JoeMeek SC2.2 Stereo Compressor

Next on the list for the blog review is my JoeMeek SC2.2 stereo bus compressor, probably the most used dynamics processor at Groove Echo, and definitely the brightest thing in the racks....
 

Joe Meek is probably known best for his production exploits and the strange circumstances that his life ended in, and not so much for studio gear. But despite Joe's infamy, it was another studio engineer – and I use this really in the true sense of the word – Ted Fletcher, that was responsible for building a lot of the custom gear that really defined the sound of that era.
 

Continuing on the legacy, Ted Fletcher started the JoeMeek brand around 1993, focussing on high quality processing, but as time passed and subsequently price wars triumphed over audio quality, the brand was bought by a company to be mass produced and marketed, and Ted started his own company, producing high quality, studio gear TF-PRO (www.tfpro.com), which is getting a lot of use in mastering studios worldwide right now.

I have to fully recommend this guy, he quite rightly has a no-compromise attitude to the products he makes, in terms of him not sacrificing quality in favour of mass marketing a product. He seems to be a thoroughly decent bloke too. I had a small issue with the SC2.2, searching about I found his website and forum. Here he still supports the old JoeMeek gear he was responsible for making, and you can get in direct contact with him. Now to me this kind of service is really unique and probably the reason he has such a solid business, even though the market for this kind of gear is relatively small. To be able to speak to the person who actually understands the gear inside out when you have a problem is amazingly useful.

But anyway, enough about the guy who makes it and on to the compressor itself!

The old JoeMeek gear is certainly one of the more instantly recognisable brands in studio racks, being bright green in colour, with big chunky knobs and a big VU meter in the middle, it looks like a proper bit of gear.

On the back the connections are pretty simple – XLR & Jack I/O, no Sidechain inputs.

In terms of the controls, from left to right, things start off, not surprisingly with the input gain – which goes to 11!

Sitting next to this is a button labelled “Dark Mode” which I'll get into later. 

To the right of this, is a “slope” switch, this is the first control which might not be familiar to compressor users, put simply this can be seen as the ratio control. But only in so far as 1 gives mild compression and 5 is pretty much limiting – all modes exhibit different sonic characteristics onto the signal besides the compression itself, so it's not really right to label it simply “ratio”.

Next up is the VU meter – switchable between amount of compression and the audio level before the output gain.

The “compression” pot is the next control we come to, again this is slightly different to the recognisable “threshold” control, but in essence has the same function – increasing the compression has a similar effect to reducing the threshold, in that it lowers the position of the “knee”, increasing the amount of compression applied to the signal.

Then the bypass switch, which is a true, hard bypass, meaning the signal in bypass runs directly from the input to the output connections without going through any of the device's circuitry – I've noticed this a few times by accident, when I've left the unit patched in but switched off, the source of much head scratching when arriving to the studio bleary eyed after a long session the night before. When the unit is bypassed the signal runs through the insert no problem, but when the compressor is engaged, the signal is cut of. Which of course makes perfect sense, but demonstrates that a true hard bypass is in effect here.

Last are the familiar attack/release controls, followed by the output gain. The attack and release are simply labelled “fast” & “slow”. The attack provides a range from just under 1 millisecond to around 15 milliseconds, with the release ranging from just less than 200 milliseconds to a massive 5 seconds. The way the release works, or the curve of the release, depends on the “Dark Mode” switch. When “out”, the curve of the release is fairly linear, and when “in” the release is fairly gentle until the point near to where the gain is reaching normal, where it will release quickly. Because the release control is one of the most important and noticeable controls on the compressor, this naturally creates a noticeable sonic difference in the compression effect. The sound of the “Dark Mode” is the type of sound that Joe Meek was notorious for producing through his use of compression, referred to by some as his “dark” sound, hence the name.
 

The compressor itself is an opto compressor. Sound-wise this means it's action is far more forgiving than a VCA compressor, which to my ears make it far more musical in use. It works using a MS matrix, so it converts the L & R signals into Mid and Side signals, adding the required compression and then converting back to L & R. This means the centre image is more stable and less susceptible to stereo drift, making it the perfect bus compressor.

