ox that sounded like a big-board bus <strong>com</strong>pressor, but with less sonic imprint. That’s actually good. Some 2-bus boxes give you glue in exchange for a reduction in clarity. I appreciated the “do no harm” nature of this unit. I often left the Dangerous Compressor patched to give a haircut for any wandering transients. And I didn’t feel guilty either, because the unit is quiet and did not diminish any mix run through it. For punch and smack, I went manual all the way. Anyone with a lot of <strong>com</strong>pression experience will tell you that attack and release are the high stakes section of the casino. If you get those settings right, the payoff is significant. From hip hop to classic rock, I was able to bring a more aggressive back beat out of a variety of sources. EC: To see if the Dangerous Compressor could indeed imprint a serious sound on an individual track, I ran a few different single instruments through the Dangerous at 20:1, with a hard knee and a fast release. I could certainly push it into areas where I could hear heavy <strong>com</strong>pression artifacts, most noticeably on short, percussive sounds. On a vocal, the Dangerous Compressor never quite got pumpy and breathe-y the way a Distressor [Tape Op #32] or an 1176 can, but it did give the vocal a nice thick heft that would be very useful in the right context. On drum overheads, the “abused” sound actually worked quite well to even out the elements of the kit, and never got overly harsh on the cymbals. Finetuning the attack allowed me to find the perfect balance of impact versus ambience. Again, I have other <strong>com</strong>pressors that can get a much more extreme sound; if the Dangerous has a fault here, it’s only that it remains fully musical even when pushed hard. I know that doesn’t sound like a fault — it only is to somebody that sometimes likes their gear to crumble a bit under pressure. But at the end of the day, I found many ways of using the Dangerous on single elements that sounded great to me. The takeaway here is that the Dangerous Compressor is an excellent product at a fair price, especially for a device in its class. Its versatility and sonic stealth should make it very attractive to anybody looking for an alternative to their current 2-bus squeezer, or for two more independent channels of tracking or mix <strong>com</strong>pression. I put it squarely in the category of “does its job without calling much attention to itself,” which every serious studio should certainly have as an option. Even if you think of yourself as somebody who favors <strong>com</strong>pressors with a sound, I’d re<strong>com</strong>mend checking out the Dangerous to see if it can fill a hole in your toolbox — perhaps one you didn’t even realize was there. Greg Calbi: The Dangerous Compressor was sent into my studio early this year for a demo, and I never let it leave my studio after hearing what it could do. The most remarkable feature is its uncanny ability to push the melodic elements of the mix forward while maintaining all the separation in the low end, which always seems to collapse when hitting other stereo <strong>com</strong>pressors. In my setup, the Smart Dynamics button is in all the time, and it seems to enable me to get just a little more level on my mastering for all those levelhungry clients without sacrificing the sense of dynamics. Chris Muth should be congratulated on creating an essential tool for my mastering projects. ($2,799 street; www.dangerousmusic.<strong>com</strong>) –Eli Crews , Garrett Haines , Greg Calbi Warm Audio WA76 <strong>com</strong>pressor Warm Audio only recently began making some noise with their affordable, well-built WA12 [Tape Op #91] and TB12 [#97] mic preamps, and at the 2014 NAMM Show, Warm dropped a bomb by releasing the WA76, a FET <strong>com</strong>pressor based on the legendary UREI 1176. The catch here is that the WA76 hit the streets with a price of $599. The original UREI 1176 cost almost $500 when it debuted in 1967, and today, the Universal Audio branded model retails for just under $2,000. Warm Audio’s take follows the circuit design of the Revision D version of the 1176. The Rev D, one of many revisions, can be considered the “standard” 1176 and incorporates UREI’s low noise (LN) circuitry and improved circuit board layout. Similarly, the currently produced Universal Audio 1176 reissue takes after the D and E versions, where the E version simply allows for both 110 and 220 V operation. The WA76 mimics the look of the blackface 1176 with very similar knobs and switches, but also sports Warm’s signature orange logo. The rear panel drops the 1176 barrier strip connections and instead provides XLR and balanced 1/4’’ inputs and outputs. An external 24 V wallwart power supply connects to the rear panel, and a thoughtful input pad switch also lives on the back panel. The WA76 follows the original 1176’s design very closely, even sourcing the original input and output transformers from CineMag. So the form factor and the critical elements resemble the original as closely as possible with two minor changes. First, the attack knob on the original had an “off” position that allowed the unit to be run as a line amp without any <strong>com</strong>pression. The WA76 loses this feature, but you can still bypass the <strong>com</strong>pressor by simply deselecting all the ratio buttons. Second, like the original, the WA76 provides tons of gain (over 50 dB), but the WA76 provides an input pad switch (−23 dB) that effectively allows more control over the amount of <strong>com</strong>pression, which I find especially helpful when used with modern mic preamps that don’t provide an output trim. The controls of the WA76 resemble those of the original with input gain, output gain, attack, and release knobs, as well as pushbutton selectors for ratio and metering functions. Also like the original, the attack and release times range from crazy fast to moderately fast: 20 to 800 microsecond attack times, and 50 millisecond to 1 second release times. Interestingly, the input knob is finely detented, but the output knob turns smoothly. Ratios can be set at 4:1, 8:1, 12:1 or 20:1, and the “all buttons in” mode also works. Threshold varies automatically with ratio, and the input control determines the drive into the <strong>com</strong>pressor while the output control provides makeup gain after the <strong>com</strong>pressor. This is a <strong>com</strong>pletely discrete circuit with a Class A output amplifier, and the unit’s noise floor stays very low with proper gainstaging. Like the original, the illuminated VU meter can display gain reduction or output level referenced to either +4 or +8 dBm. In use, I found the overall <strong>com</strong>pression to be slightly more grabby than a very good example of an original Revision D, which seemed to have a slightly softer knee — possibly due to aging <strong>com</strong>ponents. The WA76, however, provided a subtle but very nice low-mid push which helped vocals and bass <strong>com</strong>e forward in a mix. I attribute the <strong>joaoveludo@gmail</strong>.<strong>com</strong> 62/Tape Op#103/Gear Reviews/(continued on page 64) sonic color mainly to the CineMag transformers, which impart their flavor even when the <strong>com</strong>pressor is bypassed.
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