The Black Keys have backed Unity Audio’s Lisson Grove AR-1 Tube Compressors, using them as part of their studio set-up.
Patrick Carney, drummer for the popular rock band The Black Keys, was looking to enhance his sound, and was drawn to Unity Audio’s Lisson Grove AR-1 Tube Compressors upon hearing them in his friend Gus Seyffert’ s studio.
Carney purchased two compressors to use across his mix-bus and been using them ever since. “I first heard the Lisson Grove AR-1 at Gus’ studio and I was immediately impressedwith the sound of the unit on a variety of instruments,” said Carney.
“The compressors really shine on the bass, electric and acoustic guitar. The impedance control is particularly handy and if need be, I am able to distort my sound in a pleasing way. Upon purchasing, it was recommended that I invest in two AR-1s to use across my mix-bus and I am glad I listened to that advice. With these units, a little goes a long way and my mix continuously sounds amazing.”
Unity Audio’ s Lisson Grove AR-1 Tube Compressor is a vintage style tube compressor based on the classic Altec compressor that was used in the 1960’ s. It is hand-built but has modern day upgrades. Among the upgrades are the compressor’ s pot, which originally had an output of only 200 ohms. With Unity’ s AR-1, the compressor’ s pot adjusts the output impedance of the unit, going from 600 ohms in the far right position, to 200 ohms (Dark) in the far left position. This allows for a variable tone without adding anything too bizarre to the circuit.
“We are always humbled when artists of Carney’ s caliber choose our products,” added Kevin Walker, managing director of Unity Audio. “Our company is proud of the advances that it has made in regards to this classic compressor, while staying true to the style of the 1960’ s. At Unity, we take a lot of pride in hand-building our units and are happy to continuously provide high-quality products to our customers.”
The Lisson Grove AR-1 Tube Compressors also possess the ‘ Infinity’ control between each of the six recovery settings. In effect, this control position results in an extremely long recovery time. With the ‘ Infinity’ control, users are able to ‘ prime’ the unit before a take and prevent an increase in gain during silent passages. Unity has also added a quarter-inch jack on the back, to enable a footswitch control, for hands free operation of the unit.
