's the whole point! But anyway, if there's no tubes to drive then there's no advantage in having an input level gain at all as far as I can tell? You can get the required amount of compression with the threshold control..

Matt

Matt_Trix wrote: Err.. how did I miss that? Solid state? I'm in the market for a class A valve compressor!

I'm sure Seb will have the VEQC2000 upgraded before he starts on this new unit. So I think you'll be sweet there.

Matt_Trix wrote: Oh well, this solid state one would still be very nice I'm sure and a great combo with the VMP series

That's why I want a solid state unit. I think that a tube pre into a tube comp would be a bit much in most cases.

Matt_Trix wrote: No one has ever demonstrated to me any advantage in compressing at the input stage as opposed to afterwards..

In my situation our band's singer is extremely dynamic. I "need" to apply a little input compression to help keep her under control. Most vocalists I don't need to do this.