Tegeler Audio has been gaining a solid reputation in the pro audio world over the past couple of years. A solid selection of well made, and well priced hardware has seen their fan base grow.
There’s one unit in particular i keep hearing about, whispers from peers that i should try it, that unit is the Creme’!
So what is it, i hear you all asking. The Creme’ is a combination of stereo bus compressor and Pultec-style passive EQ, all neatly rolled into a a single 2U device. It’s aimed at mixbus processing or mastering and comes in at a really competitive price.
So let’s have a look at the layout…
The front panel is laid out in two rows, the upper row having the high and low EQ bands’ boost and frequency selectors, and a detented output gain control. The lower panel handles the compressor side of things, with threshold, attack, release and ratio. A single, great looking VU meter, calibrated in 4dB steps up to 20dB, sits on the right hand side of the unit. The rear panel connections are balanced XLR left and right inputs and outputs and the usual power connection. Attack, release and ratio are similar to the SSL or Cytomic’s “The Glue” for you plugin users. One nice touch is the additional 1.5 ratio. The sidechain low cut has two settings, 60hz and 120hz.
The EQ section is a Pultec-style, 2-band with low and high-frequency shelving sections.
The low-frequency settings are: 20, 30, 60, 100, 140 and 200 Hz; the high-frequency settings are: 10, 12, 16, 18, 20 and 24 kHz.
The rotary switches are smooth, and you can boost up to 5 dB in 1db steps. There are no separate hardware bypass switches, but as much as that would be a nice feature, i never found it limited my work at all.
So How does it sound??
The million dollar question, as always, how does it sound. Really bloody good!! Even on gentle settings the compressor has a knack of adding energy and clarity to mixes very easily, everything sounded that little bit nicer. And that’s before adding any EQ. The Eq is very clean sounding, and i found using it after the compressor was my preferred method. The low end boost works wonders and just warms things up, adding some nice texture down low, as well as helping to reinforce a tracks bass. The 16khz is super smooth, opening up the top end and achieving that magical “Air” we talk so much about when mixing/mastering tracks. I found myself dialing in more top end than I usual would with this EQ, as it just so bloody good.
Final Thought
The Tegeler Crème is a tight, clean and punchy compressor and EQ for 2buss and mastering work. The build quality is solid for the price, and it’s layout is easy to get around while working, and very easy to get good results fast. It really is an excellent finishing tool, that little extra bit of “mojo” and polish, especially for those of you who have been working ITB, and are now looking for their first price of hardware. And for the price it comes in at, its a bargain!!
Will share some video of the unit in use in the coming weeks
kontakt@tegeler-audio-manufaktur.com
www.tegeler-audio-manufaktur.de
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