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Post by mikec on Feb 5, 2018 11:28:20 GMT -6
If Kcat ordered one that's good enough for me. I've been trying to order one this morning, but their payment system does not seem to be working, so I've been in email communication with Chris.
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Post by kcatthedog on Feb 5, 2018 12:51:35 GMT -6
I have the stam and like it a lot but I also liked what I read and heard about this new one too.
I had a little trouble on the site too but third time was the charm: got my shipping notification first thing this morning so all systems are go !
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Post by illacov on Feb 5, 2018 13:09:55 GMT -6
This compressor is a good one to have modded. It's basically a GSSL with the Turbo and a case. That's what I did, a GSSL, put the Turbo in it and then a mix knob that has an active summing circuit that I modified to create an airband. I put my own favorite input transformers in and modified the gain stage on the input because the transformers are actually a 2:1, so you get a little flavor, just a taste, but Lundahls don't really do anything like Neve or other Iron'ish trannies, they just make a really nice sound in their own way. Rigging them up so they are in a 2:1 allows you to push the front end a little harder. I did this because I have two of the DIYRE pultecs pushing into it, so when you feed that musical broad highend and lowend into the front of my compressor those trannies just do something really beautiful. Of course, because my signal takes a hit from the 2:1 I had to modify the feedback gain on the front end of the compressor amps, which I replaced all of them with the OPA16xx series of opamps (this is a massive upgrade in and of itself, you need soic to DIP boards**) But, my main point is that this is a great inexpensive GSSL to buy and start customizing to fit your setup. I loved the RED3 because Sal sent me a mix that he'd put through his and I was going crazy wanting that compressor, but then I didn't like how if you pushed it any it clamped and choked, one of the main complaints of the RED3. The SSL you can really hammer and it stays wide open, but, it doesn't IMO take buss eq well, and that's because of the solid state front end. So I just sat down and figured out how to get the best of all my wants and my needs. This allows me to use less eq and compression in the tracks which makes my mixes more solid and less phasey. Hi Jerome, did you evaluate an AS unit already? This is a quote from his ebay ad. "A faithful reproduction of the beast at a great price! Great for mix buss, groups or individual inserts. Many of the clones and DIY circuit boards for these have a summed mono design instead of true stereo in the side-chain section like the original desks have. This has a noticeable impact on the final sound. With summed mono the low end content can become woofy and uncontrollable which can be hard to tame and lead to a frustrating experience... The custom circuit board i have in this compressor stays with the true stereo design in the side chain section which requires additional components but has a much more pleasant natural sound when pushed like the original desks. No need for additional mod boards etc. It negates the need for a side chain high pass filter in most cases. There is still a 160hz side chain high pass filter if still needed of course." "Update: I've received a few questions about whether this unit has the 'turbo mod' as it's known in the diy world. The turbo mod uses an external side chain board to make a gssl build true stereo. This compressor has what would be considered the 'turbo mod' integrated into my custom circuit board design. This is a much more solid solution than fussing with extra mod boards, wires, etc... " I'm curious as to how this has been identified as a GSSL with a turbo mod. Per his site, he never actually claims it to be a GSSL. He says he did a custom design with a true stereo sidechain. Aside from the quad VCA piece which I'm not sure if he included, I just wasn't sure if this is really what it was. I was under the impression this was more SSL than GSSL. Thanks -L.
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Post by mikec on Feb 5, 2018 13:50:46 GMT -6
Mine ships out tomorrow and I think it will have a permanent home in the insert of my Silver Bullet.
