Since the stereo compressor algorithms were released for the Disting mk4, mine has been permanently assigned to the role of sidechain compressor, with most of my mix running through it, sidechained to the kick drum. The Disting does a decent enough job, but it’s clear I needed a dedicated compressor module, and I wanted something analogue.
Enter Streams, another awesome module designed by Émilie Gillet of Mutable Instruments. It’s much more than a compressor, offering 2 channels of envelopes, vactrol emulators, envelope followers or compression, and also has a proper stereo mode which gives additional control. The signal path is pure analogue, with a microcontroller used to analyse incoming audio and control the analogue section accordingly.
After the PCBs arrived, I soldered all of the SMD parts and flashed the STM32 microcontroller.
I added the mechanical parts and, due to an oversight (I didn’t have the correct pin headers), had to adapt some headers to mount the smaller bargraph PCB for the level meters.
Thankfully it all went together OK and worked perfectly first time. Sounds awesome, I definitely appreciate the analogue signal path, especially when driving it hard (which is something I rather like to do!).