Recording - September 2010 - 12

B Y PA U L V N U K J R .

Summit Audio ECS-410 Everest
Recording Channel Strip
Recording a pristine source? It’s all here... and it’s all good

The Everest is the culmination and distillation of over 25 years of Summit’s compression, eq and mic pre technology into a channel strip of mountainous proportions. (Sorry, but when a company named Summit releases a product called Everest, the mountain jokes are part of the package.) Meet Everest Everest is a two-space 19” rackmount unit, hand-built in the USA and offering both tube and solid-state signal paths. It has an all-metal chassis and thick contoured faceplate, uses a hefty internal power supply, and weighs in at a respectable 26 pounds. Everest contains four audio sections: the Mz-2 Microphone & Instrument Preamp, the Fe-1 Passive Equalizer, the Dc-1 Dual Mode Dynamics (two-mode compressor), and the Db-2 Drive Bus/Output (multi-mode overdrive). A fifth section on the fascia, called TouchPatch, offers control over signal flow. Each section can be internally patched in series, complete with individual section bypass, or they can be used as four independent units, each with its own individual inputs and outputs on the rear panel. Every output is always live, so you can record a dry take direct from the mic pre or the compressor, etc., alongside Everest’s main output buss. Mz-2 Microphone Preamplifier The Mz-2 controls on the far left of the fascia consist of a single large input knob, a 10-segment LED input/clip meter, and a vertical row of five small switches that control, from top to bottom, 20 dB pad, polarity, +48 V phantom power, 60 Hz highpass filter, and the bottom switch offers a choice between a discrete transistor or
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12AX7A tube output stage. This Mz-2 section is completed by a 1/4" unbalanced HiZ instrument input. The rear of the Mz2 section contains an XLR microphone input, a TRS insert, a +4 dB XLR output, and a –10 dB TRS output. Other than the Hi-Z input in front and the inserts, all of the connections on the Everest are balanced. Dc-1 Dual Mode Dynamics Control To the lower right of the mic pre is the compressor section. This discrete transistor attenuator design is available in two flavors: tight and classic. Tight is a fixed hard knee ratio of 10:1, while the classic softer kneed 3:1 setting is reminiscent of past Summit models. Additionally, the Dc-1 has a 10-segment gain reduction LED and four knobs for gain (–6 dB to +13.5 dB), threshold, attack (4 ms to 100 ms) and release (50 ms to 1 second). A final 3-way switch chooses between in, bypass, or link mode—used to link the threshold response between a pair of units. Around the back the compressor has a pair of +4 dB XLR I/O as well as 1/4" TRS link and 1/4" TRS sidechain connections. Fe-1 Passive 3 Band Equalizer Above the compressor control section is the 3-band passive, solid-state equalizer known as the Fe-1. Built off of Summit’s 4band FeQ-50 passive EQ, the Fe1 features ±12 dB of inductor-based frequency attenuation. Each band offers six stepped frequency choices: Low: 33 Hz, 60 Hz, 100 Hz, 150 Hz, 270 Hz, and 390 Hz Mid: 560 Hz, 630 Hz, 1 kHz, 1.6 kHz, 2.5 kHz and 3.3 kHz

High: 5 kHz, 7.2 kHz, 8.2 kHz, 10 kHz, 12 kHz, and 18 kHz The mid-band’s Q is fixed at roughly 2 octaves, while the low and high bands offer a choice of shelf or peak Q. The Fe1 also has an in/bypass switch. On the back, the Fe-1 section has its own pair of +4 dB XLR connectors. Db-2 Drive Bus Master Output and Drive Section To the right of the compressor and eq controls we come to the output section, which is both a final output buss and a drive section. A 3-way switch offers a choice between bypass, tube, or solid-state gain staging. Similar in function to a variable input microphone preamp, this section uses a smaller drive knob to force signal into the circuit controlled by the larger master output knob. A 2-stage LED shows both signal saturation and master-buss clipping. This is completed by a master VU meter for the overall output gain. The solid-state section is, of course, transistor based, while the tube section uses a pair of 12AX7A vacuum tubes. On the rear the output section has +4 dB XLR I/O as well as a –10 dB TRS 1/4" output. TouchPatch The last section, on the far right of the unit’s fascia, is called TouchPatch. This section contains 10 small backlit buttons used to configure signal flow. The signal can either start with the mic pre for tracking, or with the compressor or eq for mix down. The drive buss is always last. The eq and compressor can be chained in any order or even left out of the mix. A setting marked “No Route” turns off all internal routing and allows all sections

Recording - September 2010

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