Why it mattered
- 01
Blackmer's low-noise VCA made feed-forward RMS compression practical, with timing that followed the programme automatically.
- 02
It became a reference for drum and vocal compression on tour and in studios.
Engineering record
- Gain element
- Blackmer gain cell (dbx 200-series VCA)[1]
Original pricing
No reliable period price located
2026 equivalent
Not calculated without a reliable original price.
Public price evidence was not sufficient to publish a defensible original figure.
Use in the field
No named deployment could be tied to this exact item by a checked source yet. Know of one? Suggest it on the contribute page.
Professional reactions
Later recollection · 2015
Garay remembered the original hardware as behaving almost as if it had a high-pass sidechain filter when compressing drums, with little distortion. This is his subjective account of the original 160, not a claim that it contained such a filter.
Manuals & original documents
No authoritative manual or original document has been located for this profile.
Contribute to the record
Know more about 160 compressor/limiter?
Corrections, firsthand information, original documents, and credited photograph sources are welcome.