Decca compressor

The Decca compressors/limiters are bespoke dual-channel dynamics processing units, which were originally built for use at Decca Studios on Broadhurst Gardens (London) during the 1960s/70s, often housed in the studios' cutting rooms and control rooms. The units were all valve (tube) compressors with multiple transformers to enhance a sound, hosting controls for gain, threshold and recovery time as well as stereo linking. The sound of the unit was likened to a Teletronix LA-2A compressor. Only two dozen of these units were made for in-house use at Decca Studios during its time, and very few of these survive to this day.

Peter Gabriel obtained four of the original Decca compressors following the studio's closure in 1980 as part of the Decca console he bought second-hand. But the compressors wouldn't be put to use until overdubbing & mixing Plays Live in 1983, when the Decca desk was customised. The best examples of the Decca compressor would be the So album: it was a part of his vocal chain on the record and also helped create the signature bass sound on "Sledgehammer" along with an SSL mic preamp according to engineer Kevin Killen. The Decca compressors remain at Real World Studios to this day, specifically in Peter's Writing Room studio.

Apart from Peter, producers Daniel Lanois and David Lord (both of whom he worked with) also own a few Decca compressors.