Louder Than Liftoff
Implode FET Compressor Colour
$149.00
- Fully Assembled
Many of the most distinctive sounds in recording history have originated from engineers breaking the rules and "abusing" their equipment. By far the most famous "abuse" visited upon a piece of gear is the 1176 FET compressor's "All Buttons In" mode, in which all of the ratio settings are engaged at the same time. The resulting squish is the thing of legends and has been emulated countless times.
Louder Than Liftoff's "Implode" Colour is not an emulation at all, but an exact replica of the 1176 Rev F amplifier and gain-reduction circuitry pre-set to "All Buttons In" mode.
Features
- Exact recreations of the Revision F amplifier and gain-reduction stages
- Customizable via solderless jumpers and trim pots:
- 4:1 or "All Buttons In" ratio modes
- Attack, Release, and Output
- Detector circuit bypass
- Arrives set to the beloved "Dr. Pepper" attack and release settings
- Compatible with the Colour 500 Palette
Implode is not offered as a DIY kit. Because of the complexity of their design, all of Louder Than Liftoff's Colours are sold fully assembled and tested.
Design Notes
Implode delivers all the aggression, smash, and colorful leveling many have trusted for decades. It was no small feat to create the world's smallest 1176! We squeezed in every transistor, capacitor, and resistor from the original Revision F discrete preamp and detector circuits--over 100 parts meticulously arranged to create a small city of analog mojo machinery. There were many late nights and much cursing, no doubt! By including individual trimpots for both attack and release, you can create compression presets for each module--like the much used "Dr. Pepper" setting. We've even included the Bypass setting, which allows you to process audio through the discrete transistor preamp without compressing..-Brad McGowan, Designer, Louder Than Liftoff
Customer Reviews
I wanted to build this colour module because I'm a DIY fan, but once I received it and saw the volume of SMD's on the underside of the PCB... nope. Anyways once dialed in to my likings, an indispensable tool.
vox 1 > mic parts s-87 > hairball Lola > DIYRE FA38 > DIYRE TM79 > CAPI LC40 > LTL Implode > DIYRE EQP5
vox 2 > mic parts t-12 > hairball Lola > DIYRE JFT > DIYRE TM79 > CAPI LC40 > LTL Implode > DIYRE EQP5
vocoder > hairball Lola > DIYRE FA38 > CAPI LC40 > LTL Implode > DIYRE EQP5
bass synth > hairball Lola > DIYRE 15IPS MKIII > DIYRE Aurex > CAPI LC40 > DIYRE Colourupter > DIYRE EQP5
Logic Pro 11 "drums" > hairball Lola > DIYRE 15IPS MKIII > DIYRE TM79 > CAPI LC40 > DIYRE Colourupter > DIYRE toneloc > DIYRE EQP5
Logic Pro pizzicato strings > hairball Lola > DIYRE JFT > CAPI LC40 > DIYRE Toneloc
Gtr > hairball Lola > DIYRE FA38 > DIYRE 15IPS MKIII > DIYRE TM79 > CAPI LC40 > DIYRE Colourupter
out of the box mixing/re-amping made possible by Crandborne 500R8 + CAPI 511-VPR
All I can say is WHOA!! I'm in love! For now I am just going to keep it in the factory settings (4:1 Attack at 10 o'clock and Release at 2 o'clock) I need to buy 4 more and another color duo with a complementing pair of the Colour 500-Series Palette mkII. Im going all in with this setup. I've been so happy with my Color duo its time to go full on DIYRE!! Some one mentioned the Black Rooster BLA Fet " Destroying this piece, but I totally DISAGREE. I have Aurora N converters and what I get as a 1:1 representation between the two is night and day. The Implode has a quality that evens out the spectrum and adds a really nice quality to the entire signal. The BLA is honkey and in my opinion makes it sound worse with other problems creeping up to fix down the line. This is for real! Don't sleep like I did.
It’s alright…it compresses…but it’s not super fantastic. My Black Rooster VLA FET plug-in destroys this piece. I tracked vocals through it, sounded sub-par. Tracking through my OLA5s sounds way better.
Stereo matching them is difficult. The inputs on mine are skewed, as I discovered when I set one to “hi threshold” and it evened out the Stereo image.
As far as color goes, it’s not terrible. I’ve achieved some interesting sounds with it. So far the most useful application has been using it to boost signal after my CTX and super filter because both have a noticeable compression effect.
So it’s not useless. But not stellar.
The LTL Implode is worth having for the 1176 all-buttons-in mode ("Implode"). It does crazy over-the-top slam very well. The 4:1 is nice but just not the same. Compared to its DIY.RE competitor, the MN-50 Smash Compressor, the Implode is a bit more predictable.
There are downsides: The controls -- a mix of jumpers and pots -- are fiddly. One jumper is on the board twice.
I believe there may be something to people saying plugin compressors don't react like analog compressors do. I cannot get the same attack from the two 1176 plugins I have (Kush UBK-1 and PA Purple MC77). With the plugins, the attack sounds a bit like white noise whereas the Implode's does not.
Distortion when it's not doing much is low (for Colour) at around .2-.3 % but rises in the bass to around 1 %. Noise is lower than the MN-50.
Just enough to catch the peaks and even out the vocal dynamics. Of course you could absolutely crush the sound of anything you put through it. I use it for light compression, makes the vocals more present during tracking, and flatters the vocalist's voice, and makes them a little more confident when they sing which i find is well worth the price.
