Derived from the original Neve 2254 compressor, circa 1969, the 33609 stereo bus compressor/limiter utilizes a bridged-diode gain reduction circuit and many custom transformers. The uniquely musical character of this circuit made the 33609 a studio standard since its release. The UAD Neve 33609 is the only Neve-sanctioned software recreation of the Neve 33609 (rev C). Every detail of the original unit is captured, and matches its hardware counterpart with absolute precision. The 33609 plug-in includes a DSP-optimized 33609SE which allows for higher instance counts.
The completely stepped-controlled 33609 is made up of separate compression and limiter sections, each with their own threshold, recovery and bypass controls. Two of the recovery selections for each section are dedicated to a program dependent auto release. The compressor section also offers five ratio selections and 20 dB make-up gain, while the limiter offers a fast or slow attack. The mono/stereo switch couples and decouples the left and right gain reduction elements.
The UAD Powered Plug-In version of the Neve 33609 adds a few control enhancements not found on the hardware: An additional stepped output control with 20db of gain, a link switch allowing ganged left/right control of all parameters, and a headroom switch, which allows the DAW user to take advantage of the full range of 33609 gain coloration.
