DGH A has a unique place in the world of Audio engineering, but people who haven’t done any Audio engineering might see it as a meaningless jumble of letters and numbers. For people who have researched Audio engineering and the compressors used in the field, they know the name as the first Audio compressor, produced in the 1970s, and the most in-demand Audio unit. This article will summarize the history, philosophy, unique sounds, legacy, and modern-day use of the most popular Audio compressor, the DGH A.
A New Age in Compression
DGH A’s legacy dates back to the 1970s, a decade marked by rapid technological advancement. Recording arts underwent a complete transformation, with live-to-tape recordings evolving to multilayered recordings. New methodologies introduced new challenges, the most notable being range compression. Controlling the volume of the individual instruments as well as the final mix in a performance.
Enter David (Dave) G. Hafler, a legend in high-fidelity Audio engineering. Hafler is also known for his affordable, high-quality Dynaco amplifier kits. Still, his other endeavors included professional signal processing, which led to the creation of DHA (Dave Hafler Audio) and the DGH A compressor/limiter. This product was not from a large company, but rather the work of an engineer with a passion for sonic transparency and utility.
The DGH A was a box like no other. It aimed to be the most transparent and most musical multi-purpose device ever built, surpassing the often harsh “colored” sound of most contemporaneous and previous tube-based iterations. It aimed to be the first product not only to control a signal’s dynamics but to do so without the extraneous artifacts; an audibly intrusive philosophy of control that was both revolutionary and counter to the opposing philosophies of the time.
The Philosophy and Design
The philosophy and design of the DGH A are the most interesting and timeless. The product’s centerpiece is a solid-state, voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA), and there has been no other product with the same commitment to controlled gain reduction without compression artifacts or varying control.
Primary Features and Controls:
Threshold: This effect determines at what level compression starts. The DGH A even allowed this to be set very precisely, so the engineers could use subtle gain reduction more often, depending on the program.
Ratio: Concerning the amount of compression permitted, this was controlled, and the DGH A could provide a range from slightly excellent leveling to even more extreme aggressive limiting.
Attack and Release: These two were the heart and soul of the unit. The attack and release times were precisely adjustable, to the point that these attributes became musical. Engineers had the privilege of complementing their settings to the natural transients and decays of the instruments, encompassing even the loud, sharp snap of the snare drum and the sustained tail of the thicker bass guitar.
Output Make-Up Gain: After reducing the peaks, the overall level is lowered. This control helped the engineers balance the compressed signal back to an optimal level, resulting in quieter sections becoming even louder and, at the same time, the overall sound becoming denser and more centralized.
The steel chassis’s outer enclosure and front panel design, along with the toggles and knobs, completed an ensemble exuding the particular feel and build quality typical of the DGH-A’s era. This ensemble, along with the aesthetic design, was precisely the kind of server that would endure time and weather — the type of wear one could expect in an operational sound production studio. This wear demanded an enclosure that housed and protected a merchant-grade, low-noise, and powerful internal power supply, and the enclosure’s power supply would prove, over time, to be very operationally robust, as evidenced by the unit’s legend.
The Sonic Character
The only legend to draw the conjoined diagrams of two DGH-A hardware pieces was the sound. Yes, DGH-A hardware engineers could and would realize, pull, and submit an operational schematic of a DGH-A compressor exhibiting the sound-reverberation technology, the art of control for incisive clarity, and the art of sound control. The sound compression of the DGH-A compressor technology would create a commercial unit free of unwanted coloration and immediate reverberation.
Technologically, a voice-track compression unit could and would bind together diverse ranges of tonal execution without employing the typical voice range processors. The DGH-A compressor unit would, on demand and with the expected operational clarity, control tonal dynamic ranges without incurring throughput compression per se.
Relentless and sound technology, by virtue of a DGH-A compressor, was and seamlessly was at the service of the unprocessed network of dynamic control of the vocal and the cadence of a vocal — The annoyingly placed, misplaced, raw of sibilance could very easily be seamlessly removed in a voice track and the unprocessed voice with the cadence could, without encumbrance, be presented pure and clean sibilance inserted to a finished mix — the mix very easily unprocessed.
