Post by: Alécio Costa - Brazil on June 20, 2008, 07:02:13 PM
http://www.altamodaaudio.com/unicomp.html
Post by: TotalSonic on June 20, 2008, 07:05:57 PM
Other than that I've never heard the unit.
Best regards,
Steve Berson
Post by: Matt_G on June 20, 2008, 07:59:17 PM
| Quote: |
Firstly it’s very well made, the look & feel of the unit is first class & gives you a sense of confidence in it’s build quality. It is a nice sounding unit & offers a wide range of options making it very versatile (like the swiss army knife of compression options!). I like the blend function (parallel compression) this to me was the most transparent way to use this unit for mastering. I also liked all the S.C. filter options & the soft/hard knee switch was very useful as was the f.fwd & f.back modes. Ok so there was a lot to like about this unit now onto the things I disliked... For mastering I found the compression quite obvious even with light gain reduction. Without the blend function I wouldn't find the Unicomp suitable for mastering. The drive function which adds 2nd order harmonics to the signal I could see as being a useful function for tracking or mixing if you wanted to dirty up the signal or add some distortion to drums etc. for mastering it wasn’t subtle enough to be useful, even only adding a little was obvious & the character of the distortion isn't a pleasant affect so this limits it's usefulness. The other issue I had was the amount of infinitely variable pots, which wouldn’t make it practical for recall in a mastering environment. Even if all the pots had fine resolution steps or switches it would be very time consuming to document all the various settings & options that are on this unit. As for the sound I found it a little time consuming to dial in & the results were satisfactory but mostly a bit too obvious for mastering use. In conclusion I feel that this would make an excellent tracking & mixing compressor. Having the dual mono controls allows you to have 2 totally independent compressors for tracking or mix down. The options would all be very useful & would make it a very versatile choice if it was to be your only compressor. The blend & drive functions would make for a killer drum bus compressor & a nice bus compressor to mix into. For mastering I think there's better options. |
Post by: masterhse on December 08, 2008, 06:44:49 AM
Post by: Alécio Costa - Brazil on December 10, 2008, 07:47:09 PM
Using Alta Moda, (In portuguese means High Fashion) you may become a model.
Post by: djwaudio on December 10, 2008, 07:54:59 PM
| masterhse wrote on Mon, 08 December 2008 03:44 |
I have one in the studio now for evaluation. Will post my observations/opinions if anyone is interested ... |
How are you liking it Tom?
Post by: masterhse on December 13, 2008, 09:10:52 AM
| djwaudio wrote on Wed, 10 December 2008 19:54 | ||
How are you liking it Tom? |
There are some very cool features with this comp.
I was initially thinking that it might replace my STC-8 mainly due to the versatility of the unit over what the STC-8 is capable of and that they are both basically transparent types of compressors, so why have two of the same? Instead I've found this comp to be very useful being used in tandem with another comp. For example using the blend feature and turning the Alta Moda into a parallel compressor (small ratio maybe 2:1 and attack/release to taste) subtly bringing up the lower level of the music while letting another comp take care of the upper transient portion.
Some other very nice features are switchable RMS/Peak modes, threshold knee control, feedforward/feedback, several built-in filters for sidechain control, and a drive feature (2nd harmonic distortion) similar to the color control of a Crane Song Ibis in purpose, though it sounds very different.
Initially I wasn't planning on using this unit for a real session because it was only on trial, but the results that I was getting made me reconsider as I'm convinced that I will be adding this unit to my collection.
The only bad thing that I can say about it so far is that the only knob which has detents is the output. I had my dealer speak to the designer about this but he is reluctant to adding them. I feel that the knobs are very wide however (unlike the variable threshold control of the STC-8 which I can't move past 1) and do not feel that it's a major issue given the benefits of the unit. Some may find the unit a bit more "tweaky" than others because it is so feature rich, but once you get used to how each function sounds it's what makes it so versatile and powerful.
I recommend that anyone looking for a new comp check it out:
http://www.altamodaaudio.com/unicomp.html
Post by: masterhse on December 13, 2008, 09:17:09 AM
| Al
Post by: Alécio Costa - Brazil on December 13, 2008, 12:10:10 PM 
Post by: djwaudio on December 13, 2008, 02:28:06 PM Care to post a sound sample comparing some of your other compressors and the Alta?  I've always used opto & VCA compressors for mastering, but have wanted to try a FET. Thanks for the review. Post by: masterhse on December 14, 2008, 09:13:42 AM
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