Description
The Cloud CX335 is a mix engineer’s secret weapon stolen from the live sound industry. It’s a stereo leveller / compressor / limiter, somewhat in the mould of the Aphex Compellor, designed to compress & limit peaks whilst maintaining audio transparency. It’s a tall order to achieve this without audible artefacts but, like the Compellor, the CX335 does it with ease
The CX335 combines a program-dependent compressor with a separate peak limiter. Each has its own threshold controls & LED displays to show gain reduction. The sidechain has a bandsplit so low and high frequencies are processed separately under the control of the internal logic
This is an analogue unit with VCA gain control elements. In that sense it’s a “standard” modern compressor but, like Aphex and SPL compressors, clever logic and manipulation of the sidechain is used to achieve complex (and useful) results from simple controls. It’s not a stereo compressor in the traditional sense, with attack & release controls and a stereo / mono switch, instead it has one set of controls for both channels
The compressor section has controls for Threshold and Ratio plus switches for Envelope (normal / slow) and Knee (soft / hard). These control the attack & release time profiles and the shape of the compressor knee where compression begins to take effect. The limiter has a Threshold control & Peak Limit LED and there’s a Gain make-up control for the output. Metering is via a single Gain Reduction LED meter showing 0-30 dB gain reduction, and Left & Right output level LED meters showing levels from -20 to +12 dB. Finally there is a bypass switch which bypasses the VCA section
“Recently I have been giving it a try and I’m amazed at the results. Across a drum group you can go from gentle ‘glueing’ to full blown abuse and it continues to shine. I’ve even used it as a mix comp and it works very nicely for this”
“It has a really nice texture to it that is both transparent and coloured at the same time if you can understand the contradiction”
“Has a tight forward sound and great gluing ability… Unbeatable on parallel and gets used all the time”
“I cannot believe how much I love this, very simple to use, piece of kit”
I had a brief email discussion with Cloud regarding modifications to the sidechain to reduce the contribution of low frequencies and they came up with some suggestions. The effect would be similar to putting a high-pass filter in the sidechain of a conventional compressor. This is a modification worth trying. I can pass on details or perform the modication for you
The CX335 is one of those pieces of kit that flies under the radar and most people know nothing about it. If you’re looking for an easy & transparent compressor to use as a group or mix bus processor the CX335 will fit the bill. Sonically it’s like the Symetrix 525 – transparent, smooth & unflustered
