Description
B Stock: See Condition tab for more information on this item
Sold as seen, no returns on B Stock items
Industry-standard 1U stereo compressor from Brooke Siren Systems in the UK. The DPR402 was ubiquitous in the live sound industry but is also a good studio compressor with lots of flexibility
The DPR402 is very adaptable – it’ll do high-quality compression and limiting, de-essing and loudness enhancement. It’ll do savage pumping compression as well, if you want. This is a compressor that needs some learning to find the best settings. Once you’re up to speed, though, you’ll find it’s capable of lots of effects including sidechain pumping and ducking. The manual contains all the information you’ll need and covers the unit in lots of detail
The front panel is pretty busy but is generally well laid-out and easy to use. The two bypass switches sit in the centre of the panel and bypass is by relays. The compressor has switchable attack & release times, including an auto release setting, and the compression ratio is continuously variable between 1:1 and ∞:1. The peak limiter level is adjustable and the attack time switchable between fast & slow. The de-esser has dedicated level & frequency controls and there is a compression / de-ess wide / de-ess narrow switch. Each channel has a momentary switch to monitor the sidechain – a very useful feature which makes it much easier to set up key signals
The LED metering is extremely useful. There are separate displays for output level – which can be switched momentarily to read input level – and for gain reduction. The gain reduction metering shows levels below threshold – extremely useful for setting up
Available settings
Compression
HF re-emphasised compression
HF re-emphasised compression (more pronounced)
LF re-emphasised compression
Wideband LF-controlled compression
Narrow LF-controlled compression
Wideband Expander
Expander (HF or LF-controlled)
External gain control (for pumping or ducking)
Amplitude-controlled mixing
Frequency-dependent compression using an EQ in the sidechain
Peak limiting
De-essing
De-essing wide with simultaneous compression
De-essing wide with full dynamic control
De-essing HF with full dynamic control
The back panel of the DPR402 has inputs & outputs on XLR connectors plus a barrier strip with jumpers. These are used to to set configurations such as high-frequency emphasis, low-pass filtering and expand (over-infinity) modes for the side chain. The back panel also has the stereo link switch and a fast / slow limiter switch for each channel. Early DPR402s were wired Pin 3 hot and it’s advisable to modify them to interface with modern gear. Power input is via a fixed cable
I found the DPR402 fun to work with. It responds very well to changes in attack & release times, giving good control over the way the compressor works with the tempo of the track. Low compression ratios work well and the unit sounds good with low-to-medium amounts of gain reduction. The peak limiter is savage when used to excess but would be a useful tool for setting a peak level for live work or for limiting brief peaks when mixing or mastering. If you’re a sidechain specialist this is the hardware compressor for you – it has all the options for easy (or complex) sidechaining
The DPR402 is an adaptable, flexible unit that covers all bases – stereo bus compression, sidechaining, de-essing, limiting and expansion. It repays experimentation – the more you use it, the better it gets
These were expensive items when new. In the case of the DPR402, buying vintage means good build quality, lots of flexibility and excellent metering, all for the price of a very average, new compressor
