I have just sold my wonderfully lush and big sounding Gyraf G10 vari-mu tube compressor, as I found myself not using it a great deal. When I first got it I was mastering a fair amount of classical, folk and jazz. For that I felt it was perfect. But for the past year or so I have been getting more and more music coming in requiring quite a hard, loud and in your face sound. The G10 never felt quite at home with that.

I have an FCS P3S ME and a Maselec MLA-3, which I love for their clean and transparent sound. But I also want a compressor that is capable of adding a certain "je ne sais quoi" for harder styles of music (EDM, alternative, rock/metal).

Can anyone suggest a compressor that might fit the bill?

you have already 2 vca compressors, so maybe a airfield liminator 2 (with mastering upgrade), hcl varis or manley vari-mu would fit.
i also like the knif pure mu on rock and edm, but if it have to be in your face and a bit edgy, the varis fit maybe better for you.

I'd think an API 2500 would be what you are looking for. I just sold my Manly Vari for the similar reasons you sold your G10.

+ 1 for API 2500


Razik Mastering

I'm a fan of the Manley vari-mu mastering with T-BAR mod. so if you 've need a vari-mu compressor maybe is the way or you can try and listen if it could be the way.
i like also the Pendulum ES-8 (or the 6386 tube mod.), the only problem with it is that has only potentiometers and if you've need to recall something........... but it has a big sound

Varis has a more aggressive sound than a lot of Vari Mus, so maybe its worth checking out for you. I have it and the Neve MBP, I feel like I have all bases covered with those 2.

Knif Pure mu or Vari mu, would be probably the interesting ones, being able to be fairly invisible but still with attitude & quite colored if you push it.
for EDM they preserve the bass/sub range better than the API 2500 + Manley's vari mu.

As far as you look for vari mus: I would maybe go for Varis (strong character; heavy bass with a presence around 7k), a Knif Pure mu (sweet high sheen, dont know if its the right one for inyourface) or a rockruepel (tight not so pronounced bass like many other vari mu with this little step forward at around 2k but very clean low mids. a gentleman without be too restrained. its extremely fast, maybe a bit too smashy with faster A/R, in comp mode). The last one I use myself and I dont like it on acoustic music in comp mode so much. But for electronic stuff its a real killer in my chain (which I do mostly these days). And for all other styles I simply use the amp mode, which is very flexible and decent sounding. I would call it a "noble Varis", not too agressiv, down to earth and far from wooly sounding. For real technical compression I use my VCA the most if I'm honest (cause its the most natural, musical and effective one in my chain). So I look mostly for boxtone and (a bit transformer compression) in my other compression tools.
The ruepel is a bit a diva in the chain due too its very puristic build. Its not ideal if you switch your chain a lot. In my experience the ruepel likes high quality build solid state stages around in a chain with levels on the lower side.

btw: HP is selling his comp1 (the real one...) in the classifieds

roockrueppel is also a good idea. api 2500 is great, but only vca's in your chain make him less versatile.

vari mu's can sound very different.

the varis is the most agressive vari mu i know, great for rock and edm, never in use for stuff with a lot acoustic guitars
rockrueppel is great for rock, nice mids, tight sound, works for edm to
knif pure mu is a perfect "anti digitalitis" vari mu, give a nice density, tight, versatile, with a slight hifi-touch, great for edm, less rockish tha varis, rockrueppel or manley
manley i didn't know very well, but a manley with hp is a very typical rock sound, but maybe not the first desicion for edm

maybe also try a phoenix.

Check out the Gem Audio Labs Preceptor Model-T.

Chandler LTD-2s.

I also had the G10 and sold it for a Phoenix. Never looked back

Many thanks for all your great suggestions. I may not be able to check out all of the gear (I think it's 9 compressors so far), but this is really helpful.

chris, you can check out the waves api2500 and the NI vari-comp (manley vari-mu) to get at least a rough feeling of the control behaviour for those two. for the manley highpass sidechain is a must for mastering & the mastering version is even more flexible since the attack can go longer & the release shorter (making even the limit mode very more useful). knif pure mu is also a really nice option for sure! hcl varis is a quite straight forward sounding vari-mu, i like it for undergroud techno, drum & base, deep house, metal. a pair ltd-2 is also very punchy (think of them as an even more characterful api 2500 but a bit less flexible). last but not least airfield liminator 2 (with mastering upgrade). i really don't know why other MEs haven't discovered it up to now. it is one of my favourite compressors.

