Recording - February 2016 - 48

Chandler Limited RS124 Compressor

On kick, the RS124 was a touch too
thick and grabby. On snare, it was
great for evening out the track and setting it solidly into the mix, but it is the
opposite of an 1176 or Distressor, both
of which thrust a snare forward.
I like how it beefed up and gelled a
drum mix together, keeping the cymbals
pushed into place. I think I would like a
pair on a drum bus, but using only one
on a mono drum mix did not give me
ample information. Since most of my
clients don't want mono drums, I only
tested this briefly. The same is true of the
master bus: I tried to process a mono
mix, but it was hard for me to judge
beyond the novelty of it... although I will
say that's where I made the most use of
the tricky Hold setting.
Learning curves, final thoughts
When learning the RS124, I found it
hard to just tickle the meters. It's possible,
but your input level will need to be set
quite low. Even then I was still getting
about 2-3 dB of gain reduction. Be
aware that this is not a "VCA-style 1.5
dB of compression" box; I found the
RS124 happiest when digging in with an
average of 7-12 dB of gain reduction.
The second thing to get used to is that the
RS124's makeup gain is very much in line
with other vintage units, but oddly foreign
to modern use, where we often use compressors to make things louder and more
obvious. That said, Super Fuse mode
makes the unit a touch more modern,
adding roughly 12 dB of makeup gain.
You can push signal loudly into the
unit, but it will get more compressed as
you do. I found the RS124 worked best
when set so the bypassed and compressed signals sounded roughly gainmatched. The RS124 can heavily compress a sound, but in a not-so-obvious
way, and that is much of its magic. To
my ears, it doesn't sound like compression... it sounds like music.
The RS124 should be shipping by the
time you read this. Yes, $2875 is a
healthy price for a mono tube compressor, but that's actually cheaper than a
reissue LA-2A and only a few hundred
dollars more than a Sta-Level.
Bottom line: I can't believe this exists,
and the Beatles fanboy in me is beside
himself with joy!
Price: $2875
More from: Chandler Limited,
www.chandlerlimited.com
48

RECORDING February 2016

Chandler's Wade Goeke On The RS124
So... how accurate is it?
Wade Goeke: It's just so terrible, I
mean I couldn't even get it anywhere
close, I don't even know why we are
putting it out... Ha, ha, ha! OK, I'm kidding, Paul, sorry. The interview starts now!
OK, take two. Tell me about resurrecting the RS124.
It was a joint effort with Abbey Road.
There are three prime units [RS124s] at
Abbey Road that they really love. They
gave me a lot of documentation, and we
just went back and forth comparing the
documentation and sending them the
units I was working on.
When you read Kehew and Ryan's
Recording The Beatles, it implies that
RS124 units were used everywhere at
Abbey Road for tracking, bouncing,
mixing and more... I think they say
they were in constant use. Are there
really only three actual EMI units left
in the world, or are there more?
I know of a few owners in the world,
but not very many. I think of know of
maybe three or four other ones.
Approximately.
Where did you start?
I have three original Altecs here and I
took the information they provided me
and modified them.
So you actually started with vintage
Altecs and modified them just like
they did back then? That's cool!
I thought that was the most realistic
approach. I didn't want any variables in
the design process to get in the way and
lead me astray. So I modified an old
one first and made it sound right, and
then completely reproduced it, so we
were sure of what we were getting.
Then [Abbey Road's Head of Audio
Products] Mirek Stiles came over from
Abbey Road and listened to the three I
had modified in person. He said, "This
one sounds the most like our favorite
one at Abbey Road, let's go with that
one and start there."

From there I did a number of revisions.
The first one I sent them I thought was pretty spot on, and luckily the guys over there
did too. I was told right away they started
using it right alongside the older ones.
One of the prototypes was used in a surround mix, along with a couple of the vintage ones! I think we were pretty confident
right then that we had a good start.
Tell me about manufacturing the new
units. I am assuming there are parts that
aren't made or don't exist any more, so
you had to make substitutions?
Well, not really. We did had to have the
input and output transformers remade to
original specifications, and we use our own
power transformer. Things like the 6BA input
tube-those are still around in quantity. It's
not like 6386 or the VF14, where they are
really rare and are a thousand dollars
apiece. The other stuff is just good quality
parts, like good capacitors and such.
So you are actually using New Old
Stock tubes?
Two of the three tubes in the unit are
NOS tubes, but in the output amp we're
using a new one.
Obviously there are a few things that
are cosmetically different, like layout
and the VU meter.
I contacted Jewell, the original VU manufacturer, and they said, "We don't make
those anymore, sorry." So I ended up using
a meter that is similar to what's on a
Fairchild 666. We thought about remolding
the meters, because we've gotten more into
that-like with large REDD chickenhead
knobs and our own TG knobs. On this one
we decided that wouldn't make economic
sense for the customer, so we picked out a

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