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Post by jeromemason on Feb 6, 2018 2:50:46 GMT -6
This compressor is a good one to have modded. It's basically a GSSL with the Turbo and a case. That's what I did, a GSSL, put the Turbo in it and then a mix knob that has an active summing circuit that I modified to create an airband. I put my own favorite input transformers in and modified the gain stage on the input because the transformers are actually a 2:1, so you get a little flavor, just a taste, but Lundahls don't really do anything like Neve or other Iron'ish trannies, they just make a really nice sound in their own way. Rigging them up so they are in a 2:1 allows you to push the front end a little harder. I did this because I have two of the DIYRE pultecs pushing into it, so when you feed that musical broad highend and lowend into the front of my compressor those trannies just do something really beautiful. Of course, because my signal takes a hit from the 2:1 I had to modify the feedback gain on the front end of the compressor amps, which I replaced all of them with the OPA16xx series of opamps (this is a massive upgrade in and of itself, you need soic to DIP boards**) But, my main point is that this is a great inexpensive GSSL to buy and start customizing to fit your setup. I loved the RED3 because Sal sent me a mix that he'd put through his and I was going crazy wanting that compressor, but then I didn't like how if you pushed it any it clamped and choked, one of the main complaints of the RED3. The SSL you can really hammer and it stays wide open, but, it doesn't IMO take buss eq well, and that's because of the solid state front end. So I just sat down and figured out how to get the best of all my wants and my needs. This allows me to use less eq and compression in the tracks which makes my mixes more solid and less phasey. Hi Jerome, did you evaluate an AS unit already? This is a quote from his ebay ad. "A faithful reproduction of the beast at a great price! Great for mix buss, groups or individual inserts. Many of the clones and DIY circuit boards for these have a summed mono design instead of true stereo in the side-chain section like the original desks have. This has a noticeable impact on the final sound. With summed mono the low end content can become woofy and uncontrollable which can be hard to tame and lead to a frustrating experience... The custom circuit board i have in this compressor stays with the true stereo design in the side chain section which requires additional components but has a much more pleasant natural sound when pushed like the original desks. No need for additional mod boards etc. It negates the need for a side chain high pass filter in most cases. There is still a 160hz side chain high pass filter if still needed of course." "Update: I've received a few questions about whether this unit has the 'turbo mod' as it's known in the diy world. The turbo mod uses an external side chain board to make a gssl build true stereo. This compressor has what would be considered the 'turbo mod' integrated into my custom circuit board design. This is a much more solid solution than fussing with extra mod boards, wires, etc... " I'm curious as to how this has been identified as a GSSL with a turbo mod. Per his site, he never actually claims it to be a GSSL. He says he did a custom design with a true stereo sidechain. Aside from the quad VCA piece which I'm not sure if he included, I just wasn't sure if this is really what it was. I was under the impression this was more SSL than GSSL. Thanks -L. I believe I saw the schematic, and the schematic showed me it was the same setup as the true SSL buss comp. If it's set up that way and they use decent components, it will sound great, the mods to these is something that can be done later, and there a a ton of mods that can be done with them. BradM gave me the idea on the air circuit and suggested a few other things, so I def want to thank him for those suggestions. The transformer's, that was what I wanted to do from the start and choosing those was trial and error until I found the right sauce. I also wanted to swap the opamps throughout from the start as well, the new technologies really blow the doors off NE553X's. dandeurloo also pitched in and gave me some great ideas as well, mainly just things that were so simple and right in front of me I felt really dumb, those are two guys that have some serious creative minds! I can't get into specifics, or how any values, and that's because of some little things floating out there on this, so I don't want anyone thinking I'm being an ass, it's just that I can't comment. Anywho, I have no problems fully saying that yes, buy this one because it's a killer deal and because it's set up to be great like the comp it's modeled after. Also The GSSL board, which I believe this more than likely has in it, is set up well to do the mods. There's plenty of room in the cases as well to mount whatever you want. Also, the GSSL is basically the SSL buss comp, but they summed the sidechain using one VCA to control the GR. The OG unit fed two VCA's from the L/R input section that controlled the GR. What this did was caused the compressor to not sound transparent and it didn't like transients, the pumping was somewhat hard to control. But, they made it so the HPF was pretty much a given when anyone was building this, then they came out with the Turbo mod which just added in that true L/R sidechain. You don't need the HPF at all when running in this mode. Some guys actually (myself included) having the option of getting that pumping just by hitting a switch, so I kind of like that I can enable/disalbe that. I'm not sure if it all being on the same board makes that big a difference, but I'm sure it's much more tidy. I don't know where I saw the schematic, but I know I saw it, someone sent it to me and it was drawn out like the GSSL but with the added L/R sidechain. Hope this helps! J