Using the compressor is great fun, it's a real sound shaper, and using a combination of different slopes and compression amounts it's really easy to get very different dynamics out of the same signal, all of which produce a (subjectively) positive effect, giving the engineer lots of sonic options to choose from. It's at home applying gentle compression to pull a full mix together subtly, or slamming a drum group and making it pump. I use it quite a bit on instrumental tracks and with proper adjustment of the attack and release times it's possible to inject real dynamics back into something that's just lacking a bit of drive and groove. I haven't really used it a lot on individual tracks, mainly because I tend to have it on the master bus most of the time, but I have used it on vocal groups in the past when mixing stems and found it to be very transparent even when applying pretty heavy compression.

Now of course this is entirely my own opinion, and I'm sure there will be more that disagree than agree with me; but I've used this and the SSL4000 bus compressor quite extensively over the last few years, and I have to say I much prefer the sound and use of the JoeMeek. The different colours and textures available far surpass anything I've been able to get out of the SSL, not to say the SSL isn't a great compressor, just that it has one sound and to me, doesn't allow for as much sound shaping, perhaps because of the limited options in terms of control. Combining this with the excellent service when I start to think about upgrading I'll be looking closely at one of Mr Fletcher's TFPro P38 compressors (the vastly upgraded version loosely based on the SC2.2).

Korg Monotron

With arguably one of the finest pedigrees in synthesisers - boasting classics like the MS20 and VC10, Korg are certainly no strangers to analogue technology, and with the huge success of the KAOSS pad series, their recent foray into small compact but very playable devices caused nothing short of a revolution for DJ FX devices. Being an owner of a few Korg pieces in my own studio I was extremely intrigued by the release of one of their latest portable synthesisers.

I must admit, I wasn’t hugely impressed with the Koascillator box, it had some nice sounds inside, but I didn’t see it as much more than a toy that sounded halfway decent, so whilst I was intrigued by the concept of the Monotron, I was also a bit apprehensive about how well it would be implemented - on the one hand it has an analogue oscillator and LFO, plus the filter from the aforementioned MS20 synthesiser, while on the other hand it’s not much bigger and certainly lighter than most smart phones, has just a touch strip and tiny controls for playing it, and has the toy-like built in speaker…

So, could this little box really live up to the sound of the analogue predecessors namedropped throughout its promotion?

Well, after having a quick mess about using the built in speaker alone, I was hooked! Having been a bit sceptical about this feature, it actually makes a lot of sense and makes the Monotron a fun device to use, you don’t need to have a full setup connected up to be able to have fun with it, and to me, this is one of the most important things that’s maybe been lost a bit recently in the world of plugins - the fun factor: grabbing a piece of gear and using it straight away, no messing about configuring or creating control templates, just stick some batteries in and off you go!

But whilst this indeed makes the Monotron a very fun toy to play with, it was time to plug it in to some full range speakers and try to get a bit deeper to fully appreciate the sound it can produce.

Being a very compact device the connections provided are on standard stereo mini-jacks (1/8”). The stereo configuration provides the most straightforward connection to line level DJ mixer inputs, however if you are using the device with a mixing console with mono inputs, it can be connected in this way too following some simple instructions.

Taking a look at the front face of the Monotron from left to right, there is a 3-way toggle switch for turning the device on and off and selecting a modulation destination, along with 5 control knobs for altering the sound and under this there is a 1½ octave touch strip keyboard for “playing”, on the back there is a volume control and a recessed control for altering the range of the touch strip keyboard.

The Monotron has 2 “On” modes set by the toggle switch, in “pitch” the built in LFO will modulate the VCO pitch, and in “cutoff” the LFO will modulate the VCF cutoff, providing 2 different modulation modes - it’s a shame they can’t be used simultaneously, but for a device so compact is no surprise.

