Gainlab Dictator

Our take

"Possibly the most affordable vari-mu compressor on the market. It is still very well designed, with genuinely good tubes and quality components. Great for tracking, mixing and mastering. Very sensitive to gain staging, it can be subtle or turn into a full-on saturation unit." - Victor Malvolti

Vari-mu stereo tube compressor

The Dictator is a tube dynamics compressor based on the design of famous vari-mu units. It works the same way as the legendary Fairchild 670 and Gates STA-Level, as well as more contemporary versions of the "variable-mu" design. The custom side-chain circuit design is a proprietary solution called "mu-follower". Both channels of the compressor can track each other across the entire knee curve, delivering very smooth gain reduction. The time constants and saturation characteristics are reminiscent of the great classics of the genre.

Differences between versions (stereo and dual-mono)

Gainlab offers 3 versions of the Dictator:

• Dictator: linked stereo operation only
• Dictator Graphite: limited edition of the Dictator, only the finish changes (black)
• Dictator DM: linked or unlinked stereo operation (this version is therefore slightly more expensive)

Reviews

"The Dictator is a very impressive debut from Gainlab Audio and offers a convincing take on a tube compression classic, along with a well-thought-out feature set."