Pulsar Modular has introduced a new compressor plugin which aims to deliver attitude, aggression and power.
A collaboration with Marc Daniel Nelson, P252 MDN Diode emulates a 1968 Neve 2252, a short-lived germanium diode-bridge design built around a feedback topology in which the compressor output is routed back into its own detector.
Marc tracked down an extremely rare Neve 2252, purchased from a former tech of London’s Wessex Studios, the room behind the defining punk records of the 1970s and 80s from The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Pretenders, Queen and many more. This unit was there for all of it.
The 2252 is a 1968 Rupert Neve design built around a germanium diode bridge. It ran for one short production window before germanium gave way to silicon. Too unpredictable for the broadcast engineers of its day, it became something else entirely in the right hands: explosive, firm, full of character. Nothing sounds like it.
After nearly two years of development, that unit is now the P252 MDN Diode. Not a static curve or an impulse response. The whole moving system, signal, feedback path, detector, diode stage and timing all reacting to each other, modeled algorithmically and tuned by ear.
Available to purchase for $165 USD, P252 MDN Diode comes in VST3, AU and AAX formats for Windows and macOS. A fully functional 15 day trial is available to try the plugin.
More information: Pulsar Modular
