Gainlab Audio is a european boutique audio equipment manufacturer – who enhances some classic concepts.
Gainlab Audio – born in a studio's repair shop
Gainlab Audio was founded in Gainlab Studio: The recording studio in Budapest, Hungary, had much work doing maintenance for the old studio gear. Over the years this became more and more challenging, as some parts weren't available. So they started re-creating whole circuits with modern parts. This led to building their first complete processor – the prototype of the Gainlab Dictator! It was referred to as „Imi's compressor“ by all audio engineers, because Gainlab's chief engineer's name is Imre Borbás-Tóth. From then on, the studio team gained more and more experience. Soon plenty of self-built gear filled the studio's racks – not simple knock-offs, but tailored to the specific needs when recording and mastering. They then decided not to keep their skills for themselves but to start manufacturing high-class audio equipment for everybody.
But if you think of Gainlab Audio as a „garage business“, you are mistaking: A garage would have been downright spacy! The workshop they started in was so tiny and crammed, that two founders sitting back to back at their tables could only get up one after another. The third founder, a quite tall person, had to bend way down in order to enter the room, as the studio had raised floors due to the acoustic treatment! Who else is thinking of the movie „Being John Malkovic“?
First of all, the studio was named Gainlab Studio. Going to work „in the lab“ sounded better to them than „in the studio“.
There are currently three product available from Gainlab Audio. Both dynamic processors are called Gainlab Dictator, the equalizer is the Gainlab Empress. In case you wonder: Despite the names, they get along very well. The original Gainlab Dictator GLA TC-1 is solely a stereo processor, whereas the younger Gainlab Dictator GLA TC-2 is a dual-mono-version. As a consequence, the Gainlab TC-2 can be used either on two mono signals or stereo-linked.
Table
|
Dictator TC-1 |
Dictator TC-2 |
|
|---|---|---|
| Channel Configuration | Stereo | Dual Mono/linkable |
| Attack | 4 steps | 3 steps |
| Release | 3 steps | 3 steps |
| Threshold | Continuous | 12 steps |
| Sidechain | 5 steps | 2 steps |
Both Gainlab Dictators compress via double pentode vacuum tubes, whose bias is changed by the key signal. This vari-mu (also: „vari-µ“) compression can be found by a number of classic compressors. Best known are probably the Sta-Level and the Fairchild 660/670. In order to allow for trouble-free future servicing, long-life tubes with superb availability are being used. Needless to say all other parts used are of highest quality aswell.
All Gainlab products integrate very well in modern studio environments and have astonishing figures. This is being achieved by omitting input and output tranny, but Gainlab use a custom permalloy interstage transformer. The Dictators can act really tame and transparent in tracking, mixing and mastering, but can get really nasty and gritty – they even double as a saturator!
The Gainlab Empress is a dual mono tube equalizer. The Gainlab engineers love the classic Pultec sound but weren't too happy with its limitations. This is why they decided to beef it up. And not „a bit“. The Empress features a three-band passive EQ followed by a tube stage. The tube gain stage can be boosted by a post output transformer signal to make it sound richer. Boosting or cutting is possible for the mid band, boosting and cutting is possible for highs and lows. But unlike with original Pultec designs, there is no frequency difference when doing both. Unlike you decide you want it that way! There are shift options switchable – whose frequency difference deviation changes with the set frequency! This makes the Empress probably the most versatile Pultec-style EQ ever.
If you look at the dual mono processors you will notice something: Both channels are not a copy of each other but indeed symmetrical! This is a completely different haptic experience. Although: Some love it, some struggle with it.
The Bishop is a mono tube channel strip, incorporating Gainlabs first microphone preamp (also for instrument and line) and a dual slope optical compressor. There is also a character selector and a dynamic air band control – and of course high pass filters, sidechaining et cetera!