Joe Meek VC3Q - question about compressor

[Zenitram]

Does anyone here own and use the VC3Q? I just bought a second-hand one and I can't work out if the compressor is working or not. No matter what I feed in to it (bass, drum machine, vocals), the green compression LED never lights up. Twiddling the compressor knobs doesn't seem to do anything, except that when I swtich the compressor's red button off, the signal gets a little quieter (or louder, I can't remember which).

I can't work out if it's working really subtly or if it has a problem. Has anyone had anything repaired by JoeMeek/Fletcher Electronics? How did it go?

The rest seems okay, a bit noisy if you don't get the right settings, but that seems to be all about using the thing properly, as the manual suggests.

Thanks.

[51m0n]

I would never have described the Joe Meek units I've used as having a subtle compressor at all.

I havent used that specific unit since the mid to late 90's for a single piece of music I was working on, so I cant remember the sound of it specifically, or if it has an LED that signifieds GR is being applied. But normally the JM compressors add gobs of lovely pumping loveliness as you set them higher.

Point to note about the VC3 Q it has a fixed internal threshold on the compressor, if you want more 'action' turn up the input gain.

So in order to hear it straight away put the attack as fast as possible, middling release, maximum 'Compression' (which is ratio by any other term) and then crank the input until you hear it compress, switch the compressor in and out you should really notice the dipping just after the transient of the input sound. Play with attack and release to get the action pleasing, then drop the compression to a sensible level.

See if that helps....

[Zenitram]

Thanks 51m0n. I'd tried all manner of things, and then last night tried again but in very dim lighting, and feeding various signals into it I was able to see the gain-reduction LED flickering very dimly as compression was applied. The effect is very subtle, though; I wonder what sort of signal the unit expects to receive. I was putting a drum machine through it at full volume, a VA synth arpeggion at full tilt, and it still gave only very polite and certainly-not-pumping compression. Maybe I'm expecting it to behave like other compressors, of which I have two, and I need to discover its quirks or the difference between 'normal' compression and optical compression, or whatever it's called.

Or maybe it's a bit bust.

[51m0n]

Cant imagine why it woudl behave like that if it was working correctly.

The 1/4" input is line/instrument unbalanced (according to the manual) so it should be easy to drive it, cant say I remember having issues with getting some comp action out of one of these (way back when, I may have but it doesnt ring a bell).

Optical compression has a different (slower, non-linear) attack/release action to a VCA compressor, it can sound musical but definitely should be a noticable thing if its working 'right'.

Doesnt sound right to me.....

[Zenitram]

Well I emailed PMI Audio, which now owns JoeMeek, and their repair chap was very nice and told me to contact Fletchers (TFPro), so I did, and Ted Fletcher, who designed the unit back in the day, got back to me and said it sounds like there is a problem with the internal power supply, and to send it to him to fix up, for 30 quid. What a great guy.

[51m0n]

Result!

Love to hear your thoughts on it once its sorted. I love JM compressors on bass (some are better than others) if you dial them in they are awfully squidgy and yummmmmmm....

Edited November 21, 2013 by 51m0n

[Zenitram]

It's been rather nice all round. The guy I bought it from just offered to pay half of the repair fee, and I've just spent a very pleasant hour or so reading about Ted Fletcher and his adventures in the world of making stuff to make music with.

"The first stereo optical compressor was designed in 1993 as a result of a little project to make a ‘travel video’; I did not have a nice sounding compressor in my roomful of old recording gear, so it seemed like a good idea to see if some of those old designs of the 60s still had any merit.

The result was a few days intensive development and using some modern ways to approach old problems, I came up with a stereo compressor that had the ‘weight’ and ‘urgency’ of those old Fairchild units, but in a stereo form.
The story about the colour is true. I was about to take a prototype to a London Studio and it was housed in a nasty looking aluminium chassis. It was late in the day and I drove into Newton Abbot to a car accessory store to buy some spray paint. I asked for something really hard and durable but quick drying, the disinterested assistant reached behind him and handed me a can of bright green ‘Hammerite’. Everyone hated it, but it stuck!"

