In early 1995 the American company PRESONUS appeared with the award-winning DPC-8, and since then it has kept to a philosophy of producing gear of proven quality at a reasonable price. The company is headed by Jim Odom, an internationally renowned sound engineer and the true architect of its success.
The BLUEMAX went on sale two years later, earning very good reviews and, at the same time, strong sales all over the world. The direct consequence of this success is that the model is still being made seven years later without any noticeable changes, not even cosmetic ones, becoming a true home studio classic, although that doesn’t stop us from looking for its place in other applications.
DESCRIPTION
The BLUEMAX is a stereo (not dual mono) half-rack compressor with a built-in power supply and a 16-position preset system in addition to manual control, where we have input and output gain, compression ratio, attack, release, a bypass switch, and gain reduction and input or output level meters, selectable from the front panel.
On the back we find the IEC power inlet, with the voltage preset at the factory, balanced inputs and outputs on jacks, an unbalanced sidechain input, also on a jack, and finally the power switch. The overall impression is of a solid, well-built finish, with metal-shaft Alpha potentiometers and good screen printing; the knobs are decent and the connectors a little poor.
Opening the case, we find a circuit of SMD components, very nicely laid out, the main standout being the VCA from THAT Corporation, a component manufacturer spun off from DBX and probably the only one that supplies quality VCAs at a reasonable price. Power is handled by a very good-looking ferrite transformer. The overall impression is of well-designed equipment and quality components, saving money by simplifying the assembly process and keeping cosmetic details to a minimum, which leaves us with a price, before VAT, of 275.00 euros, which, as you will read below, is quite good.
IN OPERATION
The little BLUEMAX is not so small when it comes to sound, quite the opposite. Using it in the studio, you forget that it’s a product under 300 euros and feel you have plenty of room to work. It reminds me a lot of the DBX 160, maybe a bit darker, but with a feeling of great purity at high compression, clean in its sound and precise to use. The preset positions are enormously helpful live, when we have to face sound checks with very little time. Of these "presets," I especially liked the percussion ones, which delivered a crushing kick drum with the classic D112; in the fretted position the bass sounded very natural, so you may suddenly find yourself with a BLUEMAX in your rack. The three keyboard positions turned out to be quite accurate, though for my taste I would have tightened the attack a bit more, and I found the effects ones slightly exaggerated, since I’m not very inclined to push the dynamics of effects, especially if you’re going to squeeze the overall mix afterward. For the latter we have two positions, useful but risky if the mix is meant for anything more than a demo, unless we use low compression ratios. In short, it’s a convenient, very fast feature with which anyone can learn to use compressors, especially since the preset parameters are listed in the manual, so you can then fine-tune in manual mode to reach very good results.
Working in the studio on vocal takes with my C12, you notice the difference between the PRESONUS and more expensive high-end units, but the result in this case is more than defensible, and I don’t just mean demos: if you have some patience, you can achieve finished results with great presence and a "big" sound.
CONCLUSION
The little BLUEMAX is not as small as it might have seemed at the start of the test. It scores high on sound quality and shows great versatility, and you can clearly see that it is a very carefully designed unit. You do end up missing independent controls for each channel, which forces you to work with just one signal, whether mono or stereo, so it is not as cost-effective as it might seem at first; the modest quality of the connectors also lowers its value for money. The unit’s good overall performance makes it the best in its class in my view, and here I have also taken into account the good response of the LED meters, which are very useful and highly accurate. If you are looking for a good compressor, it would be a mistake not to consider the BLUEMAX. It has won me over.
