Drawmer have been offering no‑nonsense professional audio gear since the early ’80s, but their current range of processors offers more possibilities than ever.
British company Drawmer Electronics have been around since 1982 and today they offer several lines of outboard processors, along with monitor controllers, master clocks, signal routers and even plug‑ins, via a collaboration with Softube. For review here is their latest analogue channel strip: the 1977. It’s a mono, 2U rackmount device that combines a preamplifier, an EQ, a compressor and a saturator with some useful routing facilities. It connects to mains AC via an IEC socket on the rear, and can operate on 230V 50Hz or 115V 60Hz power — to prevent accidents you must unscrew a metal panel and insert a suitable fuse if you wish to change this.
Externally, the build quality is good: unfussy, solid and fit for purpose, with very clear panel markings. On the inside most components are traditional through‑hole types, laid out on one main motherboard that fills the chassis, and a vertical daughterboard behind the front panel.
Preamp & EQ
The preamp stage is really versatile, with input impedance options for mics, a variable high‑pass filter, and both input and thru sockets for instruments.The preamp has separate mic and line inputs on the rear (electronically balanced XLRs), along with a TS jack instrument input on the front. A front‑panel rotary switch selects the source, and there’s 0 to 66 dB of gain available for mics and ‑24 to 42 dB for line or instrument sources. For the mic input you can choose between four positions on the selector switch. The first three offer different input impedances (2.4kΩ, 600Ω and 200Ω) and no phantom power — these can be useful when working with passive dynamic (moving‑coil or ribbon) mics, as the impedance can have a significant impact on their tonality. This arrangement also ensures phantom isn’t present where it’s not wanted. The fourth position is for capacitor (and other active) mics and this engages 48V phantom power automatically.
There are some more typical preamp features here: a polarity inverter is joined by a high‑pass filter; helpfully, the latter is fully variable from 16 to 130 Hz, making it suitable for use as an unobtrusive rumble filter, to counteract the tonal impact of the proximity effect or, for example, to roll off the bottom end of a guitar to prevent it treading on the toes of the bass. This filter can also be switched in/out of the signal path without changing its frequency setting.
Conveniently, alongside the instrument jack another quarter‑inch TS jack provides a ‘thru’ output, and a similarly thoughtful touch is the preamp direct out on another electronically balanced XLR on the rear. So you can use the instrument stage like a traditional DI box, with the preamp’s line output going to FOH or a recording device and the thru feeding your amp or pedalboard. Or you might record the clean signal post the preamp and use the processing stages later when mixing, or even at the same time when streaming or broadcasting.
After the preamp, there are several processing stages, including a three‑band equaliser. This can be switched in or out of the signal path (it’s a hard‑wired bypass) and pre/post the compressor, courtesy of a button to the left of the EQ section. A ±12dB low shelf can be set anywhere from 40 to 725 Hz, and a switch allows you to choose 6, 9 or 12 dB/octave slopes. There’s also a really useful Peak setting — this once again has a 12dB/octave slope but this time there’s a resonant peak around the turnover frequency. The mid band, a parametric bell, has a generous 140Hz to 13kHz range, and bandwidth (0.25 to 2.75 octaves) and ±12dB gain controls. The high band, another ±12dB shelf, can be set from 530Hz to 20kHz and there are 6 and 12 dB/octave slopes to choose from.
As well as the usual analogue I/O there’s a preamp direct output and a side‑chain insert point, which (with the right cable) doubles as an external side‑chain input.
Compressor & Saturator
The FET compressor has a threshold knob (+20 to ‑40 dB) and, alongside more conventional controls, there are buttons marked Big and Air. I’d initially assumed that Big might be some sort of parallel compression setting, but in fact it engages a high‑pass filter in the side‑chain, thus reducing the compressor’s sensitivity to low frequencies, which often leaves the bottom end sounding tighter and more solid. So it’s a useful feature, particularly if using a pair of these on a drum or mix bus. But should you wish to do more to influence the compressor’s response, there’s an unbalanced TRS side‑chain insert point on the rear. I tend to prefer this approach to a simple key input, as you can press into service even the cheapest, nastiest sounding EQ to help you get more from the compressor! But I was pleased to discover that, via a Y‑lead from my patchbay, I could also use the side‑chain insert’s return as a key input for side‑chain compression, for example using a kick to duck a bass guitar. Air, meanwhile, seems to be an HF EQ cut, to prevent the compressor clamping down too hard on sounds with a lot of their energy in the top end.
There are conventional controls for the ratio, attack and release. The ratio runs from 1:1 (no compression) to 10:1 (effectively limiting), while a continuously variable attack control ranges from 0.2 to 100 ms and a similar release control from 0.05 to 2 seconds. A separate button, PGM, engages a programme‑dependent (or ‘auto’) release mode (for more on what an auto release does check out Hugh Robjohns’ explanation in SOS September 2014: www.soundonsound.com/sound-advice/q-what-does-compressors-auto-release-control-do).
Before we get to the make‑up gain knob (‑10 to +20 dB), there’s a saturation processor, comprising a single knob and two buttons, one to engage a high‑pass and the other a low‑pass filter. The knob is marked simply 1‑10, and you just turn it clockwise for more distortion. The filters, whose frequencies aren’t specified, help you to tame any ill effects heard in the high and low end, focusing the added energy more in the mids when both are used — that’s often where you’ll want it, and I found both essential when using saturation on vocals in particular. After the make‑up gain, a Comp In button switches the whole compressor‑plus‑saturation section in/out of circuit, so if you set the make‑up gain appropriately you can easily A/B compare the compressed and uncompressed signals.
It’s common to have a wet/dry mix control on compressors these days, but I see it much less often on full channel strips, and it’s a real bonus here...
There’s also a small ‘master section’ on the right, comprising an output level knob labelled Fade (full attenuation to +12dB of gain) and, just before this in the signal path, a wet/dry mix pot. The latter applies to the whole signal chain post the preamp, which means you can set the balance between the dry sound from the preamp and the entire processing chain (EQ, compressor, saturation). It’s common to have a wet/dry mix control on compressors these days, but I see it much less often on full channel strips, and it’s a real bonus here because, with the EQ pre/post‑compressor switching, it means you’re able to shape the compressed path in the way many engineers like to when using parallel processing on a console. The same goes for parallel saturation: while you have its built‑in filters already, you could effectively bypass the compressor by setting the threshold high enough that there’s no gain reduction, then just have parallel saturation, with the saturation path shaped by the onboard EQ section. It’s this sort of thing that makes me think of the 1977 as a Swiss Army processor — it’s not likely to lay idle in your rack!
Impressions
Features and possibilities are all well and good, but that’s all for nothing if a device doesn’t deliver the goods sonically. Happily, the 1977 does! It’s intended for a range of sources, from vocals and acoustic instruments, to electric guitars and synths, and even (used in pairs) the drum and mix busses. With other processing stages on board, then, it’s not surprising that the preamp seems to have been designed with cleanliness in mind: it works very well to bring signals up to the desired level: clean, detailed and quiet, just as you’d want. When pushed too hard there’s a rapid transition to breakup, so I wouldn’t be looking to drive this preamp into a sweet spot. But there’s a saturation stage for that, and also potentially some mic‑dependent colour courtesy of the input impedance options.
Both shelving EQs have slope settings, and the low band has a handy resonant ‘peak‑and‑dip’ option.The EQ strikes me as a good, versatile console‑style EQ. Not only is there considerable overlap in the ranges, meaning you can, for example, boost the low end of a kick using a shelf and then apply a narrow parametric cut in that 200Hz region that can sound boxy. But the shelves also offer way more control than you’d suspect. Sticking with the kick example, with the low band’s peak setting engaged, you get both a resonant peak around the centre frequency and a corresponding narrow dip just above it — so you can emphasise a note in a drum without too much collateral damage. And if doing that raises too much flabby low end, the variable high‑pass filter in the preamp stage can compensate for that. Subjectively, it sounds sweet too: it’s easy to get it to do what you want, and never sounds harsh or scratchy.
The compressor seems to have a soft knee, and in general with lower ratios it sounds smooth and graceful. That makes it really nice on vocals, amongst other things, but I could also use more assertive settings to really pummel a (mono) drum bus, a role in which the Big side‑chain filter helps achieve a solid, powerful low end, and the wet/dry blend control can be used to restore some dynamics. No complaints there! It’s the saturation control, though, that makes this whole section rather more special. While very audible, it’s not an in‑your‑face distortion (it sounds classier than that) and it worked well on most sources that can use a little grit and dirt. But in that parallel drum compressor role it excelled, doing some lovely things to the snare in particular.
In summary, Drawmer have combined elements of their 1970s range in one package, and the result is a very well specified channel strip that delivers the goods sonically. Almost everything you could want in a channel is here, the one exception perhaps being a de‑esser, and it could easily serve as a studio’s main recording channel: a vocal strip, a front end for your guitar, bass or synths and more, and still offering plenty of options at mixdown. The build quality is decent, there are nicely wide‑ranging controls, and there’s lots of configurability. Well done, Drawmer!
Metering
In between each pair of EQ bands is an overload LED that illuminates when the EQ stage is overloading — an indication to dial back the EQ or preamp gain controls. For the compressor, gain reduction is indicated by an eight‑segment (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15 and 20 dB) LED bar‑graph meter and, on the right of the unit, there’s a large backlit moving‑coil VU meter that displays the output level. As shipped, 0VU equates to +4dBu, and to calibrate it for a different operating level there’s a preset on the main circuit board. There’s also a 10dB pad switch on the front, to make the meter more meaningful when working with deliberately ‘hot’ signals. Since each processing section has a hard bypass, and another switch on the far right toggles between the post‑preamp and post‑processing signals, it’s easy to establish the level at different points in the chain. Another neat feature is that you’re treated to a light show, whereby the edges of the VU meter flash red as the saturation circuitry does its thing. I like this, though was surprised that it didn’t cease when the compressor/saturation stage was bypassed, and some might prefer the ability to turn it off.
Pros
- Clean and versatile preamp stage.
- Generous processing options.
- Compressor side‑chain insert point.
- Keen price.
- Sounds great.
Cons
- Nothing of note.
Summary
A lovely sounding and wonderfully versatile recording channel.
Information
$1799
TransAudio Group +1 702‑365‑515.
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