New Tube Preamp/Compressor from Drawmer

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Stemming from a long line of award-winning Ivor Drawmer designs that brought about the 60s series preamp/compressors, the new Drawmer Tube Station 1 delivers Drawmer preamplification and warm analog tube compression to where it's needed most - the digital home recorder. Say goodbye to the cold, sterile world of digital recordings inundated with inadequate digital conversion and often lackluster preamps and VCA compressors. The new Tube Station 1 (TS1) boasts a Class A Drawmer preamp and a stereo soft-knee Drawmer tube compressor coupled with a 24-bit/96k digital converter in an affordable one-rack space package.

Like the 1960, the TS1 performs as a stereo tube compressor either for fattening mixes or as a dedicated voice or instrument channel preamp/compressor. When used as a channel strip, the HF contour control and variable high-pass filter (25Hz-250Hz) bring new definition, presence and clarity to vocals or acoustic guitar. A variable Tube Drive control also becomes useful while tracking to dial in just the right amount of warm Drawmer tube saturation, and users can even A/B the results via a separate front panel switch. The TS1's stereo soft-knee tube compression is controlled by a "compress" control which makes the best use of threshold and ratio settings for easily obtainable musical results, and a separate fixed threshold limiter prohibits fast transients and plosives from overloading digital recorders.

Other professional studio features are maintained, including balanced ins and outs, phantom power, an effects insert point and sidechain access to the compressor. The optional digital output module offers SPDIF or AES/EBU at up to 24-bit resolution and 96K sample rate. Simultaneous analog outputs are available via balanced XLRs.

The TS1 is currently shipping at $749 for the unit and an additional $250 for the digital output module.