Recording - April 2011 - 25

In use Again, being chip-based, this eq is of the clean variety, but this isn’t a surgical eq by any means. These are broad strokes for bold folks! I will go so far as to say this is the one piece of the JDK line that does have its own vibe and mojo. The R24 imparts a vintage sound by way of design and how it handles frequencies, not by what it does or does not add via any particular circuitry or lack of iron. As such, on the master bus as a program eq it’s great for final tweaks, but you need to be careful to keep your movements minute... 1–3 dB goes a long way with this eq. On individual instruments it’s the complete opposite, and this is a great eq for extreme tweaks of 9 dB and more—it does

the preceding decades it was quite rare and the Paragon desks, then the API 2500s, had some of the first compressors to feature such a built-in function. The R22 is a two-channel unit that may be linked for stereo use. Each channel has three knobs, for Threshold (–40 to +15 dBu), Ratio (1:1 to 10:1) and Make Up Gain (0 to 20 dB). Additionally there are switches to engage the Thrust circuit and choose between Hard or Soft Knee. The VU meter can be switched between gain reduction and output metering, and each channel also has a red LED that lights as the threshold is crossed. Each channel also has its own bypass switch. There are no attack or release settings.

As on the drum bus, the R22 is really nice on bass guitar, especially when you want the bass to sound controlled and tighter, but not completely pinned down like an LA-2A might do. This is also one of the few compressors really suited to acoustic guitar, where it will tame strumming and picking peaks without totally killing the dynamics of the performance. I tried to get it to sound aggressive and pump, and it will not do those things in a convincing way to my tastes. Even at its highest ratio, it is not fast or grabby enough for big drum squashing and slamming, or grungy electric guitars. When it comes to voices, again—one word: Great! This is one of the nicest and easiest vocal comps I have ever used. Up to 7–10 dB of reduction, 4:1 ratio, soft knee, no Thrust, and you have a nice, smooth controlled sound that never sounds compressed or unnatural. While

go beyond 11... You can take the edge off or fatten up vocals with ease, add some smoothing to cymbals, and even boost the testosterone levels of your guitar and bass tracks. Drum bus, kick, toms...? In a word, Yes! Anything I did not like it on? Okay, getting picky, it was a tad too broad for snare, where I prefer a tighter (preferably adjustable) Q and a highpass filter. But having said that, you can tell I like this eq a lot. I like that it does not add any sound, it just takes what is there, and thanks to how the bands play off each other, manipulates it in such a smooth and useful way.

R22
Last up is the R22, a VCA-style compressor that also has a famous pedigree; it’s based on the compressors found in the old ATI Paragon live mixing desks. ATI is actually the company who purchased API in the late 1980s. The biggest feature of these compressors was the Thrust circuit that has since been added to many compressors in the API line, most famously the API 2500. This Thrust circuit is essentially a variant on a highpass filter, and when engaged, it allows low-frequency information to pass through the threshold circuit without clamping down. This gives the effect of a punchier and more present low end while the mids and highs are brought under control around it. While this type of control is now becoming standard on many modern compressors, and known by many names, back in

In use Like the other JDK offerings, this compressor is sonically on the clean side, and like the eq it leans heavily on the simple in/out, push-pull compression designs of the past. However, sonically unlike the eq, the R22 is almost “anti-vintage” in its sound. When we think of vintage compressors our imaginations run wild with words like thick, edgy, bite, and so on. The R22 is, in my opinion, none of those—to my ears it is incredibly transparent and actually darn near impossible to push to the point of cool edgy pumping. This is not a slam-it-to-death kind of compressor, and that’s what makes it so useful. One of my favorite uses was on the two-buss. Like most buss comps, set at a 2:1 – 4:1 ratio and 2–5 dB of gain reduction, it was not so much what I would call a thick layer of sonic treatment as much as a subtle and pleasant glue, that you really don’t know is there until you bypass it. While this almost seems the opposite of what many folks look for in a bus compressor, that’s fine, as API already builds one of the most famous gluey, pin-it-down bus comps on the market with the 2500! Here we have a bus comp for more subtle kinds of music like folk, or jazz or even for rock mixes where you don’t want it so apparent. On the drum bus it’s great for giving a nice tight coherence to the mix, and engaging Thrust still lets the low-end pulse through.

for some it may be better suited to pop, country or R&B over, say, alt-rock, this compressor is doggone near dummy proof for vocals, especially during tracking. If you have ever been afraid to print compression while tracking, this box may change your mind. Wrap up All three units are dirt simple to use, built tank-tough, and have no superfluous controls or gimmicks. They also sound great, or don’t sound at all, depending on how you look at it. They may not have the instant “wow” factor of some gear and may not be tweaky enough for some, but the more you use them, the more you will find yourself relying on them for solid, fast results. These are growers. Lastly, the price—each of these boxes streets at around $1000. That’s 2 channels of API build quality, for around $500 per channel, so whether it’s your first serious mic pre or compressor, or if you simply need more channels of eq in your studio, you should give JDK Audio’s gear a try. Prices: $1195 each More from: JDK Audio, www.jdkaudio.com.

RECORDING APRIL 2011

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Recording - April 2011

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