The audio examples on this page accompany my review of the Electric & Company EC5B Limiting Amplifier from SOS May 2023 issue.
www.soundonsound.com/reviews/electric-company-ec5b
I’ve provided before and after examples, along with the settings used and a few thoughts on what I was trying to achieve. The before (RAW) examples were recorded without any compression applied.
01_Drum Room_RAW
A rather limp-sounding mono drum room mic.
02_Drum Room_EC5B
For this example, I used the EC5B to add character and excitement to the mono drum room mic in example 01. The attack was set to 1 o’clock and the release to its fastest setting. It’s worth noting that the side-chain filter was off — and that when engaged the kick drum sounded somewhat cleaner.
03_Bass Guitar_RAW
An unprocessed DI bass guitar part.
04_Bass Guitar_EC5B
I purposely overcooked the bass guitar, to highlight the saturated effect that you can achieve very easily. For this example, the release was on its fast setting — dialling this back results in a cleaner sound.
05_Acoustic Guitar_RAW
An untreated strummed acoustic guitar part.
06_Acoustic Guitar_EC5B
For this example, I used the EC5B to add roundness to the untreated acoustic guitar part, with the attack set at 11 o’clock and a slow release. Things became too coloured very quickly, but by engaging the side-chain filter and slowing down the release it’s possible to scale down the audible saturation.
07_Electric Guitar_RAW
A slightly driven picked electric guitar recording.
08_Electric Guitar_EC5B
I used the EC5B to make the guitar part feel less ‘spikey’. This setting also seems to bring out a little low-mid range detail. The side-chain filter was engaged at 100Hz, with the attack set at 1 o’clock and the release at 12 o’clock.
09_Male Vocals_RAW
A male lead vocal recording.
10_Male Vocals_EC5B
As you’ll be able to see if you inspect the waveforms for this example, the EC5B dramatically tamed the dynamic range of the vocal. With the attack set at 1 o’clock and release at 11 o’clock, the vocal is ‘pinned’ down in a way you might associate more with an 1176-style FET compressor.