On top of the unit, you’ll find nine knobs, seven yellow and two gray, as well as two footswitches. From left to right, you have Threshold, Ratio, Makeup and Mix across the top and Attack, Release and Tilt below. The two gray knobs are for controlling the Sidechain’s Low Pass Filter and High Pass Filter. An elegant, white LED bar graph from -1 to -30dB showcases the Gain Reduction. One footswitch is to activate the External Sidechain, and the other is simply an On/Off affair. As you can see merely from the controls, Polyend provides full sculpting control over your mono or stereo signal, no matter what your application. Let’s delve further into the architecture of the Press to determine if this is worth your hard-earned money.
The Press is a fully analog, VCA-style compressor that can provide delicate compression or full-blown limiting…
The Press is a fully analog, VCA-style compressor that can provide delicate compression or full-blown limiting. The Mix knob allows parallel compression to push your source material without punishing the dynamics. The ratio can go from 2:1 to Unlimited – fully clockwise – for dialing in the compression flavor you want by ear. However, the real action of the Press is the Tilt knob. It’s basically an EQ that can boost the high frequencies or cut the lows, providing yet another methodology for getting the sound you desire. All our evaluators cited Tilt after spending time with the unit, which they found to be “the magic sauce,” but more on this later.
