The Obsidian 500, from high-end US gear manufacturers Dramastic Audio, is now available in the UK, courtesy of their UK distributors KMR. Designed for API’s modular Lunchbox 500 system, the Obsidian 500 is a stereo VCA bus compressor that is essentially the same as their rackmount Obsidian unit, but with a couple of enhancements. Firstly, the turnover frequency of the high-pass filter on the 500-series version can be switched between 60Hz, 105Hz, 125Hz, 185Hz and 330Hz, where the rackmount version’s filter frequency is fixed. Secondly, the Obsidian 500 has what Dramastic call a “gentile” 1.5:1 compression ratio, in addition to the 2:1, 4:1, 8:1, 10:1 and 12:1 ratios available on the original (both models also have a hard-limiting ‘Skull’ mode, the ratio for which isn’t given).
Though the Obsidian 500 is a double-width module, the inherent space restrictions in a Lunchbox rack mean it has lost its external side-chain input — but Dramastic have a solution for this, in the form of the optional Dual Mono module. Not only does this endow the compressor with external key functionality, it also has an extra gain-reduction meter, for dual-mono compression.
Other features include stepped controls for easy recall, and transformer-balanced inputs and outputs. Available to buy now, the Dramastic Audio Obsidian 500 retails for £2173.75 including VAT.
