IGS Audio ZEN Zener Diodes Mastering Compressor

General

The ZEN from IGS Audio is an analogue mastering compressor, which can be used on two mono signals, or one stereo signal. It operates based on 14 bi-polar transistors and 8 hand-selected zener diodes. It is designed with the compressors used at the legendary Abbey Road Studios as an example. It adds a warm compression with a subtle hint of analogue overtones. The stereo-link knob links both channels, so left and right have the same setting. Turn it off, and you have two mono channels that you can control separately. All rotary knobs work in steps and come with extensive numerical feedback.

Vintage in a jiffy

The compressor features a Highpass filter, which can be set in four steps between 60 and 240 Hz. This can prevent the compressor from reacting to low bass. A nice addition is the AMP setting on the filter knob, which disables the compression but allows the signal to still pass the zener diodes. This gives the signal the nice warm vintage character of analogue electronics, even when you don't need compression. The ZEN comes in a 19-inch rack module with a 3U size. The blue front panel has a nice vintage look and features robust switches and rotary knobs, which allow you to control your sound in detail.