Recording - April 2017 - 34

What's a microphone cassette?

Chandler
Limited

Abbey Road TG
Microphone Cassette
This channel strip offers a little bit
of everything-Abbey Road style
REVIEW BY PAUL VNUK JR.

handler Limited is an American audio company
based in Shell Rock, IA. Chandler has the distinction
of being the only authorized company in the
world to reproduce historic recreations of classic
British EMI recording gear-the equipment used at Abbey
Road in the 1960s and 1970s.
Their first of these lines was the TG series, launched in
2001. TG gear is largely based on aspects of the 1968
solid-state TG12345 recording desk, famously used on The
Beatles' final studio album Abbey Road. That LP has a
different sonic signature to the band's earlier output, which
was recorded with the REDD tube desks. (Chandler tackles
that sound with its REDD series, including the new EMI REDD
Microphone that we world-premiered in February 2017.)
The TG series has grown considerably over the last decade
and a half. It includes the TG1 limiter, the TG2 2-channel
preamp/DI, the TG2-500 500 Series module (reviewed October
2014), the TG-Channel MKII mic pre/EQ, the Zener Limiter,
and the Curve Bender EQ. This month we look at the newest
TG model: The TG Microphone Cassette.

RECORDING April 2017

Back when the TG12345 desk was launched, what we now
refer to as a channel strip was dubbed a microphone cassette.
Each original cassette was a 2-channel module that contained
the usual fare like input attenuation, simple EQ, routing options,
panning, and faders. It also had a spreader function and,
more importantly, it was one of the first consoles to offer a
compressor on every channel. This is the compressor design
found in Chandler's TG1.
Chandler's TG-Channel MKII is also a channel strip of sorts,
combining a mic preamp and EQ. This is the first time designer
Wade Goeke has recombined a TG-based preamp, EQ, and
compressor into a single device.

TG Microphone Cassette

This new unit is a 2U 19" single-channel device dressed in
EMI-TG dark gray with familiar TG-style chickenhead knobs.
Like the rest of the TG series, it requires a Chandler PSU-1
MKII power supply-an extra expense, but one that will power
any two TG units.
The TG Microphone Cassette is made up of three components
in two sections. It starts with a TG2 microphone preamp and
DI which is internally coupled to a 3-band equalizer. Section
two is a TG1 compressor, but rather than using the Zener diode
bridge of the original, this one features an optoelectronic circuit.
Wade's choice of an opto cell rather than a diode bridge is not
as out of left field as it would seem. Unofficial word has it that
Abbey Road engineers did experiment with optical compressors, but they were never put into official use.
Around the back, the preamp/EQ section and compressor
section each have their own balanced XLR ins and outs. Each
section is 100% independent and there is no internal routing
between the two. While you could run short XLR cables in
a daisy chain on the rear panel, effectively hardwiring the
compressor after the EQ, I would recommend wiring both sections
to a patchbay for the greatest flexibility. Also on the rear of
the unit is a 1/4" TRS jack to link the thresholds of two units'
compressors for stereo use.

The mic preamp

The Microphone Cassette's TG2 preamp is 100% identical
to its previous incarnations in sonic terms, but is functionally
slightly different. It has the stepped Coarse Gain input found
in all TG units, in 5 dB steps
from +20 to +60 dB of gain, followed by a variable Fine Gain
control (±10 dB) similar to the
TG2-500's.
The four front-panel buttons
evoke the original TG2 design.
They select the DI input on the upper
left, the Line input (useful for using
the preamp controls and EQ in
mixing situations), 48V phantom
power, and phase reverse. It does
not offer input impedance switching
like previous models.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - April 2017