Chandler Limited

The TG Microphone is a solid-state large-diaphragm condenser microphone designed by Chandler Limited with EMI Abbey Road Studios. It is not a clone of any other microphone and, as the name implies, its sound is TG.The on-board EMI “Tape Equalizer”, the Dual Tone System, a dual-frequency low-cut filter and a dedicated power supply make it extremely flexible, able to rival scenarios where the C414, FET47, U87 and U47 have traditionally been chosen. Powering from its own PSU rather than phantom power is key to its sound, which is bigger than you would expect from a solid-state microphone.

The PSU-1 is Chandler Limited’s external power supply for TG, LTD and Germanium series units. It can power up to two Chandler units at the same time, with the exception of the Mini Rack Mixer, which uses its own PSU-2.All TG series units, such as the TG1 Limiter, TG12413 Zener Limiter, TG12345 Curve Bender, TG2 and TG Channel MKII, as well as the Germanium units, require the PSU-1 to operate. An internal switch sets the mains voltage to 115 or 230 V. The connection cables to the units are sold separately.

The RS660 is a handmade mono valve compressor and limiter with transformers at the input and output and an internal power supply, in a two-rack-space chassis. It builds on the advances that began with the EMI RS124 and Fairchild 660 at Abbey Road in the ’60s and distils them into a more refined compression circuit.It is not a simple reproduction of the legendary valve levelers. Built around a 6386 valve, the RS660 was tuned for a specific sound, with the character of the historic 660 and beyond. It comfortably controls sources from vocals to explosive drums and raucous guitars, and through its THD mode it can also deliver pure colour without compression.

The TG1 recreates the EMI TG12413 limiter found in the custom EMI and Abbey Road recording and mastering consoles of the late ’60s. These units were never commercially available and only EMI studios had access to them. The limiter sat on every channel of the TG consoles used to record The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” and Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon”, as well as albums by Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones.It was originally intended to come close to the Fairchild 660/670 loved by engineers such as Geoff Emerick, but it ended up with a special sound of its own. Chandler Limited’s Abbey Road Special Edition features fully discrete circuitry, transformers at the input and output and a harmonic distortion function on each channel.

The RS124 is one of the most coveted valve compressors ever made. It was designed at Abbey Road in 1960 by Bill Livy, Len Page and Mike Bachelor, starting from the Altec 436Bs EMI had acquired in the late ’50s. It was present on almost every Beatles session and in almost every Abbey Road control room photo of the period, yet it was never commercially available.Chandler Limited studied the studio’s historic units and their handwritten modification notes to capture the character of three favourite RS124s still in use there, serial numbers 60070B, 60050A and 61010B, in a single unit. To the classic Input, Output, Recovery and Hold controls it added adjustable attack, selectable output impedance and the SuperFuse mode.

The TG2 Pre Amp/DI recreates the rare EMI TG12428 preamp used in EMI and Abbey Road recording and mastering consoles in the late ’60s and early ’70s. Its sound appears on many famous recordings made at the studio, including The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” and Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon”.It uses the same discrete transformer-balanced amplifiers as the TG series limiter and delivers a creamy, smooth tone with a surprisingly open, clear top end. A small rise in the high frequencies and some warmth-inducing distortion make up its character: body and punch with a beautifully extended top.

Chandler Limited’s REDD.47 Mic Amplifier recreates the valve line amplifiers of Abbey Road’s rare EMI REDD.51 consoles, from around 1959 to 1968. The original REDD.47 was a central component of the console and amplified almost every stage of the audio path: mic and line inputs, echo sends and monitors.Its punchy, aggressive character marked everything recorded in Studio Two between 1964 and 1968, including many Beatles tracks. Chandler’s version adds more gain and ranges from pristine clean sound to rich, saturated tone with up to 2% harmonic distortion before clipping, enough to reproduce the distortion heard on “Revolution”.

The Germanium Pre Amp/DI is an entirely new design by Wade Goeke for Chandler Limited, using classic germanium transistors in an all class A, transformer-balanced circuit. Germanium transistors were the basis of the earliest transistor designs by Neve (1053, 1055, 1057), EMI (TG12345 MKI), Telefunken and Fairchild, and anyone who has worked with those units knows their special sound.The circuit runs on +40 V with high current and has huge headroom, up to +34 before clipping. The sound is warm and smooth, and it settles into the mix without fighting the other tracks. Chandler’s custom-wound transformers combine the best parts of favourite St Ives and Gardners transformers.

