Description
American-made broadcast compressor / limiter from CRL, part of the Orban group. This is a vintage piece direct from the USA and has been recapped & refurbished in our workshops. All electrolytic caps have been replaced with Panasonic premium caps and the power supply has been upgraded. This is a 110 Volt item but we can replace the power transformer on request & convert it to 220 Volts. Tested & working well. Photos show the item for sale
The 400A is a Spectral Energy {Processor or Multiband Limiter designed originally for broadcast use. Often used at the end of a broadcast chain to maximise level whilst keeping high-frequencies under control, the SEP-400A increases program density through multiband compression and limiting
Broadcast designers like Bob Orban are masters in designing audio devices with a minimal sonic footprint that give clean compression & limiting. However, in the hands of audio engineers, everything can be made to misbehave…
It’s hard to say what is “normal” with the 400A as it’s capable of huge amounts of limiting, and during this the spectral balance can change radically. It has real character and is likely to become your go-to device for drum & ambience smashing. There are subtle settings – that can be used to gently increase program density – but I’ll admit I didn’t spend much time with them. Having found a combination of settings that pull up ambience and limit program heavily, I worked with these to see how the controls interact
The secret to the 400A is not to overdrive the input. Keep the input fairly low and work the sections to find the balance that works for you. For more experimentation, remove the lid (110 Volts inside) and check out the various dip-switch settings. There’s a link in the Links tab to the manual which is still available on the Orban FTP server
