In recent time Solid State Logic (SSL) has done a good job of meeting the need for innovation while keeping its roots well and truly alive with regular new-release nods to its big format console heritage. In the latter category we’ve seen numerous iterations of the master bus compressor, E series EQ, even the lesser-known listen mic compressor got a fresh guernsey. Now the company have taken a deep dive into the channel strips of the rare 4000B large format console (circa the late 70s) and have brought a feisty old dynamics circuit back into circulation in 500 series form.

JOHNNY B-GOOD

The B-Dyn 611B is essentially the dynamics section of the channel strip from the 4000B console with a few modern enhancements and tricks thrown in. Unlike SSL’s subsequent channel compressor designs, the 4000B model derived its gain circuit from the channel fader and thus shared some feed-forward characteristics with the famed mix bus compressor. Being a more aggressive VCA design, its forte is juicy, thick, character-laden compression. The B-Dyn also packs a gate/expander that is no-frills but very effective. The controls are simple and the emphasis is on strong and colourful dynamic effects rather than smooth and transparent control — right up my current alley as it happens, and I very much enjoyed taking the B-Dyn for a test drive.

TRICK OR TREAT?

The layout of the B-Dyn is very straight forward once you get familiar with it. At the top of the unit are two rows of LED metering — the left hand side shows compressor gain reduction in red while the right gate/expander activity is in green. The more lights that illuminate, the harder the circuits are working. There’s also a Link button here that allows for two units to operate in stereo. Below these are three compressor rotary knobs to control ratio, threshold and release while a filter switch allows low frequency information to pass through the compressor circuit unmolested. The ratios are stepped at 1:2, 1:4 and 1:10 and there is also a DS (de-esser) setting for overly sibilant sources as well as a full circuit bypass. Threshold is continuously variable between -10dB and +20dB, giving a very useable range to dial in the right amount of effect. The Release control is also stepped and offers options at 0.2, 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6ms as well as a programme-dependent Auto mode that is a further nod to the old master compressor topology. As with the Ratio control there is a DS setting here which operates at very high speed to catch and release sibilance. 

GATED COMMUNITY

Below the compressor section a similar layout is employed for the Gate/Expander with three rotary controls and a switch to toggle between gate and expansion effects. The gate operates at a fixed 20:1 setting and the expander at 2:1 while the attack time is a relatively swift 0.2ms. The Range control is continuously variable from Out (bypass) to 25dB of gain suppression when the gate switches in, effectively allowing you to set the floor of your noise or quieter material suppression. The threshold (-30dB to +10dB) again gives a good range of control, while the five stepped release settings range from 0.1 to 1.6ms. Rounding out the controls at the bottom of the front panel is a global bypass button. SSL has a lot of experience in designing 500 series units, and this shows with a faceplate that is well populated yet doesn’t feel at all crowded. The choice of control parameters gives the unit quite a lot of flexibility while the legending and meters make for clear and quick setting assessment. My only minor gripe with the review unit was the slight offset of several rotary controls from their step markers, something quality control should probably have rectified before shipping.

Solid State Logic has announced a new 500 series compressor module, with Australian and New Zealand stock shipping from 4th August. The 4000 B Dynamics (B-DYN) 500 series module takes the dynamics processor found in the channel strip of the SL 4000 B console and puts it into 500 Series format. Released in 1976, the SL 4000 B was the first commercially available console from Solid State Logic and famously used in ‘The Stone Room’ at Virgin’s Townhouse Studio (London), Le Studio (Montreal) and Record Plant (LA).

It was responsible for countless iconic records, including Phil Collins’ ‘In the Air Tonight’ and Peter Gabriel’s ‘Intruder’, both of which feature characterful compression on drums and vocals. The B-DYN allows you to add heavily coloured, grabby, saturated compression from one of the rarest studio consoles ever made to your production toolkit.               

