Aphex Compellor 320A

[StephenGiles]

My soldering Iron is on - any solutions yet?

 

[chrissugar]

Thank you Stephen, I will open my 320A and confirm if the components are the same.

chrissugar

 

[Marco Pancaldi]

hi guys,

I have a Compellor 300 I'd wish to mod for the best performance (noise/audio quality).
I have the schematics for the 320 (not the very last version, 320A, implemented with "Frequency Discriminate Leveler (FDL) circuit"), and it's a little different from the 300, in the input and output sections.

Some time ago I downloaded the Aphex patents to study a possible "upgrading" in the sidechain section to "320A" version, but I'm not so expert so I'd like very much to have advice from you, so please let me know how and where to "post" the schematics (what is the standard resolution you normally use for the scan?).

thanks
m.

 

[StephenGiles]

I normally scan at 150 which gets a reasonably clear image on my Lexmark printer/scanner. 4shared allows big files so that you don't have to worry about making the files smaller and therefore less easy to read.

 

[Marco Pancaldi]

the schematics are here:

http://www.4shared.com/dir/1847006/d70d9816/sharing.html


thanks all
m.

 

[StephenGiles]

Many thanks for that, With the Dynamic Verification Gate disclosed, we are one step nearer the full circuit. All we need now is the Dynamic Recovery Computer section for which I don't think there is a patent, unless it is under a different name. Maybe it is lurking within the 2020 Broadcast Processor sidechains.

 

[Marco Pancaldi]

Hi Crissugar:

about differences between 320 and 320A models: the main difference should be the "Frequency Discriminate Leveler" (pat. n. 5422602).

Can I ask you to verify in the real circuit how the patent is implemented?
I don't know how difficult can be tracing the FDL in the 320A board, but judging from the patent schematics it is a pretty simple circuit.

From the patent, the five components at left are the FDL (the values are from the patent text):

Starting from the 320 schematics, control/display PCBs, leveling detector chain, find the diode-resistor series (D107, R120).
I think that it is possible that substituting this circuit to the original diode+resistor series (320 model) you obtain the version implemented in the 320A. Can you please confirm that?

Stephen: what do you think?

many thanks
m.p.

 

[StephenGiles]

I really have no idea - way above my head!

 

[Viitalahde]

Mine's been on the bench for a while, working on other projects but I did make a few modifications that might make it useful. At least I liked what it did. What I did was that I sped up the leveling circuit to work as a fast limiter (remember, the ratio of the level was pretty steep). I just played around with the R/C values until I found the sound I liked.

I also have made stepped attenuators for it, impossible to use in mastering work without the possibilty to accurately balance L/R..

One pair of attenuators left to do, then I can put the lid on and see if it finds a permanent place in my rack.

The Aphex Dominator II I modified has a place - works very well for some projects. Here's one that made the sound, hitting the DomII hard:

http://www.firebox.fi/records/dauntlessplayer/

:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

 

[Marco Pancaldi]

Hi Jaakko,

can I ask details about your Compellor 300 mods?
I read some of your posts on the net and I'm very intrested about it.
The possibility of mod the leveler sidechain to perform as a very steep limiter sounds as a way to have a "more aggressive" (maybe switchable between old-classic and new-modded)option.

Any advice about "signal path cleaning" is also welcome.

many thanks
marco

 

[StephenGiles]

How can you clean a signal path that is already the ultimate, or so Aphex would lead us to believe!!

 

[barclaycon]

Just from a personal point of view, I've never really got much from Aphex Limiters and Compressors. They seem a bit characterless.
The original SSL gate used the 1537A chip to good effect, but products like the Compeller don't seem to add that much. Just my point of view of course!
I haven't heard of any mastering engineers using the Compeller, but I have seen a few use the Dominator - especailly to try and tame the bass end on R'n'B tracks.
I modified one a few years ago for somebody and they sent me another one to have a go at. It was a more modern version than the first one and didn't actually sound as good!

 

[Viitalahde]

I haven't used the compellor on anything yet, it's still missing one set of stepped attenuators. Maybe I'll end up taking it out of the rack in two months.

I'll got to check the schematic again to see what the hell I actually did. :razz: I didn't clean the signal path of the Compellor in any way except for replacing the caps.

The Dominator II is a dangerous tool. I use it for hip-hop and some metal stuff. I still have a couple of modifications in my mind that WILL make it even better for the stuff it works on. Most of the time it sounds the best when the 1st GR light (-1.5dB) just blinks quickly now and then.

Although I did master a house track and went for -6 to -8dB of GR.. Sounded fine though.

 

[suchenderxxx]

Can someone please reupload the schematics?

My Compellor has a level mismatch on the channels i would like to calibrate it. Maybe someone has done this before?