Rupert Neve Designs 535 Shop all Rupert Neve Designs

The 535  is a punchy, thick and versatile diode bridge compressor that captures the soul of Rupert Neve’s original 2254 compressor while providing modern updates including advanced timing control, significantly lower noise, fully stepped controls throughout, and internal parallel processing capabilities.

Originally developed for the dynamics circuit of the acclaimed Shelford Channel, the 535 is outfitted with Rupert Neve Designs’ custom transformers and class-A output amplifiers, all tailor-made for the popular 500-series format. 

Where the VCA compressor found in the 543 and Master Buss Processor provides unmatched clarity, the weighty, harmonically rich tonality of diode bridge compression can be essential in pushing key sources like vocals, electric guitars, bass and drums to the forefront of a mix. Mr. Rupert Neve’s original diode bridge compressors like the 2254 served as an inspiration for the design of the 535. By understanding the limitations of the original 2254 topology, painstaking effort was taken to reproduce the unique tone of the 2254 while improving the noise floor, expanding inflexible time constants, adding full wave sidechain detection for improved dynamic response, widening the range of threshold and ratio controls, and raising the headroom of the diode bridge itself.

Almost 50 years after Mr. Rupert Neve created his first diode bridge compressor designs, the 535 reimagines the larger-than-life personality of these classic circuits with new levels of precision and adaptability, helping virtually any track shine through a mix.