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Post by kcatthedog on Feb 6, 2018 4:04:10 GMT -6
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Post by keymod on Feb 6, 2018 4:42:29 GMT -6
I would like one in 500 format
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 14,937
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Post by ericn on Feb 6, 2018 8:07:59 GMT -6
Hi Jerome, did you evaluate an AS unit already? This is a quote from his ebay ad. "A faithful reproduction of the beast at a great price! Great for mix buss, groups or individual inserts. Many of the clones and DIY circuit boards for these have a summed mono design instead of true stereo in the side-chain section like the original desks have. This has a noticeable impact on the final sound. With summed mono the low end content can become woofy and uncontrollable which can be hard to tame and lead to a frustrating experience... The custom circuit board i have in this compressor stays with the true stereo design in the side chain section which requires additional components but has a much more pleasant natural sound when pushed like the original desks. No need for additional mod boards etc. It negates the need for a side chain high pass filter in most cases. There is still a 160hz side chain high pass filter if still needed of course." "Update: I've received a few questions about whether this unit has the 'turbo mod' as it's known in the diy world. The turbo mod uses an external side chain board to make a gssl build true stereo. This compressor has what would be considered the 'turbo mod' integrated into my custom circuit board design. This is a much more solid solution than fussing with extra mod boards, wires, etc... " I'm curious as to how this has been identified as a GSSL with a turbo mod. Per his site, he never actually claims it to be a GSSL. He says he did a custom design with a true stereo sidechain. Aside from the quad VCA piece which I'm not sure if he included, I just wasn't sure if this is really what it was. I was under the impression this was more SSL than GSSL. Thanks -L. I believe I saw the schematic, and the schematic showed me it was the same setup as the true SSL buss comp. If it's set up that way and they use decent components, it will sound great, the mods to these is something that can be done later, and there a a ton of mods that can be done with them. BradM gave me the idea on the air circuit and suggested a few other things, so I def want to thank him for those suggestions. The transformer's, that was what I wanted to do from the start and choosing those was trial and error until I found the right sauce. I also wanted to swap the opamps throughout from the start as well, the new technologies really blow the doors off NE553X's. dandeurloo also pitched in and gave me some great ideas as well, mainly just things that were so simple and right in front of me I felt really dumb, those are two guys that have some serious creative minds! I can't get into specifics, or how any values, and that's because of some little things floating out there on this, so I don't want anyone thinking I'm being an ass, it's just that I can't comment. Anywho, I have no problems fully saying that yes, buy this one because it's a killer deal and because it's set up to be great like the comp it's modeled after. Also The GSSL board, which I believe this more than likely has in it, is set up well to do the mods. There's plenty of room in the cases as well to mount whatever you want. Also, the GSSL is basically the SSL buss comp, but they summed the sidechain using one VCA to control the GR. The OG unit fed two VCA's from the L/R input section that controlled the GR. What this did was caused the compressor to not sound transparent and it didn't like transients, the pumping was somewhat hard to control. But, they made it so the HPF was pretty much a given when anyone was building this, then they came out with the Turbo mod which just added in that true L/R sidechain. You don't need the HPF at all when running in this mode. Some guys actually (myself included) having the option of getting that pumping just by hitting a switch, so I kind of like that I can enable/disalbe that. I'm not sure if it all being on the same board makes that big a difference, but I'm sure it's much more tidy. I don't know where I saw the schematic, but I know I saw it, someone sent it to me and it was drawn out like the GSSL but with the added L/R sidechain. Hope this helps! J Maybe it's time to talk to Brad or Dan about producing in kit or finished form a JM version of GSSL? You know your one of the few who's ears enough that I would buy it Blind!
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Post by jeromemason on Feb 6, 2018 13:37:13 GMT -6
Haha...... You don't have to buy it blind, I'll gladly put a mix through it if anyone wants to hear what it does.
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Post by guitfiddler on Feb 7, 2018 15:49:11 GMT -6
Haha...... You don't have to buy it blind, I'll gladly put a mix through it if anyone wants to hear what it does. Please Do!!!!!
