Description
This Orban compressor has been refurbished in our workshops. The power supply has been recapped & upgraded with bigger reservoir caps and more decoupling and electrolytics caps in the audio path have been replaced with higher-value Panasonic bipolar caps. The switches & pots have been cleaned and XLR connectors fitted. Finally the meter illumination has been changed from incandescent bulbs to white LEDs. Tested & working 100%. Photos show a 414A sold previously
Bob Orban is one of the unsung heroes of recording & broadcasting. His products are in use all over the world and have been for around forty years. Orban is not as well-known in the UK as in the USA but, in the 80s and 90s, plenty of UK studios had an Orban De-esser, equaliser or – if they were very lucky – a compressor. They’re not flashy or high-tech, but they’re flexible, accurate & sound great. They have an indefinable mojo
Orban products were aimed primarily at the broadcast industry but found favour in recording studios. The things they bring from the broadcast environment – great build quality, modular construction and attention to detail – make them ideal in a studio environment
The Orban 414A is part of a small range of VCA compressors, each designed with different goal in mind. Orban’s raison d’être was broadcast, so many had features aimed at broadcasters. The 414A does away with the de-esser and gain reduction hold functions of the 424A compressor in favour of a simpler approach with traditional attack, release, threshold & ratio controls. In the 414A, these controls modify the program-dependent attack & release times calculated by the sidechain
When you first fire it up the 414A seems unremarkable. It’s sensitive to control settings and can feel a little “grabby” till you fine-tune the attack & release. At that point it sounds like a cross between an opto and a smooth VCA compressor. Raising the ratio above 3:1 pushes transients back quite remarkably, particularly if the attack time is shortened. At this point it’s displaying a bit more attitude and sounding more 70s and compressed. Go past this point and the magic begins to happen – wind the threshold lower, crank up the output level, the meters start dancing and the 414A does its thing
Used in this fashion the 414A abandons neutrality and becomes a character compressor like no other. It’s may be over the top for some uses but for parallel compression, drum room squashing & spicing up vocals this is one of the best compressors I’ve ever used
The 414A has a front panel power switch & a stereo link switch. The other controls are as follows: Channel A (repeat for channel B)
- Gain Reduction meter
- Input attenuator
- Overload LED
- Output attenuator
- Output Clip LED
- Threshold
- Ratio
- Attack Time
- Release Time
- Bypass switch
This 414A has XLR connectors as well as the usual terminal strips. It has sidechain inserts on jack sockets and an internal jumper sets a bass roll-off in the sidechain to reduce bass pumping of the gain reduction
