 George
Shilling reviews:
Fat
Man 'Fat One' by TL Audio
 I
was just a few days into my health diet when the Fat One arrived,
threatening to spoil things. The novelty of receiving a cubic
container was quite irresistible - apart from mixing desks and
microwave ovens/CD changers I rarely review something that cannot be
bolted into a rack. Except that despite the Fat One's chubby looks,
by the time you read this there will be available a matching red
rack tray, enabling one central or two adjacent Fat Ones to be held
in a 3U rack space. For the time being, though, I had to balance the
'One on top of my rack, and those Fat blokes had kindly supplied
some stick-on feet for this purpose.
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The
Fat One is a stereo compressor, with two inextricably linked
channels. The front panel therefore quite reasonably features only
one set of controls. It is, like many other TLA products, a hybrid
valve/solid state unit, the single dual triode serving both
channels, providing a pre-amp stage before compression takes place.
The
Fat One has certainly not been dieting - it is quite weighty. The
sturdy case features a mesh top, which rakes down backwards from the
front panel, providing ventilation for the circuitry - even just one
valve generates plenty of physical warmth. The simple, small rear
panel features an IEC mains socket and Input and Output connections
on balanced jack sockets (which will also happily accept unbalanced
plugs) with a Gain switch to select -10dB or +4dB operation. The
front panel features a single cute illuminated VU, which works well,
although a larger one would of course be preferable from a
pro-user's perspective. A button allows display of Output Level or
Gain Reduction. There is a Threshold knob with a -20dB to +10dB
range, and a Ratio knob with a range of 1.15:1 to 1:30, with 1:3
coming about a third of the way up. These ranges are well chosen and
allowed for any settings from very subtle 'tickling' to full-on
limiting. There are also two separate buttons to switch Fast/Slow
for Attack and Release settings, which give enough variation for
many situations. There is also a Hard/Soft Knee button, which also
gives the unit some unusual flexibility for a budget unit, although
the difference can be subtle on many signals. Input and Output Gains
feature a useful +/-20dB ranges, with centre détente.
 Turning up
the Input Gain will drive the valve harder. A Gain Make-Up knob
provides up to 20dB further Gain when the Compressor On button is
activated, usefully allowing one to roughly match the uncompressed
and compressed signal levels. An LED near the meter glows when the
Compressor On button is pressed. Sensibly, a front panel power
rocker switch is included, with an LED indicating Power On.
Unusually, for a completely analogue compressor, there is a big
rotary knob, which clicks into each of 16 positions: 15 presets and
a Manual setting. These presets cover settings for Threshold, Ratio,
Knee, Attack and Release, disabling those controls. The presets are
usefully described by the application the designers recommend them
for. So there are settings for Vocal (3 positions), Keyboards, Bass
(2), Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar (2), Snare, Kick, Kit and Mix
(3 settings). Perhaps slightly to my surprise, these worked rather
well, with minimal tweaking of the Input and Output Gains. They were
always a good starting point, and if not quite right it was very
easy to try something else. Unless you refer to the manual, you
might not guess their exact settings, which is not always a bad
thing. Inevitably, with such few variables, a number of presets are
similar, for example the Vocal 2 setting is the same as the Mix 2
with a slightly different Threshold setting. But it is a fun new way
to work, which is very quick in practise. If you want to get fussy,
there are a couple of explanatory charts in the manual which explain
the settings and show exactly where the controls should be to
recreate the presets, allowing you to understand and modify them.
The unit performed particularly well across stereo mixes, the valve
circuitry injecting a vibrancy, which brought my pop/rock track
alive in the midrange, but always retaining a solid, indeed 'fat'
low-end. There is not the 'zinginess' I would associate with a
Focusrite, but instead a fat, warm, rockin' 'British' sound,
especially good with lively mixes and rock guitars. The use of a
transconductance amplifier, rather than a VCA, for gain control, is
credited with giving the unit its characterful sound. This is also
used in more expensive TLA units. An added bonus is a pair of
Instrument jacks on the front panel, which gives the unit a useful
DI box role. These sound terrific with an electric guitar, and can
be used simultaneously with the rear inputs with no loss of level.
The
Fat One is cheap for a unit featuring valve circuitry, albeit
featuring just one valve, but even forgetting about the valve it is
a funky, friendly, good value compressor. Wherever you set the
controls, you really are guaranteed a truly fat sound. I knew the
diet wouldn't last…
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Reproduced
with kind permission from www.George.Shilling.Com. Copyright ©1997
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