We’re delving into the Magnetismus 2, a stereo box built mainly for drum bus compression and transient shaping.
The Magnetismus 2, a VCA compressor and transient shaper from Tegeler audio.
Tegeler is an audio company out of Tegel — in the North of Berlin — founded by Michale Krusch, who’ve been focussing on producing high quality audio hardware for the past 15 years or so.
We’ve previously done videos on both their Myth EQs and their Creme EQ/compressor.
Today we’ll be delving into the Magnetismus 2, a stereo box built mainly for drum bus compression and transient shaping.
Internally it’s a VCA compressor with detented pots for threshold and ratio, spanning from 1:1 through to a limit mode, with switchable combined time constants, kinda like an expanded, faster version of what’s on a Fairchild compressor.
Position 1 is a fairly fast attack, fast release at 7ms attack and 11ms release, through to setting 10 with a leisurely attack of 1300ms and a 4500ms release. Plus a mysterious, unlabelled 11 time constant setting – haven’t figured the settings on that one yet.
At the end of the compression section we’ve got a detented makeup gain pot and a gain reduction LED. Makes sense. A cool trick is using the make up gain to push the next section, which is….
The Flux section, which is what the transient processing section is called, we’ve got an intensity control, a 3 way mode selector that suggests different transformers, and an output volume control.
Additionally we’ve got a bypass switch for easy comparison to your unaffected signal, and a VU that’ll show you how hot this thing’s outputting too.
Essentially, what you wanna use this box for is to add punch, weight, and depth to your drum bus. Of course you can use it on different sources too.
It’ll even work over a whole mix bus, but it’s not a piece you can really fine tune, so I’d be reluctant to use it over a master.
When using the Magnetismus I find the attack settings are slow enough to never really destroy a transient.
I’ll most likely run this thing between setting 3 and 5, which is 15 – 38ms, kinda around where I’d run an SSL bus compressor, just enough time to let the transient through, have the compressor enhance and beef that up, then trail off.
The flux section will round out and shape the transient depending on how hard you push the intensity. The selector knob over here definitely changes the audio tone, with eisen aka iron somewhat rolling off the highs, kobalt, less so, and nickel even less so.
With the Flux section engaged you can always hear a touch of high end roll off, which works nicely with the saturation. I guess it’s like snapping up the transients and then kinda like smoothing them to tape
So, how does it sound? Well, I’ll show you as I tweak it over a drum loop – it can do subtle to a point, but I’ll push it hard to see what happens over a drum loop I recorded earlier.
And there we have it, the Tegeler Magnetismus. A bus VCA compressor and transient shaper. It’s definitely a useful studio piece that’ll nicely enhance drums and other transient heavy material, and the Flux section gives a nice roundness to whatever you run through it. Even pushing it into distortion can lead to some cool, creative sounds.
I cracked open the box in search of the transformers but couldn’t find em in there, so I’m not sure exactly what the flux mode is switching, but it seems to do the job.
Currently the Magnetismus retails for around $2600 Australian, but I think if you order very soon you can take advantage of a Tegeler offer and nab a Creme EQ/Compressor AND a Magnetismus direct from the company at around $3200AU including shipping in their distinctive artillery wooden crates.
Check it out on their website: https://www.tegeler.com/Magnetismus2/Index/?
Catch you next time for more STUFF!
