It’s easy to spot JoeMeek gear in a rack – that vibrant green color from the '90s to '10s is unmistakable. Now it is back in the 500 Series format, in that familiar green color, and under the Trident name. This is perfect for me, because I’m currently short on 19-inch rack space. For more history of the JoeMeek brand, check out Tape Op issue #55 for an interview with (former owner/founder of JoeMeek products) Ted Fletcher, or see issue #100 for an article on British audio pioneer Joe Meek himself.
The SC2 500 is a stereo unit (like the original JoeMeek SC2 compressor) and requires two adjacent 500 slots. I like that the single, back-lit, analog VU meter is big enough to actually see! Some of the controls feel a little small (a common compromise with 500 Series gear) but the knurled, aluminum knobs are easy to grip and feel plenty solid. From an operational perspective, there are all the parameters I expected, although some of the terminology may not be as familiar. For example, Slope sets the compression ratio and the Compress knob (which goes to 11!) is the compression threshold. The SC2 500 uses a dual-slope attack to help tame sharp transients, but the transient attack button bypasses the initial one, making it behave more like some other vintage compressors. The SC2 500 is a modern build, using surface-mount components and it has no transformers though the original did. The largest parts are the VU meter and a sealed (non-socketed) optical module, which is calibrated from the factory. The SC2 500 features an optional external side chain input but requires a Radial Workhorse 500 Series chassis to access it so I was unable to test this feature.
I installed the review unit into a Midas L6 500 rack and immediately patched it into a mix to use on toms. After getting familiar with the controls, I ended up with about 3 dB of compression and a little makeup gain on the output, which made the toms sing nicely. Next, I put it across an entire drum bus and dialed in 1 to 2 dB of compression with a fast attack and release, which brought out a bit more ambience and made this drum mix spring to life. I often do ITB (in the box) mixes, but I decided to see what the SC2 500 could do on a full mix. It took a little time to fine tune it, and while I was able to get the mix sounding close to the original ITB mix, the SC2 500 had a bit more low mid heft compared to the plug-in. I didn’t realize the mix needed that, but once I heard it, I was sold!
I processed a variety of mono tracks (using one side of the compressor) including kick, snare, bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and vocals. It worked amazingly well on all of them. With a 1 ms attack time, it’s not nearly as fast as a FET limiter (think 1176), but it’s still very effective on many sources. Even when I would try to drive it pretty hard, it didn’t necessarily go into audible distortion. But the compression it imparts is not exactly transparent either. You can make drums gooey and squishy, or it can smooth out a vocal and place it perfectly in the mix. Pretty much everything I ran through it sounded better, and isn’t that what we are always striving for?