ABOUT THE COMPRESSOR SC2
THE JOEMEEK
COMPRESSOR;
WHAT IT
DOES.
Anyone who has tried to record a human voice in the simplest possible way
has found that the dynamics of real world speech and music are impossible to
handle with a 'linear' recorder: Even if the signals do not overload, the final
result is a recording that seems to be thin, quiet and too wide in dynamic
range.
Early analog tape recorders had a built-in answer to the problem; slightly
overloading the record channel produced (predominantly) 2nd order harmonic
distortion and some volume compression. This made recordings sound 'warm'
and reduced the problems of dynamics. Unfortunately (1), modern recording
mediums don't react that way; they produce an accurate reflection of the input
with all it’s built in problems. Most thinking engineers know of these problems
and correct with the use of equalizers (to change the psychoacoustic distance
from the microphone), limiters (to reduce dynamic range at the louder end)
and enhancers (to sparkle it up). And then find that it is extremely difficult and
time consuming to get a warm and cozy sound**.
Joe Meek, in common with all engineers, experimented with the limited
facilities of the time (1960 - 1965) and came up with a way of enhancing the
'tape bend’ effect with compression. The compressor he used was primitive in
the extreme, but coupled with the compression distortion provided by the
valve tape machines he had, the result was voice and music sounds that were
unique and sold records by the million.
I had to make some significant improvements in the way the early
compressors worked to make the JOEMEEK acceptable to today's engineers,
but now that they are in general use in top studios all over the world, the con
census is that the sound is right, and really does recreate the warmth and
power of the old equipment without the side effects.
.. The classic way is to use a U47 or similar large diaphragm capacitor
microphone; which in itself 'distorts' the sound with complex high frequency
phasing across the diaphragm and some 2nd order distortion from the
amplifier tube.
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