Recording - August 2013 - 30

B Y PA U L V N U K J R .

Geoff Daking was and is the drummer for the 1960s
psychedelic band The Blues Magoos; he has engineered
for Lou Reed and Meat Loaf, among others, and designed
studios for Joan Osbourne and Cyndi Lauper; and he is
also a first-class gear designer. Geoff started bringing his
products to market in 1993 with a mic preamp and equalizer based on Barry Porter’s A-Range circuit design made
famous in the Trident A-Range consoles from the classic studio of the same name. Over time, his line grew to include
full-size custom consoles as well as additional standalone
mic pres, eqs and compressors.
Geoff’s creations offer a classic console sound, are easy to
use, and affordable. I consider his Mic Pre One, whether in
its original standalone format (reviewed April 2010) or in its
newer 500 Series incarnation, to be one of the best values
on the market. It is one of those rare pieces that is a great
choice for a beginner’s first professional mic preamp, all the
way up to the pro studio level where it holds its own with the
best of them... and, yes, I know you can tell I am a fan!
In addition to those mic preamps, I also spent time getting to know the Daking FET III compressor (reviewed
March 2011), a dual mono/stereo update of Geoff’s classic single-channel FET II which a good friend lent me for
comparison in the same review. That compressor excels in
tracking, mixdown and 2-bus applications.
The new Comp in town
This time around we look at Daking Audio’s newest compressor, the latest in his expanding line-up of 500 Series
modules. Dubbed the Comp 500, it is not simply a 500series adaptation of Daking’s FET models; this time, Daking
goes the VCA route. This sort of compressor uses a voltagecontrolled amplifier design that is capable of both attenuation and gain in the same circuit, rather than a using a field
effect transistor (FET) for the compression duties along with
a separate makeup gain circuit.

makes up the loss in gain. This sums up
the Comp 500 reasonably well, but there
is a touch more to be learned on closer
examination and in use, as we’ll see.
A guided tour
The layout of the Comp 500 on the
standard “Daking Green” front panel is
simple. At the top is a knurled metal
Compression knob whose only markings
are Less and More. Next is a second
knob labeled Output, which literally goes
to 11. Next to these knobs is an 8-stage
LED which can be set to display either output level or gain reduction.
Below that are six backlit push buttons
in alternating yellow and red. The first
changes the settings of the LED meter
between level and gain reduction, as mentioned. The second is a Stereo Link switch
that will link the Compression control
between a pair of Comp 500 units if your
500 Series rack allows. I used a Radial
Workhorse (reviewed October 2011) and
this function worked fairly well, although it
did seem to make the initial attack just a tad
more touchy. This feature is great for using
a pair of units for stereo-bus compression
duties, as we will see below.
The next two buttons control Release and
Attack times. Release offers two options:
Fast (0.5 ms) and Auto, which offers a
dual time-constant release that is dependent on the level and natural decay time of
the instrument or mix that you feed it. Geoff
calls it similar in function to the Auto

Daking Audio Comp 500
This 500 Series compressor makes dynamics control both easy and musical
FET compressors have a reputation for speed, aggression, and grit, while VCA-style comps
tend to be still fast but more grabby than aggressive, and lightning-quick in their attack and
release. In very general terms, if you put FET designs on one side, and smooth optical compressors like the Universal Audio LA-2A or Summit Audio TLA-100 on the other, I would put
many VCA models in the middle, with a slightly chameleon-like ability to mimic qualities found
in both of the others. This is where I would place the Comp 500. VCA compressors are run in
Feed-forward mode, but the Comp 500 runs in Feedback mode like a FET compressor, giving
it some FET character while remaining a VCA design. FETs are temperature-sensitive and don’t
do well in 500 Series racks where you can’t control heat from other modules, says Geoff.
The Comp 500 is a transformerless IC design and its exposed circuit board is clean
and well laid out. Unlike many of the budget VCA compressors on the market that feature controls for every aspect of the compression chain, like ratio, knee, threshold,
attack and release speeds, and more, the Comp 500 is a simple set-it-and-forget-it box
that functionally nods back to compressor designs of the ’60s and ’70s. One control
clamps the compression threshold down onto the input signal, and a second control
30

RECORDING August 2013

Release found on the old A&D Compex,
which Geoff has told me many times is one
of his personal favorite compressors of yesteryear. The Attack button offers a Fast
attack of 1 ms or a Slow setting of 16 ms.
The next button is the Ratio button, with
settings for a 4:1 Compression mode or a
16:1 Limit mode. The Comp 500’s input
can handle up to 50 dB of signal so you
can pretty much control or squash the heck
out of most anything you wish, and I will
attest that it will clamp down and hold a
signal firmly in place in Limit mode. The
last button is a Bypass button for the compressor stage.

Recording - August 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - August 2013