The TG Channel MKII, now named TG12411 by Chandler Limited, combines two classic circuits: Wade Goeke’s TG2 preamp and an equalizer redesigned from the TG12410 Transfer Console, the mastering counterpart of the original “Beatles desks”. The renaming came with no change to the circuit.The active sections use the same discrete amplifiers and transformers as the TG1 Limiter and TG2. The passive EQ is an all-inductor design with sweet highs, large lows and a very narrow mid cut. Its sound compares closely with Pultec and Lang program EQs. Put simply, a “TG Pultec” with a TG preamp thrown in.

The TG2-500 recreates the rare EMI TG12428 preamp from the EMI and Abbey Road recording and mastering consoles of the late ’60s and early ’70s, the sound heard on albums such as The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” and Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon”. For the first time, the legendary TG2 sound is available in 500 Series format.Chandler Limited took the mic preamp and line amplifier of the TG2 Pre Amp/DI, with the same discrete amplifiers and transformers of the TG series, and fitted them into a 500 Series module without changing the sound: creamy and smooth, with warmth, punch and a surprisingly open top end.

The Germ 500 MKII is Chandler Limited’s well-known Germanium preamp adapted for 500 Series racks. It uses classic germanium transistors in class A, transformer-balanced circuits, with the same transformers and amplifier blocks as the rack version, so the sound is the same: thick and creamy.The MKII updates the original Germ 500 with an improved faceplate layout and a new look. The power section was also upgraded, so the module starts up without issues in current lunchboxes and racks. Chandler has tested it in racks from API, BAE, A-Designs, Purple and Empirical Labs.

The Little Devil Pre Amp is a discrete, transformer-balanced 500 Series module that combines Wade Goeke’s designs with studio favourites of the past. Its class A gain stage sounds like no other Chandler Limited design: big, yet open and full of life.Almost every parameter of the sound can be changed, including the amplifier’s Feedback and Bias. Feedback increases harmonics dramatically across its range, and the way the circuit clips changes from soft class A to super-soft, tube-like behaviour. The sound ranges from heavily coloured and “overbiased” to gently coloured and in-your-face.

The Little Devil Compressor is a discrete, transformer-balanced 500 Series module that combines Wade Goeke’s designs with studio favourites of the past. It draws on Chandler Limited’s LTD-2 and Germanium Compressor, as well as the 2264 and 33609, to create an entirely new compressor.Discrete transformer sound and handmade construction are at its core. Controls such as wet/dry mix, sidechain filter and curve selection make it extremely flexible, and together with its intense tone they deliver a powerful tool in a small box.

The TG Opto is a handmade, fully discrete, mono, double-width 500 Series compressor. It is a relative of the TG1 Opto found in Chandler Limited’s TG Microphone Cassette, TG1 Limiter and Zener Limiter, and its lineage goes back to the EMI TG12413 limiters of the TG12345 mixing and mastering consoles of the late ’60s and early ’70s.Chandler Limited is the only company in the world authorised to develop, manufacture and market the “Official Equipment” of EMI and Abbey Road. With the TG Opto, the TG2-500 preamp and the TG12345 MKIV equalizer you can build a complete TG console channel in a 500 Series rack.

The TG12345 MKIV is a handmade, fully discrete, mono, single-slot equalizer for 500 Series racks. It inherits from Chandler Limited’s TG Microphone Cassette and flagship TG12345 Curve Bender, and its heritage goes back to the input and group channel equalizers of the historic EMI TG12345 consoles of the late ’60s and early ’70s.Its controls include presence and bass bands with continuous boost and cut, plus true bypass. Its character is silky smooth and the sound Curve Bender sweet. Together with the TG2-500 and TG Opto it forms an EMI TG console channel in a 500 Series rack.

The Little Devil EQ is a discrete, transformer-balanced 500 Series module that combines Wade Goeke’s designs with studio favourites of the past. It is a small package with a huge sound: a Chandler-ised British console sound in 500 format.It features all-discrete circuits with custom transformers, an inductor-based EQ that modern gyrator circuits can’t touch, and a classic Baxandall tone control that sounds simply huge. Every unit is handmade with through-hole components and hand wiring, with no surface-mount parts, the way favourite vintage units were built.

The REDD Microphone is the first new EMI-badged microphone in over half a century. It continues a tradition of innovation dating back to the early ’30s and Alan Blumlein, the father of stereo, and was designed by Chandler Limited founder and chief designer Wade Goeke.It is a large-diaphragm valve condenser that combines microphone and preamp in a single handcrafted device: the valve REDD.47 circuit is coupled directly to a custom handmade platinum membrane capsule. It can be used with or without an external preamp. Its look is classic, but it is not a clone or derivative of any other microphone, and it is protected by patent.

