The Retro Sta Level cannot be compared to any other compressors. It is a Stand Alone compressor, it can be dirty, it can be clean. For the first time compressing -30db sounds great on my vocals, well balanced. When I use it for the first time, it was just like a fader on the vocal without any effort, it levels everything the way it's supposed to be. I will for sure try other Retro gears.

The Retro Sta Level cannot be compared to any other compressors. It is a Stand Alone compressor, it can be dirty, it can be clean. For the first time compressing -30db sounds great on my vocals, well balanced. When I use it for the first time, it was just like a fader on the vocal without any effort, it levels everything the way it's supposed to be. I will for sure try other Retro gears.

Haven't had a ton of time to use this unit yet but I can already tell you, it has the mojo. I tried it with a variety of vocals and bass so far and this unit delivers. It makes a small sounding vocal sound huge, giving it weight and adding just a bit of roundness to the tone as well as imparting that magical top end often associated with old tube gear. It does add color, but does not completely change the sound which is excellent if you are worried about altering the perfect tone. It just adds such a pleasing sonic character to the signal.

In terms of the actual compression, it's quite transparent. It does a great job at leveling out a track but does not sound like the source is being squashed within an inch of it's life. In fact, even with extreme levels of compression it remains pretty transparent. It does an amazing job of leveling out a signal but stays out of the way. It really shines on vocals but sounds great on bass as well. I may even try it on drum overheads or kick out just to see what it does to the sound.

All in all, this unit sounds amazing, has fantastic build quality and works incredibly well.

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You want that bigger then life sound this is where it's at. Tube sound so warm it's causing global warming

For starters, it instantly makes all your other rack gear look wimpy! So easy to use and just adding it into the signal chain adds a little magic. It's built like a tank and is fairly heavy. It can be smooth and transparent or downright ugly and aggressive making it very versatile.