Moving through the tiny controls on the Monotron the first is VCO pitch - which unsurprisingly changes the base pitch of the main audio oscillator, which has a nice fat sawtooth waveform, allowing either very low frequency subby sounds to be generated right through to ridiculously high pitched squeals reminiscent of the clangers!

The next 2 controls are for the sawtooth LFO - which as mentioned earlier, will either modulate the VCO pitch or the VCF cutoff.

The first LFO control is the “rate”, which controls the speed of the LFO cycles; usefully a light behind the control pulses to give you an additional visual reference of the speed. The second control “intensity” sets the amount that the LFO will modulate from the original value.

I think it’s fair to say that the filter is the real make or break aspect to any synth, really making the difference between a wimpy, lifeless synth and one with attitude and character. I suppose it’s the reason units like Sherman’s Filter Bank and the MoogerFooger pedals are so successful as standalone devices, and why synths like the TB303 have such a distinctive sound.

With the Monotron’s low pass filter coming directly from the MS20, would it really match up in such a small synthesiser?

The last 2 controls are for filter - the standard “cutoff” and “peak” (or resonance) are present, and act just as would be expected - with low peak settings the filter action is smooth and subtle, and when combined with the LFO can be used to create some kind of release to compensate for the missing amplifier envelope. As would be expected, like it’s granddad the MS20, with extreme peak settings will send the filter into self oscillation, which can be used with amazing results, that completely surpassed my expectations of such a small and inexpensive piece of gear.

The real gem in this little black magic box is the ability to input your own stereo audio signal and process it using the filter and even use the LFO to modulate the filter cutoff too! This is really something no synth head should overlook - having a standalone MS20 low pass filter is the stuff of dreams, and with this feature alone, Korg have really nailed it!

Whilst the built in keyboard won’t allow for any serious playing of notes (even if you change the keyboard range using the recessed control on the back), there is one little hidden feature which really takes it from being a 21st century Theremin and makes it into a tidy little single oscillator mono synth! By unscrewing the shell and looking at the PCB of the Monotron you might notice some writing next to solder connections - those kind chaps at Korg have made sure it’s possible to easily modify the Monotron to accept a CV/Gate input (CV/Gate is the old system used to control analogue devices before MIDI), not only that but they have even labelled the PCB, making the modification pretty straight forward (Full details of the mod can be found here - http://www.dinsync.info/2010/06/how-to-modify-korg-monotron.html). Coupling this with software such as Silent Way (http://www.expertsleepers.com/silentway.html) or any MIDI to CV converter will then allow the use of the Monotron in a standard MIDI setup.

What’s really missing from the Monotron is an amplifier envelope; this would really help to make it even better, as there isn’t really a way to shape the sound’s envelope, which is a bit of a downside. It is possible to use the LFO assigned to the cutoff to create a sort of tail to the sound, but naturally it behaves in a slightly different way to a traditional ADSR envelope, or even just a simple ASR envelope, so it’s not ideal. But, if you can CV/Gate mod the Monotron then this is the only real downside to the device - I would say the touch keyboard isn’t an ideal interface for serious use too, but if you mod it, this becomes moot - and to be honest for the price and size, it’s hardly a surprise that everything could be included, so I wouldn’t really say there is much room for complaint.

Whatever you do, don’t be fooled by its understated appearance, size and price - for much less than £100 for the Monotron and the CV/Gate modification, you can have yourself a punchy little monosynth that has the added benefit of a standalone MS20 low pass filter for you to use on any signal you like!

Studer 963 Console

Just under a year ago, we were lucky enough to acquire a Studer 963 console from a colleague for our studio, and so I thought it would be a nice place to start with some articles I’ll be writing about some of the gear in the studio - Groove Echo…….

Studer is certainly a name synonymous with the audio industry. The Swiss company, founded by Willi Studer, are probably best known for their reel-to-reel tape machines, which gained widespread notoriety and have been a standard in mastering houses and cutting rooms worldwide for a few decades now.

