Black Lion Audio has released the Bluey 500, a 500-series version of Chris Lord-Alge’s heavily-modified 2U “Bluey” compressor. Having undergone years of odd fixes, modifications, and upgrades, the famed Bluey was a singular and unique piece of studio gear that was unavailable to users…until Black Lion Audio got their mitts and voltmeters on it.
Black Lion Audio Bluey 500
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Let’s Reverse-Engineer!
After working with Chris Lord-Alge to reverse-engineer his multitude of mods, component replacements, and upgrades, Black Lion Audio was able to make the legendary Bluey sound available to the world with the introduction of the original 2U Bluey compressor, adding an active wet/dry mix for easy parallel compression, as well as a stereo link.
The Bluey 500 adds a compressor to BLA’s 500 series offerings, which include the Auteur MKII 500 Mic Pre and a slot rack.
Now With Parallel Compression
To get the exacting detail that Chris Lord-Alge has enjoyed from the original Bluey, Black Lion not only used custom Cinemag transformers, they actually recreated his console’s insert path and built it right into Bluey. Black Lion also added an active wet/dry mix for easy parallel compression, as well as a stereo link.
Bluey 500 was designed with a vintage-inspired PCB layout, 1% resistors, and polyester capacitors — meaning that Bluey 500 is built to last! And like all Black Lion products, Bluey 500 is hand-tested, calibrated and QC’d in the USA.
Black Lion Audio Bluey 500 New Features & Enhancements:
- 500-series recreation of Chris Lorde-Alge’s most prized 1176 — used on every lead vocal he mixes
- Two Cinemag transformers; a recreation of the original UTC input transformer and a recreation of the original Reichenbach output transformer
- Wet/Dry mix knob allows for parallel compression not available on the original
- Stereo-linkable
- Input and Output buffering taken directly from Chris Lorde-Alge’s console inserts
- Hand-tested, calibrated and QC’d in the USA.
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- Type: FET Limiter
- Number of Channels: Single channel
- Controls: Attack, Release, Mix, Input, Output*
- Ratio: 4:1, 8:1, 12:1, 20:1
- Inputs: 1 x XLR
- Outputs: 1 x XLR
- Other I/O: 1 x RCA (stereo link)
- Rack Spaces: 2U
- Power Source: Standard IEC AC cable
- A note on the Attack control: The Attack control on the Bluey works a little differently than you may have encountered on other ‘76-style compressors. Turning the Attack knob to the left (counter-clockwise) will yield faster attack times; slower times result when turning to the right (clockwise). We’ve found this control scheme to be more intuitive; akin to a volume knob decreasing level to the left and increasing to the right.
- Attack: Continuously variable 20uS to 800uS
- Release: Continuously variable 1200mS to 50mS
