The Compounder is a dual‑channel compressor‑plus‑limiter with an integral expander/gate section, but there's also a Bass Expander section that significantly increases the low‑end punch of the material being processed.
Focusrite Compounder #1 compressor with sub out
The Compounder is a dual‑channel compressor‑plus‑limiter with an integral expander/gate section, but there's also a Bass Expander section that significantly increases the low‑end punch of the material being processed.
Great for dance music but also for other genres ofcourse !
all potmeter scratch free and in good working condition.
Class A custom VCA compressor design derived from the RED 3
Legendary “Huge” feature with Bass expansion
Full stereo linking capacity
Super-quiet Optical Gate/Expander circuit
High performance Optical limiter
How low can you go :
So, what about that mysterious Bass Expansion circuit? When I first heard the Compounder, I thought the unit was generating artificial sub‑bass frequencies, but (as the designer explained to me) this is not what actually happens. Essentially, the enhancement circuit comprises an inductor (coil)‑based low‑frequency filter that allows some of the bass energy to bypass the compressor circuit and hence avoid gain reduction. This may seem to defeat the object of a compressor, as the bass sounds are the ones where all the energy resides, but you don't always want to use a compressor just to control gain — you may want it to make the material sound compressed in an interesting way. Normally, because the bass sounds contain so much of the energy in a typical mix, the compressor works hardest on bass notes or kick drums, and this can actually rob the mix of some of its punch. By sneaking some of the bass past the compressor, the low‑end energy can be made proportionally higher than the rest of the mix, which is still being compressed. The nature of the inductor‑based filter also causes hard‑driven bass sounds to pick up even‑harmonic distortion, much as they would in a heavily driven valve circuit. This increases the level of subjective bass.
Inductors also store energy, so the bass sounds may also get 'stretched', which would increase their average energy and hence their perceived level. The graphs provided with the unit show a slight dip in the frequency response an octave or so above the point at which the filter is adding bass energy, most likely due to phase cancellations that occur when the filtered (and hence phase‑shifted) signal is added back to the original. This helps keep the bass sounding tightly controlled, and is not unlike the effect of the bass control on an SPL Vitalizer. Furthermore, the effect of the filter combined with the compressor gives the bass end a degree of dynamic control, as though it's passing through an expander.
