Handcrafted Labs Islander Compressor

The Handcrafted Labs Islander Compressor is a mastering compressor based on the variable-mu design. If you are looking for that subtle touch glue style compression with a nice musical vibe, the Islander has you covered. The Parallel compression feature also makes it great for bus applications in mixing!

The Handcrafted Labs Islander Compressor is a Vari-Mu mastering grade compressor with parallel compression. Simply put, you can compress signal hard and mix back some transients with uncompressed signal - all in one unit. Even if you're not compressing at all, Islander's tube chain and fancy transformers will give your signal an analog boost resulting in character and depth your mixes definitely will benefit from.

When Handcrafted Labs started designing Islander their goal was rather simple and straightforward - to make something different. First it seemed like there’s no way one can make something that would stand out in full packed vari-mu segment of the market. But they believe they nailed it. Over 99% of vari-mu compressors currently in production are based on push-pull design. Islander is made on SE design. Handcrafted Labs does not claim that one of these designs is better over the other, since there’s enough fans of both. Ther flagship Varis compressor incorporates PP design. SE design has advantages and disadvantages, just as any other circuit design would have. One of the major disadvantages of this design is it’s headroom, which is lower then PP’s for 6dB over same conditions. But there’s a big advantage in it. The thing is that in PP design signal is splitted to two phases and then gets “glued” inside output transformer. But in SE design whole signal gets to the grid of the tube.

In most Vari-mu compressors signal and offset voltage is fed to the first grid of triode, pentode or heptode. There’s a contradiction in implementation of such a design, from one hand it would require a tube with steeper slope specification of anode grid, on other hand to get the lowest THD of amplified signal it would require a linear specification of anode grid. Eliminating this contradiction requires feeding signal to the first grid if triode and control voltage - to third grid, besides it eliminates parasiting interference through a side-chain of amplifier. Which is exactly what we did in Islander design. In classc Vari-mu design with control on the first grid one has to deal with transient response distortion which occurs due to a rapid change of the offset voltage. It is eliminated by using tubes of the same type and connection of both anodes of these tubes to respective inputs of PP output transformer. And since Islander is build on a SE design, we use extra “satellite” tube which is used to keep constant anode voltage and prevent transition capacitor from recharging causing audible clicks. Thus change of curve and amplification coefficient of the tube is reached without offset voltage rapid changes which means no transient response distortion.

On the WET channel 6к3 (6sk7) and 7n7 tubes are used. On the DRY channel 6ж8 (6sj7) and 7n7 tubes are used. Controls include knobs for Wet channel level, Dry channel, Attack, Release, Threshold. All knobs are stepped for easy recall. There are also switches of side chain filter (70Hz, 150Hz, off), feedback/feedforward mode switch, timings multiplier switch (x2) and Wet Bypass button. Central section houses stereo link switch as well as power button. On the face panel one would also find precision trimmers for input level fine tuning. Zero adjustment is used for precise tuning of compression levels on indicators when device is used in dual-mono mode.

Handcrafted Labs Islander Compressor Specifications

• Input Impedance:  600 Оhm
• Output Impedance:  600 Оhm
• Nominal Level:  +4 dBu
• Max. Level:  +22 dBu
• Max. Amplification:  10 dBu
• Output circuit:  pentode/triode (switch)
• Compressor Side chain Filter:  75/150 Hz
• Attack:  0.2 ….20 ms
• Attack Х2 (mult. switch):  0.4….40 ms
• Release:  100ms....1s
• Release Х2 (mult. switch):  200ms….2 s
• Frequency range:  18Hz … 22 kHz +/- 1dB
• Signal to noise ratio:  -90 dB
• THD at 1kHz and +16 dB:  less then 0.8%
• Power Supply:  115/230V 50-60Hz

Handcrafted Labs Islander Compressor Includes

• Handcrafted Labs Islander Compressor
• Power Cable
• Manufacturer's Warranty