Slate Pro Audio have announced that their Dragon compressor, which was first displayed at the AES show last year, is now shipping worldwide. And they’re not showing the slightest bit of modesty about it: Slate are billing the Dragon as “the most versatile compressor, limiter and sound-shaping tool that the pro audio industry has ever seen,” which is quite some claim!
The mono compressor is based on a classic FET design, but Slate say that their engineers have enhanced the circuitry with a “mastering-grade signal path”, which includes a Jensen input transformer and a custom-made transformer for the output stage.
In addition to all the controls you’d normally expect to find on a compressor (input and output level, ratio, and fully adjustable attack and release times), the Dragon also has three ‘character’ buttons: Boom adds subharmonic frequencies to the signal, which Slate recommend for basses and kick drums; Bite adds a “gentle ‘forward’ character” to the sound (which we think means an upper-mid boost); and Sheen introduces a touch of high-end ‘air’ to the source, which is apparently well suited to vocals and drum busses. What’s more, you can use all of the character settings simultaneously, so if you want your sounds to have more Boom, Bite and Sheen (and let’s face it, who wouldn’t?) then the Dragon will give you just that.
“Wait, there’s more!” says Slate’s press release, in classic shopping-channel vernacular: the Dragon has a Vintage mode, which adds more harmonics to the signal and gives the compressor a more aggressive sound, and there’s also three-way Saturation control, which, as its name suggests, introduces varying degrees of saturation. Usefully, the unit features a six-position high-pass filter control, for removing low frequencies from the side-chain input to avoid ‘pumping’ on bass-heavy sources.
Though Slate say that the Dragon is capable of subtle compression on its lowest ratio setting (2:1), if you’re the type who likes to hear your compressor earn its keep, there’s a Squash button, which apparently emulates the ‘all buttons in’ sound of the classic 1176 levelling amplifier. And finally, there’s a wet/dry Mix control, so you can compress your sources in parallel without the need to mult them, which uses up extra mixer channels.
The Dragon is available in the UK from Studio Xchange, who have just started distributing all Slate Pro Audio and Slate Digital products, at a price of £1595 for a single unit, or £2995 for a pair, which includes a linking cable for stereo compression.
