Dramastic Audio Obsidian 500 Compressor - 500-Series Stereo Compressor

Dramastic Audio Obsidian 500 Compressor - 500-Series Stereo Compressor

The Dramastic Audio Obsidian 500 Compressor is designed for API’s modular Lunchbox 500 system, the Obsidian 500 is a stereo VCA bus compressor that is essentially the same as their rackmount Obsidian unit, but with a couple of enhancements. Firstly, the turnover frequency of the high-pass filter on the 500-series version can be switched between 60Hz, 105Hz, 125Hz, 185Hz and 330Hz, where the rackmount version’s filter frequency is fixed. Secondly, the Obsidian 500 has what Dramastic call a “gentile” 1.5:1 compression ratio, in addition to the 2:1, 4:1, 8:1, 10:1 and 12:1 ratios available on the original (both models also have a hard-limiting ‘Skull’ mode, the ratio for which isn’t given).

Though the Obsidian 500 is a double-width module, the inherent space restrictions in a Lunchbox rack mean it has lost its external side-chain input — but Dramastic have a solution for this, in the form of the optional Dual Mono module. Not only does this endow the compressor with external key functionality, it also has an extra gain-reduction meter, for dual-mono compression.

Other features include stepped controls for easy recall, and transformer-balanced inputs and outputs.

Dramastic Audio Obsidian 500 Compressor Features:

• TXIO Enhanced™ Transformer Balanced I/O
• Precision Stepped Controls To Accurately Recall Settings
• VCA Feed-Forward Compression
• Selectable Internal High Pass Filter
• Expansion Port For Additional Features
• Link Multiple Modules Together
• Selectable Pad Settings
• Superior Imaging
• Ratio settings: 1.5:1, 2:1, 4:1, 8:1, 10:1, 12:1 and 20:1
• Attack control range: 0.1, 0.3, 1.0, 3.0, 10, and 30 mSec
• Release control range: 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 1.2 sec, AUTO and Lo-Fi
• HPF settings: 30Hz, 60Hz, 105Hz, 125Hz, 185Hz, 330 Hz
• Makeup Gain Output 12 db