500 Series Blue-Stripe Compressor

US Black Lion Audio announces availability of Bluey 500 based on CLA's 1176 10/02/23

Having previously worked with Chris Lord-Alge to commercially create the 2U rack-mount Bluey F.E.T. LIMITING AMPLIFIER, actively reverse-engineering what made the American mix engineer's beloved 'Bluey' FET compressor central to working his hit musical magic after many mods, component replacements, and upgrades, Black Lion Audio has announced availability of Bluey 500. They say that it is formed perfectly to take that unmistakable blue-striped compression mojo into 500-series racks the world over as a two-slot space-saving device without sacrificing its bigger brother's sought-after sonic attributes. Here's more details direct from the company...

As American mix engineer extraordinaire Chris Lord-Alge always relied on a rack of original blue-striped true peak limiters to work his hit musical magic, he hitherto encountered one little issue in doing so. Simply put, one golden-eared example exhibited a certain something that the others did not. Needless to say, this resulted in Black Lion Audio being invited to study his beloved 'Bluey' -- taking pride of place in that all-important rack -- in order to gain an understanding of what made it sound so special, especially when applied to lead vocals where it always achieved incredible grit. Get this, though: the boutique audio company's diagnosis revealed that the 'happy accidents' and odd-fixes applied to the unique unit in question over the years just to keep it in working order had ultimately -- unwittingly, even -- created a monster 1176! But by analyzing this singular and unique piece of studio 'unobtanium' in exacting detail, Black Lion Audio ably succeeded in recreating that beast of a compressor, commercially making it available to everyone as an appropriately-named 2U rack-mount -- namely, Bluey F.E.T. LIMITING AMPLIFIER. And all with Chris Lord-Alge's hands-on blessing.

Fast-forwarding to today sees Black Lion Audio applying its talented team's technical know-how to bring that same blue-striped compression mojo much loved by Chris Lord-Alge to the production table as an appropriately-named 500-series unit, unbelievably shoehorning in everything that made its Bluey F.E.T. LIMITING AMPLIFIER bigger brother sound so amazing -- all the same (INPUT, OUTPUT, ATTACK, RELEASE, COMP MIX, RATIO, and METER) controls, features, and I/O are intact, in other words, while also including a convenient front panel-positioned RCA jack to allow a stereo LINK option.

Far from failing to stop there, though, in order to get the exacting detail that Chris Lord-Alge has enjoyed from his beloved 'Bluey', Black Lion Audio not only used custom Cinemag transformers but actually recreated his console's insert path and built it right into Bluey 500 to provide its users with that same console feel. For anyone seeking some True Blue -- Without 2U, to quote from the boutique audio company collectively, they now know where to turn. After all, everyone deserves a li'l' 'Bluey' in their life!

Pricing and Availability:
Bluey 500 is available to purchase via Black Lion Audio's global network of dealers/distributors with a MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) of $699.00 USD and an SSP (Suggested Selling Price) of €932.00 EUR (including VAT).

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