In times past Big was considered Beautiful. There are quite possibly some areas in which this still applies, Darling, but with regard to home recording equipment Big is simply — big. In the professional world the 19" rack format is likely to reign for some time yet, but for the domestic environment it's just too bulky. How tiring it is to be continually edging your way round the protruding edges of a gargantuan pile of metal casing every time you want to get a special lead or make a cup of the brown stuff.

If we can accept in our hearts that big has ceased to be beautiful, can we conversely get over our conditioning that little is less? Can we do that Brothers and Sisters? I say we can, and that the Boss Micro Rack Series will go some way to helping us do it! Hallelujah! Turn to the person on your left and... on the other hand, just keep reading the magazine, you'll only get thrown off the bus.

Of course, size is not the only angle of appeal here; the likes of dbx, Rebis and Scamp have been making very high spec, compact, rack mounting processors for years with some considerable success. But such compact quality has always brought with it a relatively high price tag which puts it beyond the average homeuser's pocket. At the other end of the market we have the Accessit range, which represents great value but is fairly limited in facilities; and then there's the Vesta Fire series which is also good value and somewhat wider in scope and more comparable to the Boss system in capabilities, but many of their own comprehensive units are still actually in the 13 format.

The Micro Rack Series might well be the much needed missing link between the AMS's and the Accessits. Though slightly larger, they are certainly more like the Accessit units in design. Constructed from high impact matt grey plastic and alloy sheet each unit measures 8-9/16" x 1-13/16" x 6-11/16". Just as with the Accessit range they can either simply be stacked on top of each other — free standing, or 19" rack mounted in pairs using an optional 1U high adaptor.

Power to the Processors

One way of keeping the price and size down is to keep the power supply (mains adaptor) separate to the processors. Once the one adaptor has been connected between the wall socket and the first processor, the others can be powered piggy-back style by interconnection with the first. Keeping the 240 volts bit away from the audio circuits is also a fine measure to take in the avoidance of induced mains hum. It's a good design, and the units remain very stable stacked five high.

All five units in the current range are equipped with both unbalanced 14" jack sockets and phono sockets for inputs and outputs. This is a wonderfully thoughtful inclusion and shows a real insight into the plight of the home recordist, who in general is almost required to be short of the right kind of leads. A switch on the rear panel of each unit switches its audio operating level between -10dB and -20dB which should cater for most equipment designed for home use. Also common to the whole range is a ¼" jack socket to take an 'Effect On/Off' footswitch.

RCL-10 Compressor/Limiter/Expander/Gate

£125

This type of compressor/gate combination device is becoming increasingly common at all levels and really is an indispensable facility. Normally a compressor will be used simply to limit the amount by which an instrument or voice varies in level. Thus applied, it isn't an effect as such and so it is required to be 'transparent'. Very few units (if any) manage to rise above tolerably translucent when used with extreme settings, with the biggest problem being the infamous and much talked of 'Pumping Effect'. This is where the system's background noise is heard to whoosh up and down in volume as the compressor increases and decreases its gain to maintain a constant output level for a wavering input level. As the input signal gets weaker, so the compressor progressively cranks its gain up, thereby giving maximum volume when there's nothing but background noise present: hardly ideal, and very disturbing in quiet passages. By putting an expander/gate after the compressor, you are able to compensate for this by juggling the two threshold levels so that the expander/gate closes down on the noise but lets the actual signal through in its compressed form.

For a small unit, the RCL-10 offers a lot of control. Unlike any of the four other models, this one features an input overload indication LED. This seems to me to be an absolute necessity on all processing equipment, because when your boundless creativity has moved you to interconnect 27 different processors using six different mixer channels and as many auxiliary sends, and distortion sets in — you need Help. If each individual unit doesn't give some indication of its likely sonic purity, you're more or less buggered. Definitely a black mark here — but very easy to correct for the second generation.