The TG12345 Curve Bender is the ultimate TG equalizer, released for the 75th anniversary of Abbey Road Studios. It was designed by Chandler Limited’s Wade Goeke based on the EMI TG12345 console used to record The Beatles and Pink Floyd, and continues the tradition of EMI equalizers from the 1954 RS57 to the 1969 TG12345 and the 1974 TG12412.The nine selections of the vintage version became 51 EQ points, with a multiply switch that raises boost and cut up to ±13.5 dB and sharpens the Q. The high and low bands offer bell or shelf selection, and high-pass and low-pass filters complete a stereo tool that covers both mixing and mastering.

The TG12413 Zener Limiter was designed by Chandler Limited’s Wade Goeke for the 75th anniversary of Abbey Road Studios and is based on the EMI circuits used to record The Beatles and Pink Floyd. It continues a lineage that starts with the RS114 valve limiter of 1954 and runs through the 1968 RS168 Zener Limiter, the TG12345 console channel and the 1974 TG12413.Chandler kept the sound of the TG circuits and added the control a modern studio needs: switchable input impedance, an 11-position attack, a 21-position release, a sidechain filter and three operating characters, Comp 1, Comp 2 and Limit. The result is a stereo dynamics processor that moves from discreet compression to hard limiting and deliberate colour while keeping its tight, warm signature.

The TG Microphone Type L is a phantom-powered, cardioid, large-diaphragm condenser microphone designed by Chandler Limited with EMI Abbey Road Studios. As the name implies, it descends from the TG Microphone and inherits its core circuitry, capsule and Dual Tone System.Beyond that it goes its own way: it is tuned for its own sound and voicings. It has a bigger sound than a typical solid-state microphone and was designed as a studio workhorse, able to rival scenarios where the C12, C414, FET47, U67 and U87 are favoured, and even to replace the combination of a dynamic and a ribbon microphone on guitar cabinets.

The REDD.47 began life as the microphone amplifier of EMI's REDD.51 console at Abbey Road, and its character — dense, forward, with a controlled aggression through the midrange — became one of the recognisable signatures of the recordings made on it. The Special Edition is not a cosmetic variation on the current REDD.47: Wade Goeke builds each unit around 53 vintage components collected over years, including Piher, ISKRA, Beyschlag and ERO/Roederstein resistors and Siemens, Wima and Mullard «tropical fish» capacitors — the same parts found inside original EMI equipment.What it adds over the standard REDD.47The front panel layout follows the logic of the original REDD console cassettes and carries the new lighted EMI sign. Beyond the aesthetics, this edition incorporates three sections taken directly from the REDD.51 console: Input Sensitivity, Line Input and Bass Lift with 10 dB of low-frequency boost. The signal path remains the core REDD.47 path — EF86 and E88CC valves, transformer-balanced input and output on custom wound transformers, +57 dB total gain with stepped Pre Amp Gain from 16 to 52 dB and Fine Gain of ±5 dB.

The Mini Rack Mixer applies Chandler's work on the discrete EMI TG circuits of the 1960s and 1970s to a unit built to operate inside a modern digital environment. It is not a passive summing box. Each of the 16 channels is transformer balanced and driven by Chandler's own line amp, and the unit as a whole contains 20 discrete amplifiers and 22 transformers wound specifically for it. The result at the summing stage is greater depth and separation between the elements of a mix, with the character of the transformers added on every individual channel rather than only across the final stereo pair.A control room in a single unitBeyond summing, the Mini Rack Mixer also handles monitor control. It provides Talkback with its own microphone input, switching between two pairs of speakers, Mute, Mono and Dim, plus an external input that doubles as an insert point. The Control Room and Stereo Buss outputs are independent and set by stepped controls, so levels can be recalled precisely. The Time Constant section offers seven stepped settings that change the time-domain behaviour of the circuit. The unit occupies 5 U in a 19-inch rack and is powered by the external PSU-2.

The PSU-2 is the external power supply Chandler Limited designed specifically for the Mini Rack Mixer. The mixer has no internal power supply and will not operate without it. The external design is a deliberate choice: it removes the mains transformer and rectification from the same chassis as the mixer's 22 signal windings and 20 discrete amplifiers, limiting magnetic coupling and the noise that would otherwise end up in the audio path.What it providesThe unit delivers 3 A of continuous current at 28 VDC, with enough margin to supply every stage of the mixer reliably even at high levels. It accepts mains voltage from 110 to 230 VAC at 50 or 60 Hz and has an internal switch for selecting between 120 V and 220 V, so the same unit can be used across different markets. Compared with the previous version, Chandler has upgraded the capacitors and the voltage regulators.