Product: Aphex Compellor 300
Price Paid: N/A
Submitted
11/12/1997
at
09:23pm
by
David MacKenzie
Ease of Use
:
7
The 300 is the stereo unit; there's also a mono version, the model 301. The Compellor is unlike traditional compressors. It does several jobs simultaneously. It combines compression (fairly fast level adjustments) with leveling (fairly slow adjustments, on the order of 5 seconds). There aren't many controls; you basically just set the balance between compression and leveling, and the degree to which you want it to do anything. The metering is also unorthodox, combining several functions in multi-color LED strips. Once you figure out its unique interface, it's fairly easy to use, but it's mystifying if you're expecting a regular compressor interface. It doesn't give you very precise control over what happens; the idea is for it to be a mostly hands-off operation.
Sound Quality
:
9
It's transparent. No tonal changes, just level. You can't usually hear it working, although sometimes it turned down parts that I wanted to be louder for emotional impact. It works very well on vocals and 2-bus mixes. I didn't like the lack of control when trying it on a bass guitar. It might squash drum tracks too much, but I didn't really experiment with that.
Reliability
:
No Opinion
Never had a problem over 4-5 years of regular use.
Overall Rating
:
9
It's a good studio tool. I used it to salvage some tracks that had inconsistent levels, such as a singer with bad mic technique. It saved a lot of fader riding and kept the vocal out front, without sounding squashed. We had one on our overall live PA mix for awhile but the dynamics reduction took some of the life out of the sound, so we took the Compellor back out. I wouldn't have it as my only compressor, but when you need to keep a signal's level within a certain range transparently, it's better than most things out there.
