Now Sound On Sound for us are the authors of the sound engineers / the entire music industries bible! Underground Music has the highest respect for the SOS boys and we are always more than happy to crack a review of theirs in our featured side to the site. This time we feel that we should bring the TL 5060 to your attention, for its affordability and performance. Check this out and then check out the full review at SOS!
Valve Compressor
TL Audio's latest Ivory-2 machine is once again based on a combination of things the company has done well in the past, packaged in a usable and affordable form — not a bad formula, come to think of it! Everything is very familiar, from the 2U ivory-coloured panel to the legending and the style of the knobs and switches. Power comes in via an IEC connector, not an annoying wall-wart, and the I/O levels are switchable to accommodate both pro and semi-pro audio levels. A circular VU meter, a circular mains switch, and milled ventilation slots give the unit a classy look without things becoming fussy.
The input section of the 5060 features a four-way input selector (mic with 48V phantom power; mic; line; or instrument), with a further knob to adjust the mic gain in 20dB steps from -20dB to +40dB. The larger red input knob controls both the mic and line/instrument input gains and adds another 20dB of gain to the mic input. A low-cut switch brings in a 90Hz high-pass filter, and there are two status LEDs, a yellow one to show how hard the tube is being driven and a red one to warn of imminent clipping. Occupying a section all on its own is the Program knob, which offers 16 options if you include the Manual setting. The manual describes each preset and its applications in reasonable detail, but you can discern a lot from the names: Whisper Vox, Pop Vox, Rock Vox, Scream Vox, Keys, Bass, Ac. Guitar, El. Guitar, Snare, Kick, Loop, Pop Mix, Rock Mix, Dance Mix, and Slam Mix.
The more conventional compression controls for threshold, ratio, make-up gain, and switchable hard/soft knee are found in the next section, along with fast/slow attack and release switches. Whenever a preset is being used, all the physical compressor controls with the exception of the make-up gain are disabled. Clearly, a compressor preset only makes sense if the input level is exactly right, but fortunately there's enough gain leeway on the Input Gain control to handle this, otherwise you would have still needed manual threshold adjustment.
In the output section there's the usual moving-coil meter, which can show either gain reduction or output level, and there's also a -10dB switch that affects only the way the meter reads. This means that when you're driving into a piece of digital gear that requires a very hot analogue level the meter needle isn't forever pushed up against the right-hand end stop. This meter is backlit and looks neat, but I can't help wondering if a fast LED meter would show the gain reduction more accurately.
Also tucked away in the output section is the Fat EQ button, which functions not unlike a loudness control by creating a 'smile' curve, where 2dB of gain is added at 50Hz, 1.8dB at 10kHz and the mid-range at 720Hz is scooped by 0.9dB. This can sound quite effective on some material, particularly mixes, but it is perhaps best left switched off until you need it, as it's too easy to get used to the sound! This EQ curve comes after the compressor, so it won't interfere with the compressor operation.
Review by Sound On Sound. Find the rest of the review - http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep04/articles/ivory2.htm
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