Key Features:

• Authentic recreation of SL 4000 B consoles dynamics processing
• Design based on the SSL Bus Compressor
• Features Compressor/Limiter & Gate/Expander
• Feedback design with Peak sensing for aggressive ‘grabby’ character
• Fixed compression ratios, 2:1, 4:1 & 10:1 with additional ‘DS’ mode
• Fixed release times, DS, .2, .4, .8, 1.6 & renowned ‘Auto’
• Auto make-up gain
• Sidechain High Pass Filter
• Stereo Link mode
• New (classic) SSL flavour for your productions

COMPRESSOR/LIMITER
RATIO: Stepped compression ratios 2:1, 4:1, 10:1 and ‘ds’. The ‘ds’ setting is a fixed 10:1 with an additional sidechain filter. When ‘out, the compressor is bypassed.
THRESH: Whenever a signal exceeds the level set by this control, the compressor will start to act at the ratio set by the Ratio control. The Threshold and Ratio controls also provide automatic make-up gain.
HPF: A 6dB/Oct 185 Hz High Pass Filter in the compressor sidechain to help reduce bass pumping effects.
RELEASE: Switched/fixed release ranges from .2 ms to 1.6 ms with additional ‘DS’ & ‘Auto’ release options.
DS: The De-Ess mode changes the attack time from approx. 30ms to 2ms.
De-Ess (DS) mode: By setting Compressor Ratio and Release controls to ‘DS’ the B-DYN module is optimised for reducing sibilance (De-Essing). The De-Ess is a 10:1 ratio with filtered S/C input signal, delivering broadband compression triggered by sibilance. The ‘DS’ release is automatically varied in response to the processed signal between release rates of 30 & 50ms. This is a much faster minimum release than you would normally expect from an SSL Dynamics section. The attack time is also reduced to a fast 2ms, slightly faster than the E-Series Dynamics module on its fast setting.
Gate/Expander: The B-DYN Gate/Expander section can act as a 20:1 Gate or as a 2:1 Expander when the EXP button is pressed. Its attack time is a fast 0.2 ms.
RANGE: Controls the maximum amount of gain reduction applied by the Gate/Expander. When set to ‘out’, the gate/expander is bypassed.
THRESH: Sets the threshold above which the the gate/ expander will be opened.
RELEASE: Sets how long the signal remains audible after the Gate/Expander closes.
EXP: Switches the gate to expander mode with a gentle curve, for subtler control of level below the threshold.

PRICE
A$1,189
NZ$1,449
Stock is available to ship immediately.

KV2 Audio has announced the launch of the 500 Series range of high quality processors which, for the first time ever, are available directly from KV2’s online store. The range comprises three models; the TCL thermo-compressor/limiter, the QD8 stereo 8-band master EQ with line driver, and the MPA microphone preamplifier.

TCL
The TCL is a unique analog thermo audio compressor featuring a superior natural RMS detector and dynamic voice bass enhancement control. In another KV2 first, its patented design offers an exceptionally musical and natural compression that is a component part of its real-time input, rather than a typical side-fed gain reduction circuit attempting to either follow or anticipate compression demands. Its additional Bass balance control circuit allows the user to smooth out and minimise any proximity effects from a changing microphone position, giving the perfect voice colour to every performance, from beginning to end. Featuring source intelligent attack and release times, whatever the dynamic content, with just a few simple steps great results are possible from the 500 Series TCL.

QD8
QD8 is a revolutionary George Krampera 8-band stereo equaliser specifically designed to highlight a desired band without adversely affecting the overall sonic landscape. Whilst not intended for tuning out room modes, the frequency bands and filter types have been precisely chosen — after extensive research — to perfectly align with the science of human hearing and our perception of achieving the ultimate spectral balance. In a live scenario, faced with a number of different sources, program types, or performance genres at a festival or concert, the equaliser is very musical, intuitive, and provides an exceptionally quick way to shape any mixed content to the sound you want to hear. In the studio, it can be either the simple enhancement of an instrument/vocal track, or the final mastering polish to take an ordinary mix and make it something special.

MPA
The MPA is a very high definition microphone and musical instrument preamplifier with Class-A circuitry and a high quality transformer balanced output. A stepped input gain selector is provided for easy and precise repeatability of settings. The preamplifier features adjustable high and low pass filters, with an adjustable limiter to control clip level and a transformer isolated high impedance line input. It also has a further auxiliary transformer balanced isolated output, meaning a number of these units can be used together to create a multi-channel stage preamp for splitting FOH and monitoring outputs, or for broadcast and recording duties — delivering them all through line drivers in pristine audio quality. Phase reverse and an in-built headphone amplifier, which doubles up as a third output, completes the rich feature set. With the exceptional quality of all KV2’s analog outboard electronics, the MPA can replace a preamplifier, DI-box/Splitter, line driver and headphone amplifier all in one box.