"In 1960 I had just got married and lived in a small semi-detached house in Camberley (Surrey, UK). I was working as a very junior civil engineer designing the least exciting parts of drainage systems for housing developments in the Camberley area. But my burning hobbies were playing music and learning how to record music. There was little available in the way of equipment so I had to start from scratch with parts rescued from old radios and from government surplus stores.

A few years later I had left civil engineering; it was not exciting enough for me! I was in the music business and running a small demo studio in London’s Tin Pan Alley (Denmark Street). Again, there was not a lot of equipment around so I built the mixer and achieved a wonderful collection of microphones by repairing ‘irreparable’ Neumanns and AKGs thrown out from other studios. My association with Joe Meek in 1963 to 1965 gave me a lifelong interest in what makes a recording ‘sound’ good. Combinations of compression and EQ.

I founded Alice mixers in 1969 and the company that specialised in compressors in 1993, so I have been designing and building electronic equipment since the early 1960s…. that’s 50 years!! Ten years ago I stumbled onto the idea of producing spatial sound from a single loudspeaker enclosure. That idea took root and blossomed into a company that is now international, selling tens of thousands of loudspeaker systems to households who are re-discovering decent quality sound. At 74 years old I don’t have quite the stamina to run several businesses at once; the professional equipment business is reduced to just a few die-hards who still value the special qualities of good analogue gear. Orbitsound is dynamic, growing fast and occupies all my time in my basement laboratory, developing, measuring, improving and dreaming spatial sounding loudspeakers.

So that’s it, there will be no more new TFPRO equipment from me. I shall continue to honour and service guarantees of course…. As I have done for so many years, but unless there is an enthusiastic manufacturer wanting to carry on building P38 series compressors, then there are just a few left. Analogue gear will still be used for many years to come..... but the digits will get it right in the end."

[Zenitram]

Ted just got back to me saying that "it behaves normally. The compressor on these units is extremely smooth, it was designed to be that way."

He's going to test everything again, but it's working as it should, he seems to think. And he designed the blummin' thing, so he should know, really.

So, er, there you go.

[51m0n]

Bizare, the JM compressors I've used you can really push and get some noticeablye compression on, I've definitely used a JM half rack jobbie and got drums pumping off it (as a parallel comp effect). Sounded great.

May not have been this exact one, there have been several revisions....

[Zenitram]

It turns out I was using the wrong power supply, that was all. Yes it certainly does do that squidgy and yummy compression; really nice.

Speaking of really nice, on a drunken whim I bought an FMR RNC on eBay last night, for some reason. Which means I now have four compressors (Behringer Composer, Focusrite Penta, Joemeek VC3Q, FMR RNC), none of which I particularly need, but seem to enjoy owning.

I should probably sell one or two of them.

Or! Find a use for them. I've been buying microphones as well.

[51m0n]

Hey excellent news!

Thought I was losing my marbles then

FMR is very nice for clean compression especially on special mode (or whatever they call it) - watch out for the speed of it though, the attack can get very very fast and will show up distortion as a result.

Also IIRC wiring them in can need some special leads made up.

Other than that its a great piece of kit, and a very different kind of comrpessor to the JM one you have, enjoy it!

[Zenitram]

Wow, yeah, it just arrived and I've been playing about with it on a synth arpeggio. Really, really, [i]really[/i] nice.

[51m0n]

[quote name='Zenitram' timestamp='1386781911' post='2304476']
Wow, yeah, it just arrived and I've been playing about with it on a synth arpeggio. Really, really, [i]really[/i] nice.
[/quote]

Yep

[Skinner]

Hi, bit late to this one, but I'm quite a fan of the J Meek gear had a British Channel and a 3Q in the past and recently acquired the floor Q. All good gear with a distinguishable sound. As I recall the 3Q was a great pre-amp with a very effective eq section and as Simon states a 'juicy' compression.