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Post by jeromemason on Feb 7, 2018 17:07:42 GMT -6
Well, someone send me a mix and I'll happily feed it through. Unfortunately I don't have any I can do that with because they don't belong to me and I'm not allowed to alter these mixes in any way, at least without getting approval and that could actually cost money to license.
So, anyone that has a good mix out there, send it to me and I'll feed it through my buss comp.
J
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Post by kcatthedog on Feb 9, 2018 14:59:46 GMT -6
Got it: what can I say,,, first impressions do count and count me impressed: understated and very professional, very carefully packed, very nice finish and feel: just seems completely pro. Will fire it up tonight: can't wait ! Thx again for the head's up Herbie and Jerome !! Attachment Deleted
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Post by jeromemason on Feb 9, 2018 15:09:11 GMT -6
If you get a chance to open the hood some pictures could help with a few things in terms of mod's on this unit.
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Post by kcatthedog on Feb 9, 2018 17:08:49 GMT -6
Ya I have but not certain Chris wants inside pics posted: I'll check !
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Post by mikec on Feb 9, 2018 17:22:20 GMT -6
Got it: what can I say,,, first impressions do count and count me impressed: understated and very professional, very carefully packed, very nice finish and feel: just seems completely pro. Will fire it up tonight: can't wait ! Thx again for the head's up Herbie and Jerome !! Glad to hear this. Fedex shows mine is due for delivery tomorrow.
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Post by jeromemason on Feb 9, 2018 17:26:40 GMT -6
Man..... If he did I'd have no idea on earth why honestly. That's one of the most widely and known circuits there is. Plus if you can tell what something is doing by looking at a circuit board you're one talented bad mofo! I'm talking about seeing how much real estate is inside that box to make mods. But, like I said, that is an SSL buss circuit, which should have 4 VCA's, opamps on the input, after the VCA and some driving the metering and a TL074 that sends to a diode section that turns AC to DC for the ratio and attack/release. That's about all you're going to see by looking down at the circuit board. It'd be cool for people to know what type of caps and what type of opamps he's used as well, that assists with figuring out the levels of mods you could do.
Mainly is about knowing the amount of space inside the box, if the sidecahin switch could be pulled and a pot put in to make a mix knob etc. Hell, even people could look at the guts of mine and not figure out what the hell I'm doing.
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Post by kcatthedog on Feb 9, 2018 19:05:38 GMT -6
I can confirm there is lots of available real estate !
Agreed but it is his build so its a curtesy to ask ?
Remember I'm Canadian, so apologize to the wall after bumping into it !
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Post by jeromemason on Feb 10, 2018 3:23:19 GMT -6
Well he's selling them retail, it's not like it's a custom or modded rig. I've never heard of that courtesy before to anyone selling boxes retail.
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Post by kcatthedog on Feb 10, 2018 7:43:58 GMT -6
Guess it’s just me: I like to check:)
Running some signal through it this morning, nice clarity, presence and focus.