On a dual channel output arrangement, in mass unfiltered processing of a final stage of an unprocessed and without color, voice of mixed Audio, it would collapse, contain, and control cohesively and seamlessly without encumbrance to an Audio unit, the complete and unobtrusively present unprocessed and final, professional, complete Audio, without prohibitive scattering of the Audio. Control was at the Audio mix’s call to present, without unprocessed, overlaid, partial scatters of dynamic color; refined, completed, professional Audio presented to an audience, complete. It would allow the Audio technician to complete and present refined, professional Audio to an audience without scattered, unjoined Audio. It would, very profoundly, be a compelling advanced technology, control of the Audio of a complete professional final presentation — complete Audio control to present the Audio processing, to control scattered Audio, to complete professional Audio, to present and without unjoined Audio.
It is easy to see that it was refined, professional, and advanced in its Audio technology and control. It was the Audio processing capability that gave it power. DGH-A was very clear: it would define, without color, professional sound engineering, directly compressed, unjoined Audio, presented refined, complete, and uncompressed Audio. The Audio overlaid, very precisely delineated Audio, a picnic, directly delivering the sound of the unjoined. The scattered, professionally complete, and unjoined to present, at an audience level, completed Audio: the unjoined Audio. DGH-A defined control and overlaid audience clarity. Audio — DGH-A was powerful. DGH-A defined power — Professional Audio defined DGH-A. Engineers highly valued this device for its unparalleled adjustability and adaptability across a wide range of situations. Changes could be made without concern that the device would sound bad or become irritable, as long as the functionality expected of it is maintained. Because of the positive reputation they earned, the devices earned the nickname “trust and drop them,” as they would make positive overall changes to a track and refine its structure without damaging it.
The Evolution of DSP Tech
The DHA and the DGH A were the voice processing units designed to compress Audio signals and were highly adaptive to changes in the instrument recording. However, as the Audio production industry advanced, the DGH A voice processing units drew to a nostalgic close, praised as a vintage “cult” legend.
In the Audio production industry, the DGH A was an understated voice-processing unit, and as the industry became more advanced, DGH A units became harder to source, and word of an “engineer’s secret” began to circulate. Current Audio production facilities were and still are willing to pay high prices, hoping the DGH A would be included in their voice processing units.
The influence of DGH A can also be seen in the software industry. Many software companies have developed plugins to emulate the DGH A. Universal Audio and Plugin Alliance have developed accurate models of the DGH A. Plugin Alliance uses digital models of the DGH A in the “Dynamics” module of the Brainworx bx_console channel strip plugins. These models allow a new wave of Audio engineers to experience the sonic characteristics of the DGH A without the effort of locating a physical vintage unit. The detailed digital models of the DGH A serve to highlight the unit’s legacy.
Modern-Day Use
In the 21st century, many Audio engineers question the value of a 1970s-era0s-era hardware, especially given the ability to use digital Audio workstations with thousands of plugins. However, with the 1970s-era unit, the value lies in its sound and its physical, tactile character.
Using a hardware unit, such as DGH A, requires a certain level of expertise. It pushes engineers to make listening-based decisions rather than to spend forever twiddling parameters and presetting. The hardware is a quicker, more instantaneous way of engagement. In addition to the great plugins, the old-school analog components offer just the right amount of depth and realism; the character of the transformers, the VCs, the noise floor.
For today’s producer, the DGH A is an excellent example of a “finishing” compressor. It can be patched across the master bus to maintain coherence and polish to the track before sending it out to meet the master. It is consistently chosen for tracking vocals, bass, and acoustic guitars; a clean, intentional signal is obtained for the digital floor.
Conclusion: More Than Just Letters and a Number
DGH A is the alphanumeric model with a legacy. It is a testament to a music-first, more thoughtful approach to Audio engineering. This design’s functionality and unique sonic integrity are a kind of engineering maturity. David Hafler’s compressor design, in all its unobtrusiveness, is a kind of engineering maturity.
This product displays a high degree of craftsmanship. Beginning as an industry standard in a studio environment, becoming a digital classic, and earning a warranted place in vintage collections, this product is a testament to the quality of the DGH A. The DGH A was the first to teach the industry that performance control can be maintained and that other performance control loss options would no longer be considered. With the DGH A, anyone passionate about the craft of recording and understanding artistry can view history and know that the DGH A demonstrates the classic balance between control and performance.
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