Gregory Scott's Kush Audio has done their 10,000 hours when it comes to designing audio compressors. It was a decade ago that Kush released the UBK-1 [Tape Op #86] hardware unit and subsequent plug-in, which became an immediate go-to for my mix sessions in any style. Since then, they've continued to surprise me with "I can't believe my ears" plug-in compressors like Silika [#140] and the AR-1 [#136]. Kush has mastered the top shelf craft of digital dynamics plug-ins that sound excitingly analog. Enter the Tweezer, which is currently only available in an out of the box hardware design. Can such an attractively priced piece of gear rival the excitement and character of much more expensive-sounding digital brethren from the same audio house?
As a 500 Series unit, the Tweezer draws on Kush's past design experience to narrow down a few essential controls that deliver a lot of power, range, and flexibility without feeling cramped at all. This unit is an audio chameleon. For starters, there are Attack, Release, and Threshold controls, plus a variable ratio (via the Curve knob) that ranges from a gentle 1.5:1 to a satisfyingly steep 30:1. These all work as expected, and never felt tricky to dial in for the required job. We could stop there at this price, and this workhorse would be a worthy purchase for any studio, but that's not even half of what the Tweezer offers.
Each unit is sold with a stereo link cable that fits through a little hole in the PCB, making it easy to connect a neighboring Tweezer in the next slot of your 500 Series chassis. The link is then engaged with the push of a button for quick auditioning. I found myself toggling the stereo link a lot for piano and drums. Very few of my studio's stereo compressors allow me to unlink the circuit, so when I have the chance to audition in stereo versus dual mono, my ears often surprise me. Dual mono can sound so exciting – except when it doesn't. With a pair of Tweezers, I don't have to reach for the patchbay to find out.
However, the most exciting feature of the Tweezer is its tone. The first knob at the top is called "Drive," which sets saturation from the VCA circuit. Twisting it is satisfying in the same way as turning the throttle on a well-tuned '70s motorcycle – even without sunglasses, adding vibe to whatever you're tracking. And the vibe is really where the Tweezer shines. With less Drive, it's perfectly capable of clean-sounding VCA compression, but it's fun to dial in extreme settings that bring forward all the sauce in your drum room, then dial it back with the Blend knob to something that plays nice with the rest of your mix. Again, not having to reach for a patch cable to switch to parallel compression makes me much more likely to try it out.
The Tweezer sounds incredible for vocals. I landed a formula where I use both of my Tweezers in serial. First, I push the drive up to the sweet spot on one compressor, and then use a medium-fast Attack/Release setting with a rather aggressive amount of compression. This places the vocal out in front of your mix in a very thick yet clear and intimate way. Next, the signal feeds into the second Tweezer, where I leave the Drive down and brighten the sidechain with the Contour knob, setting the compressor for subtle transparent control triggered by harsher upper frequencies, not unlike a de-esser. This Contour feature allows me to use shelving filters to control the response of the Tweezer's detection circuit. The Tweezer is easy to use and can sound as colorful or transparent as I want. At this price point, Kush Audio has a potential classic on its hands.
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