Designed by Brad Avenson of Austin, Texas-based Avenson Audio, the BACäóîshort for Brad Avenson Compressoräóîis a feedback-style FET compressor built around two discrete op amps and a custom wound output transformer.

äóìWe are thrilled to finally be collaborating with Brad on this project,äó says Peteäó»s Place Audio President Lisa Montessi. äóìHis experience, knowledge and passion really shine through in everything he creates and the BAC certainly is no exception. Itäó»s a fantastic compressor and itäó»s going to make a lot of 500 Series fans very happy.äó

From the top down, the BACäó»s faceplate features a large silver rotary input knob, smaller pots for attack, release and ratio, and a large output knob at the bottom. Additional features include a three-position sidechain contour switch, eight-LED gain reduction meter, and pushbuttons for distortion and bypass.

The moduleäó»s attack control runs from fast to quite fast, while the release control exhibits a fairly wide range, enabling the compressor to go from äóìpumping, breathing fastäó up to approximately a second and a half. This allows sounds to äóìhangäó a bit when using the device purely as a leveler or limiter.

The ratio control features five positions ranging from 2:1 to 20:1, with a sixth position marked as äóìäš_!äó. According to Avenson, äóìThe infinity control has a little exclamation point next to it because, not only is it really flat, but it also puts you in that spot where you can do some over-compression and other interesting things. It changes where the threshold starts to compress as well, so it gives you different varieties of tonal characteristics to play with.äó

The BACäó»s sidechain toggle switch offers a choice of three possible settings: flat, high-pass filter (cut off around 70 to 100 Hz), and an option that somewhat exaggerates the high end while simultaneously cutting the low end. äóìThe overall effect of this third setting is somewhat like a de-esser fed into the sidechain, but itäó»s a little wider than that and quite good for taming a variety of things that are overly bright,äó Avenson notes.

With all of the controls essentially cranked between the input and output knobs, the BAC is capable of delivering nearly 50 dB of gain, which can be very helpful in compensating for serious gain reduction issues caused by greatly compressing dynamic range.

The bypass button found below the output knob is a true relay bypass, while the adjacent distortion button allows the user to achieve a true bench FET compression sound. äóìA lot of FET compressors use tricks to linearize the FET as a compression element and make it sound cleaner because if theyäó»re used solely by themselves, theyäó»re really pretty raunchy sounding,äó says the designer. äóìSo this switch allows you to play with how much of the frequency response and distortion characteristics of the FET you get. By engaging it, youäó»re getting a lot more second harmonic distortion and aggressive sounds because weäó»re taking away some of the linearizing elements. Itäó»s basically a way to kick in a more aggressive sounding compressor without changing any of the other settings. You can dial in the amount of dirt you want.äó

Avenson sums the BAC up by adding, äóìAlthough this product is largely designed to provide a bit of color and flavoräóîand not be too heavy handedäóîit really does possess that nice äóÖbiteäó» that is characteristic of FET compressors and perfect for cranking down on things like drum room mics when you need it.äó

Peteäó»s Place Audio is an umbrella organization founded to bring a wide variety of handcrafted, innovative, boutique recording and live audio products to market. Under the leadership of President Lisa Montessi and backed by the manufacturing expertise of A-Designs Audio, Peteäó»s Place collaborates with some of todayäó»s most talented recording artists and engineers to help determine what products, regardless of how esoteric, they feel are missing in the studio and live performance environments.