DRAWMER DL 221

Drawmer played a big part in recording in the UK and abroad during the 1980's, their products were good quality and low cost. I was told that during the '80s most SSL 4000 series consoles sold to Japanese studios were accompanied by 12 Drawmer DS201 noise gates, even though the SSL had in built Noise Gates.    

In 1985 Paul White wrote in the Home and Studio Recording magazine " Drawmer have already become a studio legend thanks to their immensely popular noise gate, but their compressor seems destined to share its success "

If you would like to read the review search Drawmer DL221 Dual Compressor Limiter the mu:zines web site

The DL221 is very easy to use, it has Threshold, Compression Ratio, Attack & Release plus gain controls. If you want a nice gentle compression set the threshold and ratio low, this will give you a signal that does not sound compressed but will reduce the dynamic range, if on the the other hand you want the sound to be more compressed and pumping away set the compression ratio high with fast attack and release. Once you have the sound you require adjust the gain to provide a level that you want.

The DL221 has an led meter that will read the output level or switched to who the gain reduction.

At this point I usually show a You Tube video however there are only 2 videos on the DL 221, one is in Polish, the other was posted by some stupid Yank who should not be allowed anyway near a recording studio. He complained about noise, he said the unit was noisy which they are not. I have sold very many Drawmer products over the past 40 years and I can confirm they are not noisy - unless they are not installed correctly. The Yanks unit sounded like he had an earth loop.

Drawmer certainly do not deserve some loud mouth Tosser ruining their reputation. Ivor Drawmer was a very capable designer and his products were exported to and respected in many countries. R.I.P Ivor.