vintagelove
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2013
- Messages
- 148
Hello, here is an awesome, easy mod for the Aphex Compellor. The Aphex stock is an excellent tool as a transparent leveling device, but this mod really opens up the possibilities. What we're doing here is modifying the attack time on the Leveler side. But what's interesting is that in the 50/50 (level/comp) setting, the comp side also responds to the control, and both sides release speed up radically.
Now the unit can really shape transients and adds a ton of apparent volume, without squashing the sound (compared to other units narrowing the peak to RMS gap). It has a great smack on drums as you can hear in the clips below.
The mod itself is very easy. We're just strapping a 1m pot (on the faceplate near the power switch) across the large resistor that controls the leveling side attack (it's 5.6m on most units, on the 320a, which this unit is, it's r123). I also added a switch on the back to interrupt the feed to that pot which returns the unit to stock. It can go from too fast (which has obvious distortion) most of the way to the stock setting... But... if you set it at 50/50 and keep it under 10db reduction, you set it to the fastest setting with no distortion. That setting really makes tracks loud (you can hear it on the hip hop sample below), almost 2db more rms level than the SSL.
Speaking of the clips. They are all peak matched. The API is a great waveshaper, and really adds a lot of smack to drums, but it really struggled to catch peaks and narrow the peak to rms gap as well as the others. To even get in the ballpark on the hip hop sample, you can hear the snare suffer... On the rock track, despite the SSL measuring louder rms, to the ear the Aphex is noticeably louder. Now, I could have easily made the Aphex measure higher rms, but it was a really nice sounding setting, and by ear was louder than the SSL, so I went with it. So for 5 bucks in parts, you can turn it from a box that you can’t hear working, into something that competes with, if not beats some of the most popular buss compressors around. Sounds like a good deal to me. Anyway, enjoy!!!
Now the unit can really shape transients and adds a ton of apparent volume, without squashing the sound (compared to other units narrowing the peak to RMS gap). It has a great smack on drums as you can hear in the clips below.
The mod itself is very easy. We're just strapping a 1m pot (on the faceplate near the power switch) across the large resistor that controls the leveling side attack (it's 5.6m on most units, on the 320a, which this unit is, it's r123). I also added a switch on the back to interrupt the feed to that pot which returns the unit to stock. It can go from too fast (which has obvious distortion) most of the way to the stock setting... But... if you set it at 50/50 and keep it under 10db reduction, you set it to the fastest setting with no distortion. That setting really makes tracks loud (you can hear it on the hip hop sample below), almost 2db more rms level than the SSL.
Speaking of the clips. They are all peak matched. The API is a great waveshaper, and really adds a lot of smack to drums, but it really struggled to catch peaks and narrow the peak to rms gap as well as the others. To even get in the ballpark on the hip hop sample, you can hear the snare suffer... On the rock track, despite the SSL measuring louder rms, to the ear the Aphex is noticeably louder. Now, I could have easily made the Aphex measure higher rms, but it was a really nice sounding setting, and by ear was louder than the SSL, so I went with it. So for 5 bucks in parts, you can turn it from a box that you can’t hear working, into something that competes with, if not beats some of the most popular buss compressors around. Sounds like a good deal to me. Anyway, enjoy!!!
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