Possibly better known in the broadcast world, Studer also produce consoles, and although now with a firm focus on the digital world with their Vista Series, they produced a range of high quality analogue consoles for many years.

Among these consoles was a range of broadcast consoles, the 960 series, comprising 3 models - 961, 962 & 963. The heritage of these consoles comes directly from the 169 and 269 consoles that preceded them. While the 961 & 962 are relatively compact, portable consoles; the 963 is a full studio install console, coming in a range of configurations specific to the studio they were first installed into.

Having become accustomed to the countless options of the SSL consoles throughout my time both schooling and then working with SAE, on first look, the Studer does seem like it could be a little limited. If you’re looking for all those options, that is.

The desk is very straight-forward, primarily a broadcast desk, it’s not inline, however each mono channel has a direct out, it has a standard “Recording” mode, where inputs can be selected from line inputs with 2 attenuation levels, mic inputs with 4 attenuation levels, tape inputs or the onboard oscillator and “Mix Down” mode, which naturally switches all the inputs to the tape inputs for mixing, each channel also features a “Mix Down Defeat” switch, setting the individual channel back into record mode for overdubbing.

A nice little feature is the ability to set the direct outs to take a Pre-fade signal, which when the desk has no monitoring for a post tape signal when recording, is very useful for achieving good recording levels without compromising a decent monitor mix.

Each channel can be routed to one of 8 groups, unfortunately the configuration of this particular desk doesn’t allow for any groups, something to be looked into for future modifications for sure. Signal is also routed from each channel to 4 masters (2 stereo masters).

Again this particular console has only 2 masters in the configuration, but this can be expanded easily with 2 more master modules.

Moving through the channels there’s a fixed HPF @ 75Hz, phase reverse button, and of course a phantom power switch, and 4 selectable pre/post auxs which are separated on the strip, 2 at the top and 2 at the bottom. At the bottom of the strip sits the pan and the channel fader. All pretty standard really.

The stereo channels are very much the same, minus the preamps and the associated parts (HPF, phantom, phase reverse), and here the pan becomes a balance control. The preamps are clean but warm, imparting just the right amount of character to take it way beyond the sterility of the SSL pre, and pushing them just to the edge can get some very pleasing results.

You might have noticed that I’ve missed one vital piece of the channel strip - The EQ. I leave this aspect of the desk until last, as this is the part that probably limits the desk the most.

I suppose in this day and age of as many instances of 7-band fully parametric EQs per channel as your computer can handle, a simple 3 band EQ with fixed shelving HF & LF, and just a swept mid seems like a bit of a nightmare, perhaps more the stuff of entry level consoles rather than pro-level. But my philosophy with most music is increasingly becoming “less is more”, and whilst at first I too was slightly apprehensive, my time spent actually using the desk over the last year fully reaffirms this ideal. I’d much rather work on getting the right sound from the sources to start with, and then do subtle adjustments to fit everything together in the mixdown, than recording with a “we’ll fix it in the mix” mentality.

The EQ itself is very musical in its action, if you have a poor recording it might not be enough to fix all the issues in a surgical manner, but for gentle adjustments to the frequency response the EQ is perfect: warm lows, and clear, pleasant highs with no real harshness combine with the mid, which is very natural and, despite the Q of 1, is very useable on a range of sources - from adding presence to vocals, to getting the cardboard box out of drums - and is a perfect tool for shaping your sounds into the mix.

Summing is tight, and there’s a built in compressor/limiter on the master buss if it’s required - it’s not one of my “go to” compressors for heavy work, more because of the lack of threshold and attack controls but for light work it’s definitely not something to leave as an afterthought.

I would have to say that the desk does have limitations in some areas; but the warmth and clarity of the console easily overshadows these, and I find that rather than being constrictive, it actually provides stimulation to think in other ways. Most importantly, it really makes you listen to the heart and soul of the music - if options are limited you are forced to make sure the choice you make are the ones that will complement the music in the best possible way. Certainly not a bad thing.