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Tube Variable S (ľU) compressor
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BRITRECORDS Kiev, Ukraine
Yriy Smalius, chief engineer:
Introducing New Vari-MU Compressor/Limiter by Hand Crafted Labs - MIX IS ON FIRE or If Jeremy Clarkson Would Have Written a Pro-audio Top Gear Review.
Whenever one is talking about some top class studio equipment, valve compressors and limiters in particular, you might think of names like Manley, or Avalon, or a godfather of them all - Fairchild 670. Well, think again. Because now there's a new kid on the block. And it's called VARIS.
We are talking about new 3U rack sized creation of Ukraine's leading pro-audio tube gear manufacturer Hand Crafted Labs which had been developed recently to meet customer demand on the highest quality mastering/mixing device.
First of all, boy it looks good in the rack! And what is there behind the bold looking knobs and a chromed center plate? A bunch of valves and some cool circuitry, you would think. And you're right! But more over, there's the circuitry that gives absolutely staggering sound, as smooth as it can be, with hugely valvey character and plenty of headroom to play with, not to mention exceptional control over compression. The thing is massive!
But what is Varis anyway? When I think of that I somehow recall an old karate-action movie called "Double Impact". And that is not a coincidence. Because everything that is good about this device is doubled. To start with, the purpose of the device is pretty much obvious. It is a Class A Vari-Mu compressor/limiter, the device any proper mastering house or recording studio would benefit of. And it is. But having a closer look one would realize that it has a double purpose. Since given a precise input level calibration and thanks to the circuitry design it is a killer on any insert, or a bus, or a submix, both tracking and mixing, in stereo linked mode or double mono.
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Besides, the choice of compressor type is doubled too! Dealing with good balanced mixes you tweak the Threshold knob to taste also adjusting Attack and Release time and give the mix a valvey lift that it deserves. But whenever you feel there's a weakness in lows and low mids, or you might benefit from some extra punch and character, or you want to give more life to an instrument - you're one click of a switch away. The switch that gives you an opportunity to select either 'feed back' circuit, which is common for many legendary limiters and famous for fixing tonal balance without an engineer actually doing much, or 'feed forward' circuit - the guts of early 70's "in-your-face" limiters. What does "feed forward" do? It provides you with exceptional dynamic range control and a sweet EQ boost at each end of frequency range which is most adorably translated in low mids and lows giving the sound quite a solid ground. And guess what, you've got the choice again! There's a switch at the back panel called "low cut". It makes the compressor only interfere with frequencies above 100 Hz so that the fundamentals are left untouched and the rest of the program is nicely compressed.It is especially convenient when applied on certain types of instruments or the mixes in need of dynamic control but with overproduced basics. And there's more. At the same back panel you'll find the switch that makes attack and release times 5 times faster so you can actually apply this device on pretty much everything, from base guitar to electronica, or string quartet, or voice, or piano - just name it. But the real surprise awaits tweaking heads "under the hood". Remove the top and you'll find two interesting tweakers on each channel. These control the amount of harmonics being added to the sonic structure of your sound. How cool is that! Normally they are set to neutral but if you're after that edgy sound or just want to make a more obvious valve contribution, grab a screwdriver and squeeze the juice out of those tubes!
In any case, Varis is uncompromisingly good piece of gear you would wand to have in your studio just after you've heard the mind blowing sonic charisma of it's I've-got-guts-valve-sound. But then comes the price. And it's beautiful! It appears that any competitor's device would cost you roughly about 2500-3000 pounds, but here we are talking about the price as much as twice less then that. And with the sound you get for your money it instantly becomes a must-have item.
To sum up, Hand Crafted Labs has made a great multi-purpose device to be seen in any mastering, recording, project and, given the price, even home studio. Varis has everything a proper device of it's class should have and even more, incorporating that creative 'feed forward' type of compression with all the extra control options. And finally, unexpectedly paralleling with "Star Track", as in audio world the sound is a final frontier, Varis may well become any engineers "Enterprise".
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