The Chandler Zener Limiter is a 19" rack-compatible TG limiter based on the vintage EMI circuits used to record The Beatles and Pink Floyd at Abbey Road Studios. The limiter can be operated in either stereo or mono mode by turning the link knob on the front panel. You can even connect the two sides of the device together in series using the output of one side to drive the input of the other.
The left and right channels can also be fully bypassed individually by pressing the IN LEFT and IN RIGHT pushbuttons in the center of the device. Each channel features a 1200 Ω high or 300 Ω low impedance switch for driving the input circuit at +6 or +12 dB for harder or softer limiting. A THD function switch on each channel enables bypassing the limiter to drive the circuit at 2% THD and higher which adds distortion, warmth, and color to the mix. For controls, each channel features a 21-position input level knob with gold contact taper and a 21-position output knob in 1 dB steps for ± 10 dB of level control.
A three-position knob allows you to select between a limiter setting, a fast compressor setting, and a slow compressor setting. The attack limit on each channel is controlled by a knob with selections of 5, 8, 12, 18, 25, 37, 50, 75, 87, and 100 ms. The same knob allows you to select an attack time for the fast compressor setting of 10, 16, 24, 36, 50, 62, 75, 100, 125, 150, 175, and 200 ms. Similarly, when set to the slow compressor setting, the same knob can select a compression attack time of 28, 47, 68 100, 125, 210, 285, 350, 425, 495, and 570 ms.
The release time control is laid out in a similar manner with limiter release times of 10, 25, 50, 65, 75, 100, 125, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500, 625, 750 ms, and 1, 1.25, 1.5, and 2 seconds. The fast compressor setting has release times of 20, 50, 100, 130, 150, 200, 250, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 ms and 1.25, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, and 4 seconds. The slow compressor setting has selectable release times of 60, 125, 250, 375, 425, 545, 700, 850 ms and 1, 1.2, 1.6, 2, 2.25, 2.5, 2.8, 3.5, 4.25, 5, 7.1, 8.5, and 10 seconds. Each channel also includes a sidechain filter that makes the limiter more flexible by removing low frequency information at selectable frequencies between 30 and 300 Hz. For each channel the unit includes a vintage VU meter for observing the amount of signal reduction or compression at different settings.