Klark Teknik 76-KT

I bought this compressor to use with the Klark Teknik KT2A, as I need 2 outboard comps to track vocals in series. I've had both units for a short bit of time, but for what it's worth, I think they're truly fantastic!

Pros: Right of the bat, SOLID and very sturdy construction. The knobs all feel pretty damn good, the VU meter is great and the whole thing just feels like it could survive quite a beating.

I've had the opportunity to try a UA1176 before, and while the Klark Teknik doesn't yield identical results, it delivers way more than you'd expect from a 200€ 1176 clone. I would love to see this thing compared to the Warm/Stam/Heritage units!

Compared to most 1176s I've tried, the KT76 does feel a BIT more clean than what you'd expect from a character compressor, but there are some subtle qualities it brings out from sound, especially if paired with a solid mic and preamp.

Cons: It is worth mentioning that while the unit performs very well, it can get a bit noisy. Cranked hard enough, there is a audible hiss coming trough and while 99% of the time, I won't be cranking the unit that hard, it's still there and can be bit of a pain.

Another thing I'd like to mention is that for those who don't know what a fixed threshold compressor is, this might be a bit of a pain to learn, since I couldn't really find anything in the manual to indicate that.

Overall, I'm very happy with my KT76, and would recommend it to absolutely anyone. It's great value for money and will give you fantastic results if you can't afford a UA.

I'm utterly amazed at the quality you get for the price and if I did not know about this compressor, I wouldn't be surprised at all if someone told me that it costs double or more the price it sells for.

The compression is very, very close to the real thing, a bit on the cleaner side and doesn't distort as easily but it's incredibly useful for tracking.
The sound remains punchy and present throughout the frequency spectrum no matter how hard you push it.
I initially intended to use it as a tracking compressor only, but I'm definitely finding it very useful while mixing.
All of the knobs have a surprisingly sturdy feel to them.
Again, the quality build is insane for the price.

Highly recommend it!

This does pretty much everything you'd expect an 1176 type unit to do. Build quality is good, (at least externally, I've not needed to open it up). Controls feel nice and solid.

Within sensible operation parameters it's not noisy, although at more extreme settings you might have to tread a bit carefully. That's the same for a lot of this type of unit though. I've found it quick and easy to get decent results when using it with a preamp as part of an input chain, but as an insert on a mix channel or on a send for parallel compression I've found it helps to pay close attention to the level of the signal heading towards the unit's input.

Given the same fairly specific control set, this certainly delivers compression in the style of an 1176 but it perhaps isn't as "characterful" as some similar units so I find myself needing to push it a little bit to achieve some colouration as well as compression. Nevertheless it's a very useful piece of kit and I think it's a big step up from many 1176 style plugins. I've used it on a whole variety of sources and it's given me particularly good results on bass guitar and powerful vocalists, adding both body and bite.

There's little reason to disregard this if you're after this style of compressor. especially when you consider attractive price. I may well get some more!