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Just when you thought that there was little new in dynamics, an affordable Platinum compounder says otherwise. Zenon Schoepe reports
I CAN'T REMEMBER quite when it happened, but around about its Green period Focusrite metamorphosed from its rather staid persona and started to get decidedly funky.
In keeping with the mood set by the Platinum Voicemaster (Studio Sound, July 1998) and Tone Factory (Studio Sound, July 1998) both of which were unlike anything before bearing the F-word, the new ComPounder takes a different run at the business of dynamics control. As such it will probably be the hardest unit to justify in the Platinum range because, in my experience, dynamics is the least well understood are of the outboard rack. But we're really talking about recording musicians here.
We are told that this dual mono, stereo linkable compressor-limiter-gate has separate gain elements in each processing block. Also that it favours second-order rather than third-order distortion, that it employs a discreet class-A VCA in the compressor, has opto circuits in the gate and limiter, and inductor circuit design in a separate compressor bass expander.
For a unit that has to be regarded as living well within the affordable end of the dynamics spectrum, this is no stripped down box of compromises. Indeed the pot and switch count is staggering. The two channels of processing are split across the front panel with a separate defined...