Chameleon Labs

The Chameleon Labs 7720 is a stereo buss compressor, primarily designed for your 2 mix. It's definitely aimed at the home studio owner as it's super cheap for something like this. In fact, I really haven't seen a good stereo buss compressor for this price, especially one that sounds like this. For connections, it's got XLR inputs and outputs as well as an XLR input for a sidechain. It's powered by it's own power supply and is rack mountable in a single space. UTILIZATION The Chameleon Labs 7720 is a simple device but still covers all the bases as far as controls are concerned. Included here are parameters for threshold, attack, release, ratio, output, and a switchable high pass filter that has five different positions ranging from 60 Hz to 440 Hz. The meter is also programmable and can show you compression, or separately left and right input and output levels. I don't think that users will need the manual. SOUND QUALITY I really like the way the Chameleon Labs 7720 sounds on your stereo mixes! It adds a good amount of that glossiness and brightness that can help glue a mix together, depending on how you set the controls of course. For the home studio looking for some hardware on a budget, this is probably the best back for your buck that you're going to get. It really sounds great - the first time I used it I thought it was a really expensive piece! OVERALL OPINION If you are looking for a great stereo compressor for your home or professional studio, look no further than the Chameleon Labs 7720. While I would say it's best for home studios, this is merely because of it's ridiculously cheap price for what it is and home studio owners will usually be looking for the best possible bang for your buck. Even for pros, this is an awesome sounding stereo compressor!

The Chameleon Labs 7802 is a stereo optical, tube based compressor made for the recording studio. I don't know what types of connections it has, as the one that I've used was already racked up in the studio I had access to it in. It is in fact rack mountable, and it will only take up a single rack space. UTILIZATION If I can assume that if you're looking at the Chameleon Labs 7802 that you have some experience with compression, then you won't have any problems with using the 7802. If I can't, as long as you do some research on the basic compression parameters, everything should fall into place easily while using the 7802. Each of the two channels has parameters for compression, attack/release, drive, and output. It also has a switch for choosing either a 2:1 or 4:1 ratio. In addition it has high pass filter and a bypass switch for each of the channels. SOUND QUALITY While the sound of the Chameleon Labs 7802 teeters on being professional, I'd say that for most applications it will fall on the good side of things. It is a great compressor for drums and electric guitar, but will work for just about anything that you might want to use with compression. Having the drive parameter is something that is pretty unique for a compressor, but is one that is quite welcome as it makes for some awesome use of drive on things like guitars and vocals... OVERALL OPINION Without a doubt, the best thing about the Chameleon Labs 7802 is the price. This is the type of price that you would expect to see for a single channel compressor of this type, not for two. For this reason I think it is the perfect set of compressors for the home studio owner. While it certainly wouldn't seem out of place for a professional, overall I'd say it fits more in the line for the home studio owner looking for a great sounding stereo compressor at an awesome price.