Hi Guy,
I just buy a old first generation 8900
I have few questions about it ...
-First : What do think of this gear ? In hard knee mode, do you think that massenburgh is better than a hard knee classical one (1176, 33609...) ?
-Second : If someone knows the gear, I don't know if mine got a problem because I don't understand the STEREO COUPLE fonction. When I put it, the parameters still working on the two channels. There is no any link ? How it's possible for a mastering gear ?
- I'm looking for the manuals and just find a video and a 5 pages explications on Massenburg website...

Thanks a lot
Cheers
Anapurna from Paris

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/image...s/sleeping.gif
Nobody can help me on this question ?

Check this out

Yeah I had readi it before coming here
I contact Jeff from GML company
He gives me an excellent response for the stereo link

" This is a great difficulty with the 8900 -- it is very difficult to
explain its operation in an intuitive manner, especially without real-
time examples or a direct in-person conversation.

The Stereo Couple control operates in a manner rather different from
the conventional 'stereo link' function of other devices. The
'typical' link function allows one set of controls to affect both
channels directly. This may simplify the user interface, but it
really only works well musically with a mono or nearly-mono 2-channel
source. Only the dynamic content of the one channel affects overall
operation; the content of the second (slaved) channel will have no
affect. Highly uncorrelated material (wide stereo image, diverse
panning, etc.) tends to suffer terribly using this control scheme.

The Stereo Couple function, in contrast, combines the control signals
generated by each channel onto a common control bus that is then
applied to each dynamic processor. At every instant, the highest
level of gain reduction between coupled channels will act on all
coupled channels. Therefore, each coupled channel is sensitive to
the dynamic content of all coupled channels. The technical manner in
which this is accomplished requires that three user controls
(Threshold, Ratio, and Output) be matched by hand in order to
maintain a good stereo match -- this is admittedly somewhat
inefficient, but then the 8900 was not designed for efficiency but
rather flexibility and sonic performance.

Looking a bit deeper, it can be seen that given two identical signals
simply matching these three controls will not yield a precise match
-- all other controls should be set similarly as well. This is
because the control signals combined by the Stereo Couple function
are themselves dependent on the Timing, Release Hysteresis, and both
Crest Factor controls. Major differences in these settings between
channels would yield different control signals to be combined. This
situation cuts both ways, offering inconvenience in addition to
advantages. The inconvenience is obvious; controls must be matched
by hand. The advantages may not be so obvious; a great deal of
flexibility is maintained regarding how the user wishes to affect the
dynamic content of a given signal and how one signal should affect
others. This is especially useful when applied to highly
uncorrelated material, since the user retains control rather than
letting the unit's designer determine what must occur.

The mastering version of the 8900, Model 2030, adds a Control
function that does operate like the 'typical' link function,
collapsing control to only one channel or the other within a unit.
Fortunately, this can be combined with the Stereo Couple function to
provide both precise matching with sensitivity to signals from both
channels. The 8900, incidentally, was never really designed for
mastering work . . . several features of the 2030 address the 8900's
shortcomings for this application.

This explanation may prove a poor attempt, but I hope it sheds some
light on how this unique function operates and might be useful in
practice.

Best "

What you refer to as "typical" is atypical in my experience. Most stereo linkable compressors do NOT use a single channel's detector to determine the compression for both channels. They are usually linked and interactive.

Yeah, I thought just the controls were from the one side, not the detector circuit also.

I don't use the stereo link function. Just set them similar and have at it. Why go through all those complications?

This would be my fav compressor though heh Nice purchase