Klark Teknik Studio Effects

I’ve personnally mostly used this Quad Compressor live. It was old and looked used and battered, but it still worked wonder. It’s a really sturdy and reliable model! Up to par with the manufacturer’s reputation. Its features can easily be found through your favourite search engine. Very well-finished, especially considering how old mine was : it had been used for years and years but was still fully functional (LEDs, selectors and knobs – even though some of them are a little sunk inside…). It’s sturdily built, for sure! Its connectors are great too. Soundwise, I found it made a great job in live performances. It brings character to the vocals, allowing them to remain natural-sounding while sticking out in the mix. The automatic options for the knee, attack and release settings allow to set them on-the-fly before tweaking them more precisely, increasing the unit’s flexibility. It also makes it suitable for all users. I never had an opportunity to try it in the studio or for recording purpose, so I won’t judge it but I’m not worried about its suitability in such circumstances. What is sure is that you can really hear the setting changes, while retaining a great clarity. The kicks get thicker, the snares keep their proper tones. I got totally seduced, and my current 01V96V2’s integrated comp sounds like a lightweight compared with it. Getting four compressions of such a high quality for the price I paid it (a hundred euros for a very used unit): what more can you ask? I owned another rack with two BBE comp – no contest, the Klark was way better! I only rate it 4 stars due to my own unability to judge of its qualities in the studio, but I have no ill to say of it. Please note I’m not a professional user, only a rather enlightened amateur, self-taught user.

The Klark Teknik DN 500 is a tuber limiter, modeled after a limiter of the same name made by Gates in the 1950's. There are some revisions but only for the better as the tone is supposed to be pretty darn close to the original. It's all analog and I believe it has XLR connections but I'm not 100 % sure as it was already hooked up to a patch bay when I've used it. It is rack mountable and looks like it will take up 3 spaces. UTILIZATION The Klark Teknik DN 500 isn't difficult to use once you know what all the parameters at play are. It's got your standard input and output levelers, but also has a recovery time six position parameter and a single/double/triple mode knob. A manual shouldn't be necessary for most users but is probably readily available if needed. SOUND QUALITY The sound of the Klark Teknik DN 500 is nothing short of fantastic. It's pretty much the perfect limiter for recording vocals and is useful in all sorts of different situations. It's simply a classic tube sound that is rich and undeniably full sounding. It's useful for drums (especially kick drum), vocals, and almost anything where you want to touch your level with a limiter. I can't describe the full sound that you get with this, it's pretty much something that you need to hear for yourself. OVERALL OPINION It's not going to be cheap to get your hands on a Klark Teknik DN 500 , but you're always going to have to pay for quality, and especially when we're talking about a top tier tube limiter. This is a front end piece for your professional or home studio and can be useful all over the map. Most home studio owners won't be able to afford a piece like this, but if you get one limiter for your studio it's worth it in the long run to get a top end piece like the Klark Teknik DN 500