Having started out as a ‘custom shop’ carrying out modifications to popular audio gear, Black Lion Audio have steadily built up a selection of equipment manufactured under their own name. Some of these products feature completely new designs created by the company themselves, whilst others offer their own take on classic sought-after processors, often including some useful extra features.
The tightly-packed Bluey 500 module features the same signal path as its rack mount counterpart. One such example of the latter is the Bluey, a compressor which aims to recreate the sound of Grammy-winning engineer Chris Lord-Alge’s favourite ‘Blue Stripe’ 1176. In addition to the 2U rack mount version, the company have now managed to squeeze the entire device into a double-width 500-series module, resulting in the creation of the suitably named Bluey 500.
The module promises to deliver all of the “squeeze, heft, and grit” of the full-sized equivalent whilst occupying a fraction of its footprint. Attack, Release, Input, and Output parameters are present, along with a Mix control that allows users to instantly dial in some parallel compression. 4:1, 8:1, 12:1 and 20:1 ratio options are available, and a backlit VU meter offers a visual indication of the gain reduction being applied by the processor.
As with the original, the module is a mono device, although two can be linked for stereo operation thanks to an RCA connector on the front panel.
We reviewed the original Bluey in the June 2020 issue of SOS, you can check out the article here.
Pricing & Availability
The Bluey 500 is available now, priced at $699£819 including VAT.