Andreas Hammerich, Director, Technical Production Management and Sound Designer for Germany’s leading musical theatre production company, stage entertainment, was able to test the new devices in a colleague’s studio and was thoroughly impressed with the results. “The compressor and the EQ are the finest sound shaping devices I have heard so far,” he says. “The most impressive quality of the compressor is the way it takes the annoying, “ear pressuring” part away without changing the natural sound of the voice. And it sounds totally transparent, there are no audible artefacts at all. For me they make all other compressors redundant — unless you particularly require certain audible colours or effects, of course.”

For the EQ, Hammerich noted the astonishing speed with which he was able to make improvements to his mix or particular problem signals. “You get insanely quick results. I would particularly recommend it as a live master mix EQ or Mastering EQ, but also as an insert for ‘difficult’ signals in a live mix, like upright bass, vocals, cello — maybe even drums/overhead mics.”

Finally, he was delighted with the mic preamp, as was his colleague Wolfram, one of the most experienced engineers in German recording history. “Wolfram joked that he was literally ready to sell his mic preamp collection and replace it with these — at least until the MPAs get popular and the collection is worth something!” says Hammerich. “For me, I don’t think there is a better mic preamp anywhere — I was expecting the audio quality to be superb as I already use a VHD preamp from KV2 that I love, and MPA didn’t disappoint. It was clearer with more distinct high frequencies and closer to the original than any other unit we tested it against. I can tell, because I listened to KV2’s ES10 speakers which are able to reproduce this level of detail.” 

All three units are shipping and available from KV2’s e-shop.

SPL is no stranger to stereo enhancement or harmonic excitement processing, so it makes good sense that it should release a standalone 500 series model that takes on both these roles. With just three continuously variable controls and a couple of switches on the double-width faceplate the BiG is sparsely populated by the standards of this format. Make no mistake though, the sound that this unit delivers is certainly not shy, nor is it a one-trick pony. The BiG also sports what may well be the single largest rotary knob in the entire 500 series universe. 

IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO 

SPL is reluctant — both in the printed manual and across the internet — to provide technical details of what is going on with the processing used in the BIG. You really need to embrace its somewhat wilful parameter names and secret-audio-sauces and just start tweaking. When you do, the SPL BiG proves itself to be a deceptively complex and useful tool.

The ‘Range’ knob is effectively something between a high pass filter and a standard frequency control, and the ‘Stage’ knob determines how much the effect is pushed to the front or back of the mix. They are designed to be used in tandem and each affects the other. The ‘Bigness’ control then boosts the overall effect of these by a little or a lot relative to the dry signal. 

Users of SPL’s older sibling, the Stereo Vitalizer, will be familiar with some of this topology although the BiG does things a little differently, both in terms of operation and sonics. Strapped across a mix bus the effect is most certainly ‘big’ and bold. Starting with ‘Range’ set counter-clockwise near the maximum ‘High’ setting and ‘Stage’ set clockwise to about three o’clock it’s immediately obvious when you turn up the ‘Bigness’ control even just a little — say, 1 or 2 on the dial — that something quite significant is happening to the stereo imaging. It only gets more dramatic from there. 

Once ‘Bigness’ gets pushed above halfway there’s noticeable harmonic excitement in the upper frequencies, the stereo image gets wider and louder at the sides, and stereo effects such as reverbs and time-based modulations become more audible. It’s a bit like listening to your mix through one set of speakers while someone takes a feed of your mix, applies some stereophonic excitement to it, sets up another pair of speakers outside yours and slowly turns them up.

LARGER THAN LIFE 

Moving the ‘Stage’ control clockwise towards the ‘Open’ end and pushing ‘Bigness’ up towards 10 leads to some pretty nasty distortion artefacts, but also allows you to really hear what parts of the audio are being affected the most. Turning the ‘Range’ control clockwise moves the emphasis of the effect down into the midrange and the effect becomes more full-bodied. Here you can hear the weight of a piano, the guts of an electric guitar tone, or vocal really push through in a widescreen stereo way. It’s really quite a dramatic recasting of the presentation of the mix even at lower settings, so a fair bit of caution needs to be exercised when using this unit in a mix bus context. 

I often found myself flicking my mix into mono to check what was being added to the sides of the mix. When the overall volume of the mix in mono started getting dwarfed by the stereo version I knew I’d gone too far. Toggling the ‘Bypass’ switch regularly is also a good idea. A more subtle version of these effects is available when you move the ‘Stage’ control counter-clockwise towards the ‘Back’ setting. This damps down the reverbs and other mix effects and tightens up the sound making a less dramatic impact on the overall mix. The upper frequencies are de-emphasised here and more natural widening effects are available.