The
Golden Age Comp 54 is the long awaited addition to GA's outboard
phenomenon, the Pre-73 and we have been waiting for a year now
to get our grubby hands on one. Based loosely on the classic
60's Neve compressors the Golden Age Comp 54 is a mono vintage
style compressor with the same diode bridge circuitry that endowed
the Neve compressors with their classic, smooth, expensive sound.
Regardless of whether it sounds exactly like the Neve 2254,
the Golden Age Comp 54 is an astonishingly well spec'd compressor
for the money with all the compressor features of the original
design and a few more thrown in for good measure, though there
is no limiter section as on the original models and Neve’s
own reissue 2254.
"Almost unbelievably good for the price" Sound On
Sound April 2011
As
with all compressors the main control is the Threshold
which is adjustable in 2 db steps from +10 to -20 to drive the
signal into the compressor. There are 5 set Ratios
to choose from 1.5/ 1 to 6 /1 and while many other compressors
have a much higher range of ratios these are the compression
settings on the original Neve and you should be able to get
what you need from the combination of threshold and ratio (though
it would have been nice to go up to 11!)
The Attack control is stepped with a range
of 0.5 mm through to 50mm to let in the percussive front end
of something like a bass guitar and the Release
goes from 25mm through to 1.5 seconds though there are two auto
release settings which to be honest will be probably all that
anyone will want. But in true vintage style you can fiddle if
you want. Any gain reduction can be made up with the Gain
pot on the right which is the only continuous rotary pot on
the unit.
Normally
that would give you a very well spec'd compressor but the Golden
Age Comp 54 has a few more features that make it even more useful.
The first is a stepped HPF control with two
low shelves at 50hz and 100hz which will obviously be really
useful on bass heavy material but there's also a 7k setting
presumably putting a de-esser in the sidechain.
Finally
there are a number of push buttons on the front. The Link
button is there to link two units for stereo operation but more
interesting is the In/Out button. Original
Neve users would often run the signal through the unit on minimal
settings just because the three transformers added a little
"quality" to the sound. So this button allows you
to send a signal through the compressor with or without active
compression, so you can use the unit just for a little coloration
(a nice touch). The Bypass button does exactly
what it says on the tin and the Meter button
switches the meter between compression level and output. I guess
normally you would just want to see how much you are compressing
by but it’s a nice option.
The
unit is calibrated at the factory to show 0VU when the output
is +4dBu which is the pro audio reference but these units will
find their way into all kinds of different setups and if the
VU needle is continually smacking the end of its travel it will
damage the meter so there is a trim pot on the main board to
adjust the reference level if need be.
Having
a look at this it showed another bit of clever thinking from
the Golden Age team. .............
Clearly
marked out on the main board are the pin slots for replacing
the stock transformers with two Carnhill upgrades. The Pre-73
was the subject of a huge amount of forum chat on the possibility
of upgrading its performance to get it even closer to the original
Neve 1073 and there was no question that the obvious place to
start was by replacing the stock Chinese transformers with British
Carnhill transformers used by Neve in the original units and
their re-issue version. We have modded a number of Pre-73s with
Carnhill transformers and upgraded tantalum capacitors and it
does give a small improvement in performance bringing the Golden
Age a few percent closer to the original. Click
here
However,
Carnhill transformers are expensive and the whole point of the
Pre -73 was that it sounded simply fantastic straight out of
the box at a price that anybody could realistically buy. It's
a very smart move by Golden Age to make this mod an option to
anyone who wants to spend the extra money on upgrades and I'm
sure the forums will be on fire as soon as people start tweaking.
Golden Age may even produce a "Deluxe" version later
on but the whole point about their gear is that it's simply
fantastic straight out of the box for the price and my guess
is that the Golden Age Comp 54 is going to be another run away
success. If you want the extra limiter you can always of course
buy the Neve reissue 2254...... A snip at £1850.