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 14,937
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Post by ericn on Feb 12, 2018 14:22:01 GMT -6
Hi Jerome, did you evaluate an AS unit already? This is a quote from his ebay ad. "A faithful reproduction of the beast at a great price! Great for mix buss, groups or individual inserts. Many of the clones and DIY circuit boards for these have a summed mono design instead of true stereo in the side-chain section like the original desks have. This has a noticeable impact on the final sound. With summed mono the low end content can become woofy and uncontrollable which can be hard to tame and lead to a frustrating experience... The custom circuit board i have in this compressor stays with the true stereo design in the side chain section which requires additional components but has a much more pleasant natural sound when pushed like the original desks. No need for additional mod boards etc. It negates the need for a side chain high pass filter in most cases. There is still a 160hz side chain high pass filter if still needed of course." "Update: I've received a few questions about whether this unit has the 'turbo mod' as it's known in the diy world. The turbo mod uses an external side chain board to make a gssl build true stereo. This compressor has what would be considered the 'turbo mod' integrated into my custom circuit board design. This is a much more solid solution than fussing with extra mod boards, wires, etc... " I'm curious as to how this has been identified as a GSSL with a turbo mod. Per his site, he never actually claims it to be a GSSL. He says he did a custom design with a true stereo sidechain. Aside from the quad VCA piece which I'm not sure if he included, I just wasn't sure if this is really what it was. I was under the impression this was more SSL than GSSL. Thanks -L. I believe I saw the schematic, and the schematic showed me it was the same setup as the true SSL buss comp. If it's set up that way and they use decent components, it will sound great, the mods to these is something that can be done later, and there a a ton of mods that can be done with them. BradM gave me the idea on the air circuit and suggested a few other things, so I def want to thank him for those suggestions. The transformer's, that was what I wanted to do from the start and choosing those was trial and error until I found the right sauce. I also wanted to swap the opamps throughout from the start as well, the new technologies really blow the doors off NE553X's. dandeurloo also pitched in and gave me some great ideas as well, mainly just things that were so simple and right in front of me I felt really dumb, those are two guys that have some serious creative minds! I can't get into specifics, or how any values, and that's because of some little things floating out there on this, so I don't want anyone thinking I'm being an ass, it's just that I can't comment. Anywho, I have no problems fully saying that yes, buy this one because it's a killer deal and because it's set up to be great like the comp it's modeled after. Also The GSSL board, which I believe this more than likely has in it, is set up well to do the mods. There's plenty of room in the cases as well to mount whatever you want. Also, the GSSL is basically the SSL buss comp, but they summed the sidechain using one VCA to control the GR. The OG unit fed two VCA's from the L/R input section that controlled the GR. What this did was caused the compressor to not sound transparent and it didn't like transients, the pumping was somewhat hard to control. But, they made it so the HPF was pretty much a given when anyone was building this, then they came out with the Turbo mod which just added in that true L/R sidechain. You don't need the HPF at all when running in this mode. Some guys actually (myself included) having the option of getting that pumping just by hitting a switch, so I kind of like that I can enable/disalbe that. I'm not sure if it all being on the same board makes that big a difference, but I'm sure it's much more tidy. I don't know where I saw the schematic, but I know I saw it, someone sent it to me and it was drawn out like the GSSL but with the added L/R sidechain. Hope this helps! J Hey Jerome I was really considering the Audioscape or STAM, but the more I read this thread the more I find myself thinking about your tweak of the GSSL design what more can you tell us ? Seriously any chance of us seeing this as a product ? Or at least something like a limited run ? More and more I’m leaning towards a less cookie cutter rig !
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Post by jeromemason on Feb 12, 2018 14:46:39 GMT -6
Hey Jerome I was really considering the Audioscape or STAM, but the more I read this thread the more I find myself thinking about your tweak of the GSSL design what more can you tell us ? Seriously any chance of us seeing this as a product ? Or at least something like a limited run ? More and more I’m leaning towards a less cookie cutter rig ! Well, I really can't get into specifics on the design, it's not like I wouldn't love to broadcast this out, but honestly I can't get into specifics. What I can say is that the GSSL is just a platform, almost like if you were to get one of those prototyping boards from Texas Instruments to build like a converter using their chips or something. My compressor just uses the design or more like the point to point of the circuit board that allowed me to customize the circuit. Again, it's really a hybrid approach to the SSL, and it's taking new technology and exploiting it's advancements to make the circuit infinitely better. Things like the opamps I mean in that regard. The addition of the transformers allows you to eq into the compressor with more aggression and it only sound more amazing the more you eq into it. The little techniques I used to mod the circuit because of the new technology in the opamps dramatically increases integrity of the low-end as well. And again, BradM and dandeurloo were instrumental in pointing things out in that regard, I had ideas and both those guys gave me some amazing pointers and the whole 3 heads are better than one really proved true in this compressor. The Air Band thing was something BradM threw out, I didn't even think about doing that with the mix knob, but again, you get guys brainstorming and wanting to push the limits with no rules and some really amazing things can be created. Now, even though those ideas were pointed out and all that brainstorming came up with this, it took a lot of trial and error to find ways to implement it and make it work. Just the transformers, it took a while to figure out how to implement those and the best way to go about doing it. Then finding the gain make up after them and the way to do that, it took a lot of effort to get that nailed down. But, the fruit of all that labor produced a really amazing buss comp that I believe really addresses the need for guys like me doing a hybrid of ITB/OTB mixing setup. Everything is sort of there in that one compressor to really give a nice sound, and it cuts out the need for multiple pieces of gear chained in serial together to achieve what just one box will do. Again, I can't stress enough how awesome BradM and dandeurloo were in keeping me steered in the right direction and coming up with ideas to help me achieve my ultimate goal. Anyways, that's about as far into as I can get, but I think it'd be easier to just create a new circuit with all the mods and not confuse my buss comp with the recreations of the SSL 4K buss comp. I don't want to take anything away from Stam or AudioScapes because I think both companies are doing a great job in recreating the SSL 4K buss comp, my comp is just a derivative that uses it as a platform.
