hardware companders????

Does anyone know of any hardware companders that perform similar base functions (chain routing not necessary) to @AlliewayAudio Koan?

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There must be lots strewn around in old telephone equipment from the land line days, but I’m not sure how you’d make use of it. Quick googling doesn’t immediately turn up something like a box you’d simply plug audio cables into. Only ICs and such. But maybe I’m using the wrong search terms there.

The companders that were used when recording to/reproducing from tape are still around though, they turn up on auction sites every now and then. Dolby put some of its methods into rack units, though if you want something more experimental you may find these a bit tame. DBX used higher ratios, and were single band, so these will color the sound more. There’s also Nakamichi High-Com II, which is a two-band setup, also a bit more drastic than the consumer Dolby formats. I have a few of those that my uncle left behind, and it’s quite fun to put a reverb between the stages, gets bouncy! I doubt any of these would sound just like that Koan module. But they do work on the same principles.

I’m not aware of any existing solutions in Eurorack sadly… However, I have a functional prototype hardware version of Koan currently on the breadboard, but sadly life as an EE student has been too busy for me to put much further work into - I definitely plan to release hardware version of it and others of my modules in the future, but that may be a few years out due to how hectic things have been. Will definitely let you know once that dream becomes a reality, though, a truly analog Koan will be a marvelous thing to behold :slight_smile:

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