Drawmer Compressor Back To The 60s

Oftentimes, budget-restricted recording and live sound engineers require exceptional compression but find themselves without worthy affordable gear options. This ever-present need was the impetus behind the 1968's design. The highly flexible unit offers high-quality dynamics processing for a variety of scenarios and is as equally suited for the live sound engineer as it is for the discerning studio recording engineer.

The 1968 is a 1U, two-channel compressor featuring a JFET/tube combination design that simultaneously yields reliability, low noise levels, and the unique musical characteristics provided by tube circuitry. The use of design philosophies found only in the "holy grail" compressors such as the 1176, the 1968's JFET, voltage-controlled resistor design, includes dual JFET compressors with variable threshold, attack, and release. On the outputs, 12AX7 tubes with variable gain control offer flexible application from transparent to 'overdrive' tone characteristics.

Both channels of the 1968 have a toggle switch ingenuously labeled as 'BIG' which controls the unit's detector-stage high-pass filter. The 'BIG' HPF gives users the ability to deal with bass heavy signals without the typical artifacts such as "bass pumping." The 'BIG' mode enables application in buss compression situations where you still want thick and warm tone yet complete dynamics control. The ability to switch "BIG" off opens the 1968 to tracking applications where you may want instrument specific compression."

Other front panel features of the 1968 include: dual mono or true stereo link operation; side chain access and listen capability; VU metering of gain reduction and output; switchable +10dB VU re-scale mode for working at hot output levels; red VU 'almost clipping' warning light; and balanced +4dB XLR I/O.

"This is huge breakthrough is design, performance and price," noted Brad Lunde, "In fact, beta testing leads us to believe the 1968 will become one of Drawmer's 'most wanted' pieces of gear whether it's in the studio or in live performance. The combination of JFET compression and tube outputs gives the engineer a wider range of high-end sounds for the less money."

The Drawmer 1968ME is now shipping and sells everywhere for about $2,150.