Tube Opto Leveller

                         Royalzentertainment                                                         Los Angeles/USA                                                                                                                                  Oscar Ramirez,engineering/mixing:                                                                                                   “Oh boy! i just got my HCL Solution stereo compressor earlier today and this thing sounds GREAT !!!!as soon as I got it I rushed to the studio and pluged it in just to make sure the thing would work. I put up a beat we had tracked yesterday and ran the compressor across the stereo buss just to hear what it would do. At first I had it so it wouldnt compress at all (peak Reduction and ratio all the way down) I brought up the input gain meters begin moving and... SIGNAL!!! It made the overseas trip and passed the first 2 tests (It truned on and passed signal) from there I hit the meter switch to GR and brought truned up the peak reduction and ratio knobs, at first im not really hearing anything but I see meters showing me compression is happening, so I hit the bypass switch (putting it in bypass) and the mix seemed to get thin i look over at my asstistant and hes just smiling from there I decide lets smash this 2mix!!!...

I bring up the input to about 3oclock (with the peak Reduction and Ratio on at about 11) and HOLY S*HIT the mix get's this really nice harmonic tone on both low and hi ends i look over at my assistant and his jaw is on the floor...                                                                           I`ve been working with a producer at a studio here in LA for a good 2 months straight now. He plays a little bit of everything gtr, bass, drumz.. and piano being his main instrument. I have his bass going thru a demeter tube bass preamp into a channel on the SSL and on the insert a Urie 1176... Sounds Great. I changed the insert to my new S2 compressor without the producer knowing. He came into the studio at 6pm as always and begins making a beat... his Mpc is bangin drumz hard, he get a nice little piano riff going, he grabs his bass and begins to play... He looks over to me stops the beat and ask's... "What did you do to the bass ?" I respond "Why whats wrong ?" He says "nothings wrong it just sonds big & PHATT " I smile and show him "the handbuilt compressor from the Ukraine" I`ve been telling him about this whole month. He smiles back gives me a thumbs up and proceeds to trun the beat as loud as possible.                 So overall im very pleased with my purchase its got a great sound with its own characteristics. I also compared it to an LA2a and it sounds some what similar. The LA2a seems to give the bass a little more color with less work but i was able, with a little dialing, to get the S2 to sound just as good. It seems the S2 is just cleaner sounding but if you want you can get some real grit and tone out of it. I think im falling in love. Can't wait to hear their mic...”

Tube Mic/Ins preamp

“As for the Affinity I`ve so far only used it on Bass and for Drum Overhead pre. I used a pair of Royer 122 (ribbon mic's) and really loved the way it sounded on the drums. Tell master Gen that so far the Affinity is sounding great and I attached a clip of just the Drum Overhead mics so you guys can hear a little bit of what we recorded...”

                   Oscar make mic shootout:                                                                                                              “A few weeks ago GS member Azzzy told me he would be in town and that he wanted to meet me as well as bring his HCL Faust Mic with him so that i could check it out. Since Ive recently bought both the Mic Pre & Compressor from HCL (Both of which i really like) Ive been real curious about the mic. So we agreed to me at the studio Im currently working at here in LA.                              We did a simple mic shoot out to see how the HCL Faust mic held up against some of the other industry standard tube mic's. We put the Faust up against a Neumann U47, Neumann U67, Sony C800G, and a Telefunken Elam 251..... >>>>>>> “