Description
Ashly is an American company specialising in signal processing & amplification. They have a substantial list of historic products like the CL50. The vintage products in general, and the black-face versions in particular, are now quite sought-after
The CL50 is a single-channel VCA compressor in conventional format with attack & release controls and variable ratio. It’s a feisty compressor, easily audible in operation and quite coloured. It responds well to changes in both threshold & ratio, allowing subtle compression, vicious limiting and all points in-between. It’s a peak-detecting compressor with no over-easy or RMS detector functions. The sidechain has send & return jacks so it’s easy to patch in a sidechain equaliser. There is provision for stereo linking
The Gain control sets threshold. Output Level control is active even in bypass. The rest of the controls (Ratio, Attack, Release) are conventional. Gain reduction is shown on an LED meter which has a useful yellow “Threshold” indicator to show the point at which the unit tips over into compression
“Absolutely kick-ass compressor…”
“I think they sound fantastic on drums and bass. I’ll use them on guitar sometimes, depending”
“I have two sc-50’s, a black face and a blue face… and they’re actually pretty freaking awesome!”
“The SC-50 is the same circuit as the CL-50 . . . at least the black face ones are”
“All Ashly gear = built like tanks”
The CL50 will appeal to those wanting a compressor with a bit of edge. I found it worked very well on vocals, adding grit and character without killing the dynamics. I suspect it’ll be just as good on guitars and drums. It’s not invisible and neutral, like the Symetrix 525 or Cloud CX335, but more of an effect compressor like the Furman LC-X or dbx 160X