Back to the good news, on the compressor/expander section, threshold, compression/expansion ratio, attack and release are all continuously adjustable, as are threshold and decay time on the noise gate. This makes the RCL-10 a very flexible unit considering its price. I wasn't able to avail myself of any spec on this item, and so I'm not sure how fast the attack times will go, but certainly there should be no problem with any but the fastest transients and the unit was smooth and effective for control of voice, guitar and bass. One drawback with compactness is that there's only a limited amount of space for controls etc. It would perhaps be churlish to complain about the absence of an attack time control on the gate, but a very useful effect for home recordists is to be able to take the unrealistically fast attack off the front of a drum machine snare or bass drum; without an attack time control, this isn't possible. However, something that really should have been included is a basic indication of how much compression is taking place. A few LEDs would do the trick, but in the middle of recording someone, especially if they're wavering in level a lot, it's important to be able to keep half an eye on the gain control. Once again, a simple addition for the second generation.

Though I have found fault in a couple of places, the RCL-10 performed well and at the price can be recommended as good value.

RGE-10 Graphic Equaliser

£125

A 10-band graphic offering +/-12dB at single-octave intervals between 31Hz and 16kHz, plus an overall output level control. With black faders on a grey background, the settings could be a little difficult to see in low light, and so Roland have taken the trouble to put a small LED in the centre of each slider.

No big comments here. A reasonably quiet and effective equaliser for the price.

RDD-10 Digital Delay

£200

Offering continuously variable delay times from 0.75ms to 400ms with full modulation and feedback facilities, the RDD-10 is capable of all the standard time domain effects such as flanging/phasing, single repeats, repeat echoes and ADT (automatic double tracking). There are both 'delay only' and 'mix' outputs with the latter allowing you to mix the relative volume of the delay signal via a front panel control — ideal if you don't have the sophistication of auxiliary sends and returns, or are simply using a channel break point. There is also a tone control for the delay component which makes a significant difference to the range of effects.

With a 90dB noise floor and a surprisingly wide 20Hz to 15kHz bandwidth this device is up to most things, as long as you don't need more than 400ms. At £200, it's very good value.

Phasers and Flangers — Time and Time Again

If I had a penny for every time I'd been asked about the difference between a phaser and flanger I'd probably have about 23p, which isn't a great deal; but still the international quest goes on for a generally acceptable and easily consumable definition of the difference. Both are achieved by splitting a signal, applying a varying time delay to one half and then recombining them. This causes what is called a comb filtering effect. Depending on the number of processing stages, relative levels, time positions and the amount and nature of the filtering and feedback applied to each component, different swooshing, tunnelling, graunching effects can be achieved. Flangers tend to provide a coarser, graunchier feel while phasers go more for the resonant swoosh. Both the Boss phaser and flanger have a modulation bus link socket which allows the modulation rate of two units to be linked for stereo operation, in which case a polarity switch allows for a counter-directive swooshing/graunching scenario to be established. Happy thing.

RPH-10 Phaser

£125

Speaking of the resonant swoosh, there's no shortage of it here. This is a very effective phaser and really gets a grip on the sound rather than just creating lots of obstructive swooshing noises around it. It has a full set of modulation and feedback controls and a three-way mode switch which progressively adds more stages to the process producing an increasingly deeper, fuller effect.

Quiet, powerful, simple to use and very effective, it's streets ahead of your average phaser pedal.

RBF-10 Flanger

£125

Again with full modulation feedback controls this is a very powerful flanger making for some really satisfying churnings and so forth. A direct/effect mix control is provided to determine the balance of the rear panel outputs of which there are two sets: 'direct - effect' and 'direct + effect' which of course can be used as the two sides of a stereo pair for a really big swirl.

This is a good flanger at a good price.

And Finally...

If you don't want to mount them in pairs in a 19" rack (and we quite understand) Roland have available their BMR5 rack which is just wide enough to take a single unit across with vertical space for five of the blighters: a complete set, as things stand. The price: around the £50 mark. You don't mind if I call you Mark, do you?

For: Compactness; price/quality
Against: No input overload indication

BOSS MICRO RACK SERIES - RRP: See Review