Drawmer OC1 & FC1

These new modules from British veterans Drawmer look similar, but internally they’re very different beasts. We check out Drawmer’s take on two classic compressor topologies.

Drawmer aren’t new to the 500 series: they’ve long offered the DS101 version of their famous gate; and last year they unveiled the MQ‑1 and MQ‑2, a pair of modules inspired by the famous Motown EQ and which perform well without costing the Earth. But the latest additions to their range, the OC1 and the FC1, are the British company’s first 500‑series compressors, and the OC1 is one of very few Drawmer units to employ an opto‑cell for the gain reduction (I believe the popular S2 and S3 models were the only ones to do so previously). The FC1, meanwhile, draws its inspiration from the FET compressors employed in the company’s rackmount 1970 series.

The Same...

Despite their inner workings being very different, outwardly these two single‑slot modules appear almost identical. Each has the same layout of buttons, knobs and meters, and for the most part the same labels too. They have their own aesthetic touches, of course: the OC1 is differentiated from its sibling by a few splashes of gold‑ish yellow, notably around the meter LEDs, and clever model‑name graphics hint at the gain‑reduction method used. The FC1 largely adheres to the 1970‑series’ black, yellow and white colour scheme.

Both of these compressors are very conventional, and I mean that in an entirely positive sense — while they put plenty of control to hand, almost all of the controls will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s used a compressor before. It’s a control set that gives you way more scope to refine the action than you have on, say, an LA‑3A or 1176, but you’ll only need to reach for the manual to be certain you’ve understood what a couple of the buttons’ labels mean.

These are both single‑channel modules, but they include a Link facility that allows multiple modules to act in concert on stereo or multi‑channel material. To do this, Drawmer chose to use pin 6 of the host 500‑series rack to join the side‑chain control signals. You still set the physical controls of each module individually, but that with the greatest control voltage at any given time — in other words, the one delivering most gain redcution — triggers gain reduction on all linked modules. The input and ouput gains, time‑constant controls and other features continue to function as if the units were being used individually.

In terms of controls, at the top, we have three knobs on the left, and two LED bar meters to their right. These knobs set the input level (±15dB), the threshold (with a generous +20 to ‑40 dB range) and ratio. Ratios of 1:1 to 10:1 are available, the former effectively configuring the module as a line‑amp, to take advantage of some other features without any actual compression, and the latter approximating limiting. The meters are eight‑LED ladders, the left one a VU type that can be toggled to display the input or output level (‑20 to +15 dB, with five green LEDs up to 0VU, two yellow ones and...