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 14,937
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Post by ericn on Feb 12, 2018 15:14:54 GMT -6
Hey Jerome I was really considering the Audioscape or STAM, but the more I read this thread the more I find myself thinking about your tweak of the GSSL design what more can you tell us ? Seriously any chance of us seeing this as a product ? Or at least something like a limited run ? More and more I’m leaning towards a less cookie cutter rig ! Well, I really can't get into specifics on the design, it's not like I wouldn't love to broadcast this out, but honestly I can't get into specifics. What I can say is that the GSSL is just a platform, almost like if you were to get one of those prototyping boards from Texas Instruments to build like a converter using their chips or something. My compressor just uses the design or more like the point to point of the circuit board that allowed me to customize the circuit. Again, it's really a hybrid approach to the SSL, and it's taking new technology and exploiting it's advancements to make the circuit infinitely better. Things like the opamps I mean in that regard. The addition of the transformers allows you to eq into the compressor with more aggression and it only sound more amazing the more you eq into it. The little techniques I used to mod the circuit because of the new technology in the opamps dramatically increases integrity of the low-end as well. And again, BradM and dandeurloo were instrumental in pointing things out in that regard, I had ideas and both those guys gave me some amazing pointers and the whole 3 heads are better than one really proved true in this compressor. The Air Band thing was something BradM threw out, I didn't even think about doing that with the mix knob, but again, you get guys brainstorming and wanting to push the limits with no rules and some really amazing things can be created. Now, even though those ideas were pointed out and all that brainstorming came up with this, it took a lot of trial and error to find ways to implement it and make it work. Just the transformers, it took a while to figure out how to implement those and the best way to go about doing it. Then finding the gain make up after them and the way to do that, it took a lot of effort to get that nailed down. But, the fruit of all that labor produced a really amazing buss comp that I believe really addresses the need for guys like me doing a hybrid of ITB/OTB mixing setup. Everything is sort of there in that one compressor to really give a nice sound, and it cuts out the need for multiple pieces of gear chained in serial together to achieve what just one box will do. Again, I can't stress enough how awesome BradM and dandeurloo were in keeping me steered in the right direction and coming up with ideas to help me achieve my ultimate goal. Anyways, that's about as far into as I can get, but I think it'd be easier to just create a new circuit with all the mods and not confuse my buss comp with the recreations of the SSL 4K buss comp. I don't want to take anything away from Stam or AudioScapes because I think both companies are doing a great job in recreating the SSL 4K buss comp, my comp is just a derivative that uses it as a platform. Gotcha can you at least go into what the transformers bring to the table in terms of Sonics?
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Post by jeromemason on Feb 12, 2018 15:23:53 GMT -6
Well the ratio is a big factor in how they respond, but they allow the compressor to be eq'd into more heavily and help prevent any stinging from that. That's just one example, they do some other things sonically too
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Post by mikec on Feb 12, 2018 15:44:14 GMT -6
Just jumping in to say I received my Audioscape bus compressor on Saturday and have been very happy so far. Packaged great, solid, and I would echo everything that's been said about it so far. Shipping was also fast. Currently running it in the insert of my Silver Bullet and I like what it adds when mixing into it.
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Post by Johnkenn on Feb 12, 2018 17:16:51 GMT -6
How about some blind files comparing with the UAD SSL BUS?
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