Lindell doesn’t actually produce a hardware version of this, but they developed the plugin (along with LSR). So here you have it, Plugin Alliance Lindell SCR, based on the API 2500.
A couple of additions to the actual API hardware here (and a subtraction). One addition is the THD knob, similar to the HR control on the UAD API 2500, which allows you to increase the harmonic content. The other is the “NUKE” button. Adorned with a skull and crossbones warning, in this case presumably to warn you that it increases the ratio and threshold (and relative loudness). You can judge for yourself if it is helpful or not to create “even more aggressive compression.” The subtraction is in the release control, as it lacks the Release Variable knob in the original by combining the function into one control.
You can find more info and hints about the API 2500 on the UAD API 2500 and the Waves API 2500.
Hints:
- Use the link control to give a more natural compression on your mix bus. Start at “0” but then adjust upward. You don’t want to lose your stereo image (as you will if you are crazily compressing each channel independently), but you don’t want a transient far left or right to bring down your whole signal.
- Go ahead and try “Nuke”. And you might as well push the THD all the way up at the same time. You might find this is just the thing for drum or to give a synth some analog-sounding distortion.
- Notice they used the word “filter” because “Thrust” is licensed by API. But it does the same thing, a high pass filter so you aren’t over-compressing because of bass content. If you are using this on a mix bus you will probably notice quite a bit of difference experimenting with these settings.
[Only a few of the possible compression curves based on the various settings are shown, but this should give a good idea of what the different controls do.]
