German manufacturer Tegeler Audio, based in Berlin, has been building high-quality audio gear for years. To some it is an unknown brand, but to others it is a name that has been around for a long time. Carving out a place in the select, exclusive club of premium audio is very hard, and Tegeler never stops making exclusive products at reasonable prices.
Today we have the Crème, a bus compressor and mastering EQ, an all-in-one or 2-in-1 unit. It is a very interesting product in concept. We use these functions every day in the studio, but for one reason or another no other company had offered both in a single box (to the best of my knowledge; if there is one, I apologize).
So let’s take this tool apart. The Tegeler Crème is a two-channel unit with line inputs, designed to work on buses or audio stems (there is no dual-mono option), with a single EQ control set and a single compression control set that act on both channels equally. It comes carefully packed in a wooden box like a pirate’s chest, which already grabs your attention and makes you want to open it even more.
It is a 2U rackmount unit with a built-in power supply that runs on 120V or 240V, although you have to open it up and change the voltage if necessary. The internal construction is good quality, like most products today, with a main board built with surface-mount components.
Now let’s look at its features
One of the things I liked most about the Crème is the ability to change the signal flow order with a single click, switching between EQ/Comp or, if we prefer, Comp/EQ. I really liked this feature, because things do sometimes breathe differently depending on the order, and we all know that in the audio world nothing is written in stone; there is no such thing as right and wrong.
Let’s get to know the EQ
It has two bands, low and high, based on a Pultec, with several selectable frequencies within each band. For the low band we have 20, 30, 60, 100, 140 and 200Hz, while the high frequencies are 10, 12, 16, 18, 20 and 24kHz. The EQ controls are stepped (clicks) at 6dB per octave, up to a maximum of 5dB of gain, which makes it really smooth and pleasant to use.
The compressor
The ratios are 1.5, 2, 4 and 10:1. The threshold control runs from 10 to 0. The attack settings are 0.1, 0.3, 1, 3, 10 and 30ms, while the release settings are 0.1, 0.3, 0.8 and 1.2 seconds. Like the EQ, all the controls are stepped (clicks).
How does it sound?
In short: VERY GOOD.
Now, a little more seriously: everything I ran through the Tegeler Crème really did sound better than when it went in. The quality of both the EQ and the compressor is really good, and the changes can range from subtle to fairly drastic.
It is not the most aggressive compressor or the one with the most color on the market; that is not its intention. The Crème tries to be transparent. It was designed from the start to work on buses, where you don’t always want or need heavy coloration or processing; for that, there are other models and brands. Having a sidechain filter at 60 and 120Hz (plus full range, of course) is very welcome, since depending on the style of music we want to decide whether or not the low end triggers the compressor.
Given that it has a sidechain and the ability to change the signal routing (EQ/Comp or Comp/EQ), I was surprised not to find a bypass for each section, that is, one bypass for the EQ and another for the compressor. There is only a global bypass. That’s a shame, because I think both the EQ and the compressor are worth using on their own for certain jobs. Nothing you can’t work around by raising the compressor threshold or setting the EQ gains to 0, but it would be nice to be able to do a quick A/B by section without touching the controls. I would also have liked the meter to work in the traditional way, that is, showing gain reduction moving from right to left. I imagine (this is my personal opinion) that this is inherited from the famous bus compressor from a famous British brand (you know the one I mean), which works the same way. Nothing major.
Bottom line
The Tegeler Crème is well worth it whether it is your first high-end piece or an addition to your already extensive collection of compressors and EQs; you will surely find a place for it in whatever you need. It has a really competitive price, under two thousand euros, and considering its quality and features, I think it should at least be on the shortlist of anyone hunting for this kind of product.
