Description
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Aphex carved a niche in the signal processing market, first with the Aural Exciter, then with a series of superb levelling / compressor units including the Compellor. These are super-transparent units with no discernible “sound” and they use proprietary Aphex algorithms to determine attack & release times and to hold gain reduction when required. These were popular in American broadcast setups and many sat in racks for ten years or more controlling levels to the transmitter
Compellor controls are not like those on an ordinary compressor. The Drive and Output controls are detented and offer a way to alter the amount of processing whilst keeping the output at the same level. Process Balance moves the system between Levelling and Compression and there’s a slow / fast rate switch to alter the time constants. The two processes can be stereo linked. There’s a stereo enhancer and predictably, from a broadcast-oriented company like Aphex, it has perfect mono compatibility and there are no odd phase changes going on
In a studio setting the Compellor is confusing at first – it’s often difficult to hear it in operation but a quick flick of the process in/out switches makes you realise what it’s doing. It’s not a “grabby” unit that imposes its own sound on the signal, it’s more of a “glue” compressor, better suited to buss compression than drum tracks. On a bluesy song with a very sparse intro, I found the Compellor would pull things together nicely without killing everything when the drums kicked in. So it’s not an instant attitude box like a Valley People Dynamite, nor punchy like an SSL buss compressor, but it’s a tool to glue things together. I’d like to try it in series with an SSL compressor
