Latest addition to the studio is the brand new Alta Moda Hippo stereo compressor. It's a double-wide 500 series module that I have slotted into an API 500VPR frame.

I bought this to use as a mix bus compressor; since I gave up on mixing inside the box and started bringing everything back out to an SSL X-Desk, a hardware bus compressor has been conspicuously missing. So I've plumbed it into the mix bus inserts at the front of the chain, which now looks like this:

  Alta Moda Hippo -> Thermionic Culture Vulture (mastering version) -> API 5500 - > Korg MR-2000S

The Hippo is VCA-based and very transparent sounding, though it does have a Warmth function to add some harmonic distortion and beef things up a little. At lower settings this is very subtle, but cranked all the way up it adds some definite thump. I'll probably leave the Warmth function disengaged most of the time since the output goes straight into the Culture Vulture (and there's such a thing as too warm), but this feature could be very useful to anyone using the Hippo on a drum sub.

Other controls are fairly standard: ratio goes from 1.5 to 20 in stepped increments. There is an auto release setting, a high pass filter on the side chain that goes from 60-300Hz to help with bass-heavy material, and a Wet/Dry blend control - something that's become very popular on this type of compressor over the past couple of years. It allows for very simple control of parallel compression effects - again a very useful feature for drum subs to quickly get the "New York" sound.

Another welcome and less common feature is found on the stereo link control - here you have the option to have a Soft or Hard interaction between the left and right channels - in Hard mode, the detectors are linked so that the dynamics on one side will affect the other equally, but in Soft mode the detectors exert less control over each other even though they are linked. There is also an option to unlink them entirely and have it act in Dual mono mode.

Unlike EQ, compression is one thing that I think still can't be modeled quite well enough in software yet (distortion is another). There are some plugins that have come very close for me (SSL Duende Bus Compressor and Waves API 2500 to name a couple of examples), but they still don't quite compare to the real thing.

So overall, the Hippo is a very welcome addition to the studio and one I'm looking forward to using on all future mixes.