FCS P3S Stereo rackmount compressor

[RogerFoote]

This is the P3S for 2011.

Now, the transformer bypass is on the front panel. We have done away with the duplistic "Peak" mode which can be reproduced with the AR controls. The GR meter is fixed at a 1dB - 20dB range.

Same audio quality as before, same Carnhill output transformers.








Price for black panel with black knobs,
$2,100.00 USD + $35 ground shipping inside the continental US.







Price for red panel with skirted knobs,
$2,200.00 USD + $35 ground shipping inside the continental US.

Available in the US from:
Foote Control Systems
footnote AT hayfork DOT net
Msg (530)628-1670


Availabe in Australia from:
Musiclab
www.musiclab.com.au



Best regards
Roger Foote
FCS

[seaneldon]

The P3500 is one 500-series channel of P3S, minus the transformer at the output. Bypassing the transformer in the P3S is essentially the same as a P3500 with stereo expander module.

We have, in fact, been calling it "The Iron Foote". Hah!

[RogerFoote]

Hi ncskolrud

What Sean says.

Btw, it wasn't me who came up with "The Iron Foote" it was those Mercenary folks, lol... Maybe we should get a muscle builder to do a photo shoot holding one of the comps.... Wonder if Brian Thompson is available?

[RogerFoote]

What a coincidence... I really like his acting in the x files, scary dude. Made a good Klingon and even a Romulan!

Thanks for sharing that
Roger

[RogerFoote]

Good question!

Right now we are wondering whether we should even offer it transformerless.... Kind of duplistic since a transformerless stereo comp is already available as a P3500/P3500S combination.

Btw, there is no room in the P3500 for a transformer.
It is pretty well packed.

Best
Roger

[Roc Mixwell]

THE IRON FOOTE sounds AWESOME!!!

ncskolrud did come up with the name.....

I thought it was priceless so I've been calling it that ever since.

[jamwerks]

Looks like a winner ! thumbsup

[RogerFoote]

Originally Posted by Roc Mixwell

THE IRON FOOTE sounds AWESOME!!!

ncskolrud did come up with the name.....

I thought it was priceless so I've been calling it that ever since.

And all this time I was blaming Adam for that! Please forgive me!

Seriously though, I am totally flattered by the "Iron Foote" nickname. I like terms of endearment!

Thanks all!
Roger

[RogerFoote]

Originally Posted by ncskolrud

i think i may have to get one!

takes a project studio some time to scratch up that kinda doe,

expecially since i stopped messing with credit...

its hard to save cash...

a beer there, a meal here, a hooker later, some blow for the morning..

at the end of the day i just dont have 1700 in my pocket.....
(i can think of four times in the last year where i've had over 2k in pocket,
and it was usually on my way to buy gear.)

I hear ya! We'll be here when you want one. Thanks for your kind words!
Roger

[jamwerks]

Any way to describe the foote print of this puppy?

More towards a 2500, C2, Dramastic, Red, etc. ?

[Roc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by jamwerks

Any way to describe the foote print of this puppy?

More towards a 2500, C2, Dramastic, Red, etc. ?

FOOTE PRINT!!!!!! Sick.

Firstly, let me say that I think Roger is a very inspirational designer, seeing how he is SO WILLING TO CHANGE AND MODIFY HIS PRODUCT TO SUIT THE END USER BETTER, and not to mention his gear WORKS like a son-of a beeatch. He is what I call, a BAAAAD M/F'er. In a good way, of course. FOOTE PRINT of the P35? Well, lets talk about the compressor action for a minute.

The P3500S and P3S offer really transparent gain reduction action. I mean, there is very little to no gain action "sound" of his design, and its RANGE of control, is quite vast. There are many modes of compression, and it takes a little time to figure out what's good for what, but in NO WAY can you make it sound bad, on anything, program material included. You have to try really hard to get it to sound bad. [Or, your in all buttons out distortion mode] We've dubbed them fail safe for tracking EVERYTHING and the audio output of the P3500S is SOLID.

