Lindell 254E/Neve 2254 - The Thinking Behind The Original Design

[ITHertz]

Hi Folks,

A while back I picked up the Lindell 254E compressor/limiter. It's an emulation of the Neve 2254.

There are a few videos out there about the unit, however most focus on the compressor and more-or-less ignore the limiter.

I'm curious as to the original thinking behind the design of the unit - why was the limiter included? Was there some specific function that the designers saw it performing?

Cheers,

Chris

[Hugh Robjohns]

It was originally designed for the UK broadcast market, and in such circles it was (and largely still is) standard practice to operate with a fast-acting peak limiter above a compressor to comply with the broadcasting regulations about not exceeding PPM6.

So most dynamics processors intended for sale into the broadcast market from the 50s right through to the present day tend to be 'comp/lims', combining two separate processes into the one unit.

Operating a comp/lim would first involve setting the limiter to catch peaks trying to exceed PPM 6 (or slightly lower), and then winding the threshold down for the compressor at 2:1 or 3:1 to constrain the dialogue dynamics as necessary.

Neve's fabulous 33609 comp/lim -- another diode ring device derived from the 2254 -- has the same combination of dynamics processors, as does the ADR Compex 760... as just two examples that were very broadcast studio common tools in my day.

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/adr-compex-f760x-rs

[ITHertz]

Thanks Hugh!