Chameleon Labs 7720

[lozion]

Can anyone try it & report back?
Cheers,

[retractablezing]

also interested...

[mds]

I tried it...in the context of the NAMM floor with headphones on it seemed pretty cool. SSL style compressor...I used it on a CD they had pumping through it and I generally liked what it did...I'd like to hear more of it for sure...

[Steffmo]

I did the same test at AES.....seemed ok there. At that price its not much of a risk.

[bexarametric]

I heard it at AES and loved it. For the price ($500 ish) it's a no brainer.

[Grumblefoot]

Heard it ,it was unbeatable in it's price range. All it's cracked up to be plus a little extra. For the record the guys at the CL booth were some of the coolest F*&%ers on the planet. Even though one of the 7720's was crushed by the airline during the trip out. They said it was folded in half....YIKES!

[retractablezing]

sorry to hijack, but did anyone try the 7622?

[planet red]

Does anyone know when its shipping?

[lozion]

[Virtuoso1104]

Release date is February 12th according to vendor.

[Stormkloud]

Im really curious about this piece also , seems alot like one of those "too good to be true" items but , we will see !

[apexman]

IT was a great sounding unit for the price indeed. It is supposed to ship in Feb as stated before.

[rapfreak]

Does anyone know if this has an internal power supply or will we be stuck having to eat up another power supply with their external power supply?

[IzovAge]

I did not see an external power source. I did see one for each of the pre units.

The 7720 seems to be a good piece for the $.

[otobianki74]

pulling this up just cause I'm using this compressor now. on the clean side, but definitely nice. the hpf is great. I'm actually taking the outputs and feeding them into an api 8200a opening it up all the way. not sure if this is adding some extra api color (must), but it's sounding really nice on the drum bus.

haven't tried it on the mix bus, but looking forward.

want to try the opto-tube comp cham labs makes too.

for the money, these sound really nice.

oto

[budw59]

I'm sure most of you know by now, but you can go to Zenproaudio.com and listen and compare samples of both Chameleons and a lot of others. After a good listen to all of them on some Adam P33's, I'm a little concerned about the midrange in these lower priced units. Listen to the mix buss samples of all of them. Compare them when the acoustic guitar comes in by itself. The Chameleons and the Art are missing a lot of midrange information compared to say the Drawmer, Daking, and higher end units. I'm not saying that they are not great for the money, because they are. They sound really good on the drum buss and other things, but there is a loss in the midrange that would keep me from putting it on my mix buss. Thanks to Zenproaudio for the samples.

Bud

[Higgs]

ABing mine through MM27's my mixes sound fine across the board. My favorite thing about this compressor is how little it actually alters the original signal. I've owned C1, C2, Dramastic, and Nail, and this is my favorite buss compressor regardless of price.

[Retinal]

I have it, I use it all the time but not on everything, set and forget pretty much.
The HPF filter that goes up to 440 is absolutely useful, I didn't think I'd go so high till I had it

Agree, very clean gain and behavior, stupid how sometimes I use plugins on the 2bus when I want more color

Absolutely solid piece anyway, well worth the money

[warhead]

Originally Posted by budw59

...but you can go to Zenproaudio.com and listen and compare samples of both Chameleons and a lot of others.

For those that don't know the link on the page says "Clip-A-Lator" which is what I call the clip player. It has full audio and video files as well, which help bring context to each piece of gear.

You are very welcome, although I must say I don't necessarily agree with your assessment of missing midrange info. There are differences in tone and compressor action for sure, and some units are brighter than others. However I don't know that any of them could be said to be missing info outright.

I think you're hearing differences but using different words to describe them than I might choose is all though!

War

[budw59]

I've read some people reporting that the Art Pro VLA is missing some 1khz compared to other units. I don't really know if this is true, but on my monitors, (and they are good ones) on the mix buss samples, when the acoustic guitar comes in by itself, the sound is really trebly on the Art and Chameleon. Maybe they are so trebly that you can't hear the midrange as well. Even compared to the bypass mix they sound like they're missing some of the mids. You're probably right that they aren't missing midrange info. They're probably just a little bright in the top end. I hear big differences in all of them. Thanks for the samples, I know it took some time to set all of them up.

Bud
www.wasprecording.com

[warhead]

It took a long time to plan and execute, the cool thing now is I have cables hanging out of the patchbay and a Nuendo session pre-routed and filled with the original samples all ready to go. This way when new gear is released, I can get it in the Clipalator very quickly.

I made it a 100% repeatable test, all the way down to using the same cables and converter channels.

War thumbsup

[budw59]

I will be buying the 7720 by the end of September. I might buy 2 of them, especially with the rebate. There's just too many good things said about them not to have a couple in the rack. The price point is a no brainer. Are you the same Warren from Front End Audio? (Just Curious). Also, it looks like they've discontinued the rack mount power supply. Is there a replacement for this, or is the power supply that comes with the unit adequate.

Thanks
Bud
www.wasprecording.com

[warhead]

Originally Posted by budw59

Are you the same Warren from Front End Audio? (Just Curious).

Bud, I walked away from that company (I was 50% owner, 50/50 partnerships should be illegal...) Dec 31, 2008 and proceeded with my own company ZenPro Audio (see my signature link) and have never been happier.

They love promoting me as a trustworthy source of info!

Anybody who wants to support the "Warren" they see in all those old YouTube videos can visit me at my place.

War

[budw59]

Thanks Warren. Just making sure so when I order them, I'll get them from the right place.

Bud
www.wasprecording.com

[toolboxmuziq]

How much is the rebate you're talking about

[budw59]

The rebate is $77.20 which I believe is good till the end of September, 2010. Go to zenproaudio.com, after clicking on the compressor page, there is a PDF file that you can download explaining the rebate.

Bud
www.wasprecording.com