My personal favorite is the Feedback mode, as the "binding" commonly referenced on GS as "glue" is extremely useful to me on the buss. I like keeping Attack and Release engaged, but you can shut them off and see where it takes you. Feed forward is cleaner and pushes back the mid range thickening color that FB adds, so it depends on what you are doing with the compressor at the time, but it has a lot of options for the way it WORKS the signal. I'll probably be tracking stereo acoustic guitars with it over the weekend, and I am pretty sure I'll be cutting pre-production drums sooner than later, so it will probably be useful there as well.

And the output IRON sounds amazing.

[RogerFoote]

Thanks for the in depth description, Adam!

Some of my customers compare these to the Maselec and Cranesong STC-8 as far as compression character goes.

Best regards
Roger

[jamwerks]

Originally Posted by RogerFoote

Some of my customers compare these to the Maselec and Cranesong STC-8 as far as compression character goes.

Hi Rodger. Unfortunately I haven't ever heard those two at work. Aren't they more mastering comps?

Could you talk about different applications and what the P35 "does" (drum bus, 2 buss, etc.) and maybe a couple genres of music and what the P35 adds. (between Drum & Bass and Classical, there must be different 2 buss needs!)

And I've always been curious about what that "glue" is made of. Is it that all the elements share a comp configuation that make them seem in the same picture? Or is it them sharing a common "shine" or light distortion that "glues" them.

(p.s. I'm interested in your product !)

[RogerFoote]

Hi jamwerks

Yes, the references to the Maselec and STC-8 were from mastering and vinyl cutting engineers. That relates to low ratio mastering settings.

When I started this design, back in 1994, I was hoping to get the character of the dbx 160 types of compressors but with soft knee response and without the noise and artifacts of those comps, especially the artificial sounding "grind" that they have during compression recovery that is a problem when using them for electric bass processing.

I succeeded.

With higher ratios, you can squeeze the crap out of a signal and still retain it's sonic character and the stereo image.

An engineer supplied us with waveform pics from a Pro Tools session of several compressors, the dbx 165, a Manley unit and our design... It's compression "signature" is very close to the dbx and was preferred by this particular studio. So much so that they put 12 of them in their remote truck in a custom case to save space. They will all be used on live vocal feeds to the truck.


In modes that use the peak detector like AR and especially in feedback mode the distortion gets more prominent as compared to RMS mode which is extremely clean. You can get a very nice smashed/crunch if you want in these modes... Good for adding that "smack" to a drum bus.
I personally really like using AR/feedback on drum tracks/buses.

Using NLC mode, exploding/ dramatic drum sounds are easy to implement.

Which brings up another comparison... The Valley 610 compressor.
On the P3S, using NLC mode and extreme amounts of compression, around 30-50 dB of gain reduction, you can actually erase drum tracks leaving only ambience intact. The 610 is likely the only other unit that can do this.

In vocal recording, especially live work, you can adjust NLC mode to only act on very high amplitude peaks with very high amounts of GR and then "get out of the way" seamlessly.

On electric bass, when I used to use dbx compressors, I didn't like the distortion while the compressor was recovering from deep GR... This isn't the kind of distortion that is sought after, but a grinding artificial sounding artifact that takes the clarity away from a bass line.

The FCS compressors don't have that artifact, which is good since I like tube amp distortion whan I want distorted bass lines. I also like to use a slightly slower attack on bass to preserve the attack tones/noises that RMS mode suppresses.

Then, there is "Glue"...

In a stereo mix, at low-medium ratios, details are lifted out of the mix enhancing density of the program material... Subtle string overtones and vocal nuances come to life that were buried in the mix before.

This "Glue" will be obvious in any mode that the P3S offers, for stereo program use RMS will likely be the winner here.

Btw, you can use the P3S as a mono compressor by just driving a single input with no compromise whatsoever.

The types of music I use the P3S on in program compression modes are Rock, Jazz, Fusion, Hip Hop, R&B, Prog Rock, Electronic, Acoustic Folk, World/Ethnic, Classical (including modern experimental classical)

The program material always sounds richer, better with the P3S engaged.
Especially with the output transformers!
The same is true of submixes and drum buses.


