We are just loving the effects pedals coming out of the FEA Labs camp right now, and we are once again fortunate enough to be able to bring another review and demo of one of them to you today. The DE-CL is a Dual Engine Compressor Limiter, with a lot of control knobs and tones abound, perfect for guitar, bass and more. Utilizing advanced, adaptive release circuitry, clean, boosted power and two sidechain control engines, this is one of the most powerful and best-sounding compressors we’ve ever come across.
The Compressor and Limiter side of the DE-CL both feature Threshold, Attack and Gain controls right off the bat. The Compression side also boasts a Ration setting and a Warmth control, which is key to the success of this pedal. Modifying the function of the output amplifier, the Warmth knob goes from operating in a clean, linear mode to a warm and harmonically enriched one, providing a real analog sound to your compression and overall tone. The Limiter side runs parallel to the Compressor side, and its Gain control takes the place of the Compressor’s Gain control when the Limiter is activated.
With the Compression side, you can get soft-knee compression with the Ration set lower, and hard-knee compression with it set up higher. The Limiter side employs hard-knee limiting at all times, making it useful as both a high performance limiter and a high ratio compressor. The DE-CL utilizes audiophile grade Burr-Brown SoundPlus™ operational amplifiers for audio signal amplification, which were specifically chosen for their outstanding audio performance. The Silonex AOI’s (analog optical isolators) used utilize a combination formula for the photocell to overcome limitations found in other traditional optical components affecting reaction and recovery times, and an internal charge pump allows the circuitry to operate at 18volts (+9 and –9 volt rails) from a single 9-volt battery or DC power adapter.
Basically, this is the Cadillac of Compressor/Limiters available at the moment. The signal compression and limiting is accomplished with only a resistive component (Light Dependent Resistor or Photocell), all resistors in the circuit are low noise 1% metal film type and the signal coupling capacitors are tight tolerance, quiet, multi-layer and metallized polyester film type. High quality components lead to high quality audio, for studio quality sound and incredible audio signal dynamics control in one mid-sized stompbox. We’ve checked out a couple of pedals from FEA Labs now, and they just keep getting better and better, especially if you’re an audiophile and are on a quest for the *PERFECT* compressor for use in any application. Cheers once more to the crew at FEA Labs for another job well done – be sure to check out our demo video below to hear all the nuances and sonic magic the DE-CL has to offer, then head over to the FEA Labs website to pick one of these beauties up for yourself!
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