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Drawmer 1973 Three Band FET Stereo Compressor  From Drawmer

The award winning 1973 is a multi-band compressor with the versatility, control and ability to shape sound that no full band compressor could ever provide and at an affordable price.

Drawmer

$1,749.00

Retail:  $1,899.00

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Manufacturer's Description from Drawmer

Expanding on the renowned range of dynamics processors Drawmer introduce an affordable Three Band Stereo FET Compressor that every engineer will completely appreciate - the 1973. The culmination of 30 years of development and experience, the 1973 combines the functionality and control of the world class Drawmer S3 with the familiarity and quality of the illustrious 1960 and 1968, providing three bands of transparent, intuitive compression for the price of a conventional single full band compressor.

How does the 1973 differ from a full band compressor? In essence, the 1973 comprises a set of crossover filters that splits the audio signal into three frequency bands, each split signal then passes through its own compressor and is independently adjusted, after which the signals are recombined and the final Wet/Dry mix and levels can be adjusted. The advantage is that one band's compression has no affect on the others.

What's so good about a three band compressor anyway? The 1973 can pull off amazing feats that a single-band compressor could never accomplish. For example, it can easily prevent an acoustic guitar, cello, or double bass from sounding boomy on low notes without thinning the highs.

Are you recording a vocal track that sounds too shrill? The timbre can easily be altered without eliminating detail and clarity. Adding heavier compression in the bass band can add to the thickness and richness of the voice, in the mid band raspiness is controlled, whilst compression to the high band can give sizzle and definition to an otherwise bland voice. In addition, sibilance can easily be tamed.

In a mastering situation, having independent control over each band can resolve a problem mix, pulling out individual instruments, brightening the brilliance/air or making the bottom end of a mix sound huge while simultaneously avoiding "pumping" or "breathing" artifacts and increasing headroom.

 

Features:

  • Standard intuitive controls such as Threshold, Gain, Switched Attack & Release with Gain Reduction Metering on Each Band.
  • Fast Reacting Soft Knee F.E.T. Design with excellent Left/Right Tracking across the Full Range of compression.
  • Variable Wet/Dry Mix plus Output Gain Knobs give a 'Parallel Compression' function without the need for external mixing devices, providing Complete and Effortless Control over the amount of compression used and Output Levels.
  • Variable Band Split Filters at a 6dB Per Octave slope with Switch-able Mute and Bypass on Each Band make 'Tuning In' to a Frequency Simple.
  • ‘Big’ and 'Air' Modes Help to preserve the Very Deep Lows and Enhance the Sparkling Highs.
  • Two Analogue V.U. Meters with Switchable +10dB Meter Rescale Modes and a Switchable ‘Peak’ mode to Display Fast Transients Not Normally Seen on Conventional V.U.s.
  • Dedicated Gain Reduction Meters On Each Band.
  • Internal Low Hum Toroidal Linear Power Supply with Voltage Selector Switch.
  • Classic Drawmer Build Quality with Rugged Steel Chassis and Aluminium Front Panel.
Drawmer

About Manufacturer

The Beginning: The name Drawmer is synonymous with professional signal processing in recording studio, broadcast and live sound reinforcement environments. The company which is based in Yorkshire, England was founded by Ivor Drawmer whose passion was designing audio circuits. "The whole thing started in 1981," explains Drawmer. "I had been playing keyboards with bands in Yorkshire, but that wasn't going so well and also I wasn't getting any younger. With the encouragement of friends I built a small batch of stereo delay lines, which I called the Multitracker, and that was the start of Drawmer." The DS201 Gate: In 1982 Drawmer revolutionised gating by introducing the DS201 Dual Noise Gate, the world's first 'frequency conscious' noise gate. "It came about from working with a producer called Phil Chapman, who wanted me to build him a gate. Without doing any research I built this thing that switched on, held for a certain amount of time and then just switched off. In practice of course it was no good at all, so I then spent some time going around studios looking at how gates were being used. What really surprised me was how long engineers spent fiddling with gates trying to get them optimally set up and I realised very quickly that a better design was needed." The DS201's unique High-Pass and Low-Pass key filters, comprehensive envelope control and ultra-fast attack time has since made it the 'industry standard' gate throughout the world. The 201 transformed the gate from what had previously been a simple "on/off" device to a powerful creative tool playing a significant role in modern music production. "It was the kind of unit that people discovered uses for and it immediately enabled engineers to do the things they'd always dreamed of with minimum fuss," says Drawmer. Very little has changed to the design of the DS201over the years, and Ivor Drawmer claims it sells as well now as it did back in the early 1980s. "It's astounding where they all go, but to date we've sold tens of thousands of units," he says. The 1960 Mic-Pre/Tube Compressor: In 1984 Drawmer released the original 1960 Mic Pre-Amp/Vacuum Tube Compressor which combined two high performance mic pre-amps, two 'soft knee' tube compressors and an instrument pre-amp with EQ. The 1960 was the first self contained 'front end', and for many recordists who required only one or two microphone input channels it replaced the mixing console, assuring the user of a high quality signal path with a 'distinctive' sound. The concept of the 1960 was to combine the 'warmth and character' of eight active tube stages with the low noise and reliability of solid state electronics. The 1960 has been adopted by producers and musicians around the world and acclaimed as the ultimate direct interface between the sound source and the recording medium. Although the basic design and features of the 1960 remain the same to this day, periodic upgrades have been performed, the latest being the addition of high-pass filters and overload LEDs to the mic pre-amp. As the retro movement has escalated, Drawmer says there has been a dramatic surge in 1960 sales which now puts the unit on a par with the gates. Programme Adaptive: During 1989 Drawmer developed a new proprietary gating circuitry which it entitled 'programme adaptive'. This intelligent auto-circuitry was capable of analysing the dynamic content of the incoming signal and constantly optimising the 'attack', 'hold', 'ratio' and 'release' parameters thereby creating a much smoother gating action than previously available. The first products to incorporate Drawmer's 'programme adaptive' circuitry were the DL241 Auto Compressor released in 1990 and the DS404 Quad Noise Gate released in 1991. Also developed in 1989 was a new limiter circuitry which performed 'Zero Overshoot', 'Zero Response Time' transparent limiting. This was also included in the DL241 Auto Compressor and later the DL441 Quad Auto Compressor Limiter. In 1992 Drawmer took the innovative step of incorporating their newly developed 'Dynamics Spectral Enhancement' circuitry into a high quality compressor/limiter which enabled the user to dynamically boost any high frequency energy lost during the full band compression process. The resulting product, the DL251 Spectral Compressor was enthusiastically received by the mastering, broadcast and studio industries. The 1961 Tube Equaliser: With the new series of compressors becoming established amongst professional users Drawmer decided to expand its range of tube products and in 1994 released the 1961 Vacuum Tube Equaliser. An interesting 1961 design feature was the inclusion of a variable input level control on each of the two channels. This design approach allows the user to control the amount of 'warmth' by deciding how hard to drive the tubes giving a sound as 'clean' as the best discrete solid state designs or as 'hot' as the 'hottest' vintage tube models. The 1962 Digital Vacuum Tube Pre-Amp: The 1962 Digital Vacuum Tube Pre-Amp is a hybrid combining solid state, valve and digital technology. It comprises a high performance stereo analog pre-amp with 3-band EQ, low and high pass filters, low and high frequency dynamic enhancement, limiting and variable tube drive which feeds directly to 24-bit A/D converters. As well as analog outputs the 1962 is equipped with AES/EBU, SP-DIF and Tascam's TDIF or Alesis ADAT digital interfaces. "The concept is to offer very high quality analog with optional processing and tube warmth before converting to digital via the high resolution converters," explains Ivor Drawmer. The MX Series: In contrast to the 'high end' 1962, the MX30 Gated/Comp/Limiter and MX40 Punch Gate are low cost entry level dynamics processors bringing Drawmer's professional processing into a wider M.I. market place. The MX range has recently been expanded with the MX50 Dual De-Esser and MX60 Front End One. Digital Masterflow and Future Developments: Digital technology features strongly in Drawmer's future products, and the new Masterflow range of processing units translate some of Drawmer's existing designs into the digital domain. The company has also joined the growing list of manufacturers working on a series of TDM software modules for Digidesign's Pro Tools System and has recently developed a plug-in for the Mackie D8B Digital Console. Ivor Drawmer now works in conjunction with a team of highly qualified technicians with both analog and digital skills. Their design brief is to continue to create innovative and unique products based on feedback from the Sales and Marketing department and the Drawmer International Distributor network.

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