Best regards
Roger

[jamwerks]

Originally Posted by RogerFoote

The program material always sounds richer, better with the P3S engaged. Especially with the output transformers!

thumbsup thumbsup

[emrr]

Originally Posted by moracspace

Mr.Qualls
Would you consider this on the 2 bus?

It's excellent on 2 bus. I have an earlier custom rendition of this stereo compressor, and it's never come off the 2 bus once in a year and a half.

[RogerFoote]

Yup, the design had 2 bus written all over it!

Thanks!
Roger Foote
FCS

[tapehiss]

im wondering when you say it was designed for the twobuss,

were also talking about the 500 stereo comp????

or just the full rack with carnhills was for two buss?

or aRE THEY essentially the same thing aside from the carnhill?

[Roc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by tapehiss

im wondering when you say it was designed for the twobuss,

were also talking about the 500 stereo comp????

or just the full rack with carnhills was for two buss?

or aRE THEY essentially the same thing aside from the carnhill?

Same exact VCA design and topology, minus the Carnhill output iron of the Rack unit. In my experience the 500 Series P3500S is just as useful as the Rack unit [as they are the same design and compressor] but the P3500S has less low mid thunder and thickness, that's all. Nothing to lose sleep over, really. It is a cleaner option, but its not like these transformers make the P3 so much different that it would be the only option to use on the buss. That's certainly NOT the case at our studio.

[RogerFoote]

We've been talking about putting these Carnhills in a 500 format unit...
Transformer and bypass.
Don't know if it will happen, but it does sound kind of interesting.

[tapehiss]

i love that idea...

and can tell you that i would buy one..

would be nice to have that option for the 500 series!!!!!!!!!!

[Snatchman]

+3 for Roger.....What's up Roger..?...

[RogerFoote]

Hi Snatchman!
What's up with you?

I've been so busy, I don't know what's up

Still gotta get that preamp over to ya... I'm getting to like it as a bass DI driving the P3500.

Best
Roger

[emrr]

You can always go ghetto like me and make a passive transformer interface box to tack on the output of the P3500S when you want that sort of vibe. I have UTC LS-30's and Western Electric 111-C's set up this way, so I can use them when and where I like. They definitely wouldn't fit in any 500 series rack!

P3S or P3500S, I'd not loose sleep over having one versus the other. Buy the 500 version if you are entrenched in that format, likewise buy the rack mount if it makes more practical sense for you. I have 3 different variations of the FCS compressor, and they all deliver the same performance, the newest versions expanding the bells and whistles fabulously.

[Snatchman]

Originally Posted by RogerFoote

Hi Snatchman!
What's up with you?

I've been so busy, I don't know what's up

Still gotta get that preamp over to ya... I'm getting to like it as a bass DI driving the P3500.

Best
Roger

Hey Roger..I'm good..Yeah, you gotta get it over to me before you start liking it to much...!....

[jamwerks]

Well I've decided to get the rackmounted version for the 2buss. Anybody doing a jump from the states to Paris in the coming weeks?

[George Necola]

is the Gain-knob acting as "output volume control"?

then there is no input gain, right?

[Roc Mixwell]

Originally Posted by George Necola

is the Gain-knob acting as "output volume control"?

then there is no input gain, right?

correct, there is no input gain, only output make up gain.

[RogerFoote]

Originally Posted by jamwerks

Well I've decided to get the rackmounted version for the 2buss. Anybody doing a jump from the states to Paris in the coming weeks?

Awesome, Jamwerks!

I am certain you will be happy with it!

Thanks
Roger Foote

[rajprods]

Looking to get some additional feedback on how the P3S may compare to compressors like the Daking FET II and FET III, and other stereo units especially VCA types (Smart C2, Red 3). Do you find that it's totally transparent sounding or does it have the ability to provide transparent or a bit of colored compression if necessary?