What brings you the Airfield Liminator 2 regarding all the other comps you have?

That said as it is a thread to replace the G10. I have to say, I really like this comp Gyraf 10 (I have a P4S ME and comp one also).

Also you could look at the Gyraf G21, very interesting beast!!! that can make your master powerful

hi frederic, how would you describe the g10 compared to the comp one?

OK, I can try to describe the sound. But the best would be that I make you a sample.
I have had the Manley Vari Mu, Phoenix, the G10 gives me more warmth, velvety low, a nice body, while keeping sweetness and clarity in the high. It's a character machine, yet very elegant. It's perfect for acoustic music, electro, pop, rock... I understand it's not enough forward for aggressive music!
The Comp one in comparaison has this mid shine and this perfect accuracy... I tend to use rather the comp one in parallel and this works great in this way.
To me there is more magical on the G10 than the other vary mu I had.

Funnily, the new P4S ME is sounding close to the G10 with a bit more transparency

interesting, thank you!

frederic, the airfield doesn't look like that, but it is very flexible & has a lot of sweet spots. a ratio of 8:1 in a mastering context? no problem (even 20:1 works, but I do not dare since even if it sounds good such a number is ridiculously high ). attack & release fast? never liked that with any other compressor, but with the airfield it sounds good. and then you have two very nice sounding transformers to choose from.

i was searching for a long time for *that* opto control behaviour. i couldn't get that from the cl2a nor from e.g. a mla2. i always had the feeling they didn't do 100% the right thing (mainly in the release phase). just as a side note, i like the control behaviour also better than that from a p3s most of the time (which also has a bit of the opto-control attitude). but of course the airfield makes more sound compared to the p3s, but it can be nearly as snappy. on the other side it can't be as relaxed as a manley vari-mu but can still cover some of its area.

the unit is well built & has extraordinary high frequency & noise specs. the mastering upgrade (making threshold & gains stepped) needs 30 minutes (& no soldering). i recommend a 680ohm resistor for the threshold (david miller will know) so the range is wider in a mastering chain. that said, if i had to choose one compressor for mastering from all i've heard up to now, i would go with the airfield, otherwise with the manley (stepped mastering version with sidechain HPF).

thanks for the description of the g10. to me it sounds like the g10 has a comparable base sound as the g14 (soft, silky, warm). i like my g14, but bundled with a g10 it could be too much (the g14 alone colors quite much, but you can use it in parallel).

my airfield liminator (with mastering upgrade) will is on the way to me - can't wait to use him!

Soft, silky and warm is a quite good description of the G10.

I never found the combination of G10 and G14 to be too coloured for mastering. I used both together for over two years.

i get my airfield liminator today and he blow me away!

the perfect counterpart to a great vari-mu.

tight, precise, groovy, but "big" (very different to a ssl), at the same time a gentlemen, give the music a "finish" like perfectly waxed root wood, very beautiful lowmids with the sowter transformers, a bit more hifi with the jensens.
he moves and grooves and kneading the sound in a very musical way.

this compressor should be a the standarts in masteringstudios like fairchild, sontec, maselec, buzz - the perfect opto for mastering.

very good description teebaum! i'm glad you like the airfield and i'm sure you'll have a lot of fun with it!

I have a Thermionic Phoenix here for a demo at the moment. It's early days, but I quite like what it does. It's less coloured than the Gyraf G10, but it seems to work well with most music styles. So far I have tried it on EDM, pop and metal, and been quite happy with the results.

It's a bit fiddly to use though - I have the non-mastering version. Matching channels 1 and 2 requires patience.

I have heard the mastering version (Phoenix) and it got me thinking.......but it's too much for now, maybe in a year or so. What i normaly do is when i have the settings laid in the Phoenix i take the output knobs all the way down pass a sine wave correct the input knobs for perfect matching and then i do the same for the output knobs. After a couple of times it's nothing

Has i mentioned i had the G10 and i love it, but not every time. The vibeyness was always there and that was not what i wanted for all projects. Sometimes i felt i just wanted a little beff or glue, not colour (not sure how to explain) and when i tried the phoenix i got that. The secret with it is the input stage, as harder you push it more saturation you will gonna get, it's a lot of fun to mess arround it it, at least i do.

Maybe you already knew this, but if you didnt try it