For more information, visit www.chandlerlimited.com.
©
2016 Chandler Limited, Inc. All Rights Reserved. RS124_UM_070116
Abbey Road Studios, EMI, RS and their associated logos are trademarks of EMI (IP) Limited.
6
ATTACK
Chandler Limited’s RS124 Compressor pro-
vides adjustable attack time via the
stepped switch, labeled “ATTACK”, a feature
not available on historic units.
There are nine attack time settings avail-
able, the fastest setting is achieved at
the far left position labeled “1”, each
subsequent position is slower.
The Chandler Limited RS124 includes three
favorite historic RS124 compressors still
in use at Abbey Road Studios today, in a
single unit for the first time ever.
Included amongst the nine attack options
are three positions marked in red. These
red colored settings reflect the serial
numbers (60070B, 60050A, and 61010B) of
historic RS124s. To dial up one of Abbey
Road’s favorite historic RS124s, simply set
the “ATTACK” switch to the desired serial
number.
HISTORIC NOTE: Each historic RS124 was
unique, exhibiting its own character and
personality, variances between units were
enough so that Abbey Road engineers would
request a specific serial numbered unit de-
pending upon the source material it was to
be applied to. Furthermore, historic EMI/
Abbey Road Studios RS124s featured a fixed
attack time, i.e. the attack timing was
hardwired internally to a set time con-
stant. Overall, not all RS124s shared the
same values
RECOVERY
“RECOVERY” is an eleven position stepped
switch which controls the compression re-
lease time.
The “RECOVERY” switch provides six recovery
or release time options, starting left to
right and from slowest (6) to fastest (1),
including five identical “HOLD” positions
denoted by a red colored dot.
Adjusting the “RECOVERY” switch to any of
the “HOLD” positions, will keep the source
signal compressed to the most recently pro-
cessed peak level.
HISTORIC NOTE: The “HOLD” feature was an
ingenious way to prime or preset the com-
pression level of the incoming signal as a
way to overcome potential processing is-
sues.
During mastering, to prevent abrupt com-
pression onset at the beginning of a track,
Abbey Road engineers would roll tape for-
ward to the highest peak level and set the
RS124 to the nearest available “HOLD” posi-
tion from the desired “RECOVERY” setting.
Now with the compression level held or
preset, the engineer would rewind the tape
and begin from the top of the track, and any
artifact of initial compression onset was
removed.
Another use of the “HOLD” facility was
to prevent level in-rush when there was
a precipitous drop in level during quiet
passages of a track below the compression
threshold. Here again, engineers would
switch the “RECOVERY” control to the near-
est “HOLD” position until the quiet passage
had passed, before setting it back to the
previous release value.
V
O
C
E
R Y
E
R
H OL D
3
6
4
5
I
2
F
T
S
A
O
S L W
4
3
2
I
0
6
7
8
9
5
I0
I N P T
U
O N
C
R
L
T O
O
)
T P T
U
R
(
O
U
N
E
T
A T
T
A
U
d B
T T
A
C
A K
®
-4
-3
-2
-I
0
-6
-7
-8
-9
-5
-I0
E M I L TD
.
. .
E
R
S
P
M
O
R
S O
C
R
T
4
Y P E
S
2
1
6 0
4
2
I
7
8
9
0 0 B
7
6 1 0 0 B
1
6 0 0 0 A
5
N
O
F
O F
FUSE
dB
COMPRESSION
30
0
20
15 10 5
