German high-end outboard manufacturers Elysia have released their first processor for API’s 500-series Lunchbox chassis. The Xpressor 500 is one of a few double-width Lunchbox-compatible compressor modules that have been released recently (Alta Moda and Obsidian Audio both have similar new products), but as with Elysia’s previous dynamic processors (the Alpha and Mpressor), it has a few unusual extra features.Elysia Xpressor 500
Elysia Xpressor 500

Indeed, much of the functionality that makes the Elysia so unique is also available in the newcomer: the gain reduction limiter, for example, is a particularly useful addition that, as its name suggests, limits the amount of gain reduction applied to programme material, for more transparent compression. Then there’s the Auto-Fast mode, which adjusts the compressor’s attack time according to the steepness of the material’s transients, so that it is as fast as can be without introducing audible distortion artefacts.

The Xpressor has a built-in side-chain filter, a Mix control (for parallel compression), and a choice of either logarithmic or anti-logarithmic release behaviour (the latter making the compressor’s release much more obvious).

Designed mainly for bus processing (though also suitable for mono operation), the Elysia Xpressor 500 is available to buy now, for 649 Euros excluding VAT.