TL Audio Valve Classics C-1

The new C-1 compressor maintains its position as the most flexible, polished sounding high end compressor on the market today. Now featuring a spectacular raven blue 6mm CNC milled aluminium front panel, General Electric US military specification valves, high retention gold plated ceramic valve bases and circular back-lit VU meters, the new C-1 is even fatter sounding and more rugged than its legendary predecessor.

All controls are continuously variable (unlike some other units with switched parameters) and high quality onboard mic preamps allow direct-to-tape recording of microphone sources. Stereo front panel instrument inputs mean a keyboard or guitar can feed straight into the C-1 and down to tape with a minimum of fuss. Whether the C-1 is tracking vocals and instruments or adding roundness and warmth to a complete mix, it will become an indispensable part of your signal path within hours.

The C-1 features a low noise solid state preamp followed by two valve stages per channel. The valves are General Electric ECC83/12AX7A types, run from a stabilised 250v DC power supply. The first valve stage acts as a voltage amplifier, with the second stage forming part of the gain control element. The gain control is performed by our own unique transconductance stage which avoids the use of VCAs - thus improving transparency and minimising distortion, which is virtually constant at 0.05% over the full bandwidth. The frequency response of the C-1 is virtually flat between 20Hz and 40kHz, and measured between -3dB points, the C-1's bandwidth is a staggering 5Hz to 70kHz!

Features

• 2 channels of soft knee, variable ratio compression
• Balanced mic and line level inputs
• Balanced line outputs, switchable for -10dB or +4dB operation
• Unbalanced jack I/O connections
• Stereo front panel instrument inputs with gain control and sensitivity switch (for guitar or keyboards etc.)
• Sidechain insert points for frequency conscious compression
• 48v phantom power
• 90Hz high pass filter switch (12dB / octave). Applies to all inputs
• Continuously variable Input Gain, Threshold, Attack / Release times, Compression Ratio and Gain Make Up
• Program dependent compression characteristic- attack and release times automatically adjust in response to program material
• ‘Stereo Link’ mode - gangs Threshold, Attack, Release and Ratio controls for processing stereo signal sources
• Back-lit circular VU meters allow monitoring of either output level or gain reduction
• Bypass switch with LED
• Frequency response 20Hz to 40kHz +0 / -1dB