Brook Audio . Thoughts ?

[blackfoot]

Generally my 1st choice for a vocal comp is a Quad Eight AM2B or a Pendelum OCL2 . Recently both these units went down & I had to go for my third choice. I've got a Brook Audio f96 compressor that didn't see much action on vocals up until recently. Man am I impressed. I ve mainly used it for bass but it's found a new home in my vocal chain. I looks like it should sound like an 1176 but it doesn't . It's the fattest smoothest tracking comp I've ever used. It can hold 12 db all day long & you'd never know it. I've also got a Brook mic pre that I love & use almost daily. I interested in what other products he made & what people's thoughts are. I'm after equipment opinions only.

[Ben M]

Those comps are fantastic. I remember a session that I used one f96 on vox and one on acoustic...man! They just held everything so steady and without any artifacts. Plenty of subtle gain reduction and quiet. I reckon you could use it as a pre Jim..from memory it had mountains of quiet gain.
I've used lots of the Hornibrook gear and have owned a few of his pre's. All of it very nice..
He built a nice valve pre/DI that I got to use at prototype stage. It was also very nice.

[blackfoot]

Your probably right Ben about using it as a preamp. The input gain never reaches 10 o'clock & same with the output. I'll give it a go.

[jasound]

Mark Hornibrook was house tech at Megaphon when I was there in the 90s and we used to beta test and buy his stuff.

From what I saw the first thing he made was the BPA 1200 watt power amplifiers, he later made a great little NS10 amp that sold pretty well. There was the Valve DI which was incredible, a valve fuzz pedal that was a monster. Then he made a solid state Pultec sytle eq and later moded it with a valve section. A mic pre and the f96 which is a really open sounding unit,which really is its own thing not just a 1176 clone.

Mark is a bass player and he always spent a lot of time getting the bottom end sounding focused and tight.
His stuff reminds me of api In that way.

[TimC]

Yes the Valve DI is fantastic - it has a gain on it that can be routed to the thru.. I think CT used to have one at BJB..
I saw a new batch of passive DIs at a gig the other day - apparently he is back making gear..?

[airraid]

here are a few pics of the Brook valve Di, I got mine in the 90s cheers Kerry

[blackfoot]

Boy, that's an ugly little sucker isn't it? He certainly didn't build for pretty looks.

[airraid]

HAHAHAH, yes it probably needs a coat of Red paint and a nice pot plant next to it.

[The Tasmanian]

Mark makes really great stuff.
I had a Brook mic pre going for more than 20 years - it was up there with the best.
It was my fist high end mic pre, and I tracked many many albums with it, and as I purchased more high end pre's, It stayed right up the top of the best preamps around - whatever source it was used on - pristine.
Slew rate was second to none - fastest bass drum preamp money could buy IME.

His NS10 Amp - I had more than 15 years constant daily studio use - would beat 98% of every new high end studio amp that it was put up against.
(other top fastidious engineers who A/Bed it agreed)
It also became bloody mission impossible to get a second amp for another set of monitors, as they just did not sound as good.

His valve DI was again one of the best DI's money could buy, with an amazing tube saturation pot for more valve juju when needed.

His F96 Compressor was always up with the best too. (nothing like an 1176 - in sound or design)
I remember when he was developing the comp, he made prototypes and gave them to top engineers for feedback.
The first prototype received feedback saying it was too clean, not enough "character".
He was patient, and moved the comp around top studios to get feedback.
Being a muso - he listened from a musical point of view, not a nerdy techie POV.
He was laughing at having to re-engineer the comp and redesign it less "clean and boring" - and he did.
This is the F96. Still an amazing comp nearly 25 years old.
All of his designs never needed repairing either - built to last.
He redesigned center sections of consoles for me and improved them way beyond my hopes.
He knows his stuff - no doubt about it.
He had some very rough times (understatement) for a decade or so (many stories still floating around..)
Glad to see he is making more gear.
History.....