_Rhea
Where modern age meets vintage
Stereo vari-mu tube compressor with digital recall
_Rhea
Fully analog, stereo vari-mu tube compressor with digital recall.
Since digital footprint became part of the modern age, analog flavor was demanded more than ever. It is hard to imagine more musical and rich sounding compression than vari-mu desgin. This time ng500 line presents _RHEA – most noble of all, where modern age meets vintage, literally.
Regardless its digital control features, _RHEA is fully analog unit.
Audio signal is processed only via analog components!
Main Features
_RHEA stereo vari-mu tube compressor
ANALOG SOUND, DIGITAL CONTROL
Regardless its digital control features, _RHEA is fully analog unit.
True tube compression
_RHEA is true tube compressor, where gain reduction is literally implemented via tube circuit. As vari-mu design is feed backward compression, its behavior is known for amazing musical results!
Interstage transformers
To properly integrate tubes into modern audio levels, just before signal is passed to the tubes, transformers are doing its magic! And that strongly emphