Classic Recording Studio Equipment

Vintage Digital

Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor

Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor

Shadow Hills Industries (to use their full name) is a company that produces and sells one of the finest compressors ever made, a true modern classic by any standard. The fact anyone knows about the Shadow Hills brand at all is amazing, given that their website is so out of date and inaccessible to most people, but despite that, this compressor has become legendary.

Details

The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor is a true behemoth in both physical size and performance. It is a mastering-grade compressor/limiter for tracking and mixing that requires a Shadow Hills PSU which is not included, regardless of just how big this thing is.

The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor has extraordinary functionality, and also provides mastering grade compression and limiting for tracking and mixing. Essentially it is two compressors in series, per channel, that can act in stereo, or dual mono.

First comes our mastering grade electro-optical compressor, followed by our discrete Class-A compressor/limiter. Both feed our switchable custom output transformers, Nickel, Iron, and Steel. There is enough gain in each section to overdrive the hottest tape, or clip your converters, if you’re into that sort of thing.

The input stage is transformer balanced, followed by our fully discrete optical compressor. This section utilizes the same T4B optical attenuator as the LA2A and LA3A, but is optimized for mastering. The second stage is our discrete Class-A VCA compressor. There are no electrolytic caps or IC chips in the audio path.

There are six ratios: 1.2 to 1, 2 to 1, 3 to 1, 4 to 1, 6 to 1, and 10 to 1. There is six attack settings: .1, .5, 1, 5, 10, and 30 milliseconds. And there are six release times selectable: .1, .25, .5,8, 1.2, and Auto. There is an insert-able filter in the side chain to limit pumping with bass heavy material. Lastly the signal goes through our new Shadow Hills custom transformer-switching network.

The first position is Nickel, which is our custom version of a famous L. A. custom console. Next is Iron. In this mode the signal goes through our op-amp and into a Class-A output stage then to our custom Iron transformers, the last transformer position is Steel. These selections allow you to choose between different output transformers that are in effect: clean, colored, and dirty, respectively.

The optical section of the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor has a hard-wired bypass that completely removes it from the signal path, and the Class-A VCA compressor is also hardwire bypassable, completely removing it from the chain. It is possible to independently bypass both compression sections and have your signal go through the input transformer and transformer selector only.

There is also a hardwire bypass for the entire Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor, effectively a strait wire in and out of the box. So besides being a mastering grade, and highly functional buss compressor, it serves as an excellent tracking compressor.

For instance, you might call up the chain of the optical compressor, then to the Class-A output and Iron transformer, for vocals, or select just the Class-A VCA compressor with a 10:1 plus the Steel transformer for crushing some room mics, and on and on.

The metering on the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor can reflect, optical gain reduction, discrete gain reduction, or output level. The Magic eye tube follows the output meter to act as a peak meter.

All 17 of the rotary switches on the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor are detented. The front panel is engraved. The knobs are bake-lite, and the two-rack space external power supply will work in any country on any voltage.

Specifications

Released

Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
Dynamic Range: Unknown
THD: Unknown

Dimensions: 482mm x 216mm x 362mm
Weight: 15.2kg

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The details provided above are drawn from historical documents like advertising brochures or user manuals. They’re shared without bias or review. This info is given solely for your consideration, helping you gauge its usefulness to you.

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For the first time, the supreme tycoon of compression and all its power is available in all major native formats.

The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in for UAD hardware and UA Audio Interfaces provides everything from a velvet touch to an iron fist.

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