Aug 20th, 2015
Behringer Composer modification
The older Behringer Composer MDX 2100 has a heavy chassis and very high quality controls. People refuse to believe how good this unit is! It is virtually identical to the Boss CL-50, DBX 160xt, DBX 166, 266, 166xl, etc. In fact, the same DBX VCA, opamps, and controls are in use here, and even the rack ears fit DBX equipment. It looks like these were made in the same factory!
This unit actually has a more sophisticated RMS detector to control the DBX VCA. The labeling on the controls is in fact extremely accurate to the function of the unit. That is, when you set your attack at 1ms or decay at 1sec, this machine will really do that, unlike so many other well marketed companies where the controls are not accurate to the face plate label or do not reach the specified ranging. In some fancy names the controls do practically nothing crucial! The manufacturers give the engineer “pretend” controls which have very minimal effect in order to give the impression that theirs is a really nice compressor.
Because the Composer’s controls run such a wide use capability, it is prone to an idiosyncrasy where RMS detection control signals can get mixed in with the audio signal (through a slight crosstalk of the circuitry parts) when the controls are at a maximum setting. We install four capacitors and four resistors in the RMS detection circuit to reduce this interaction. This also allows the controls to be a little more forgiving at the end runs. Now the control of the VCA is more likeable and the noise floor and distortion levels are lower, even when the controls are used near their extremes.
Complete cleaning, RFI suppression mods, full updates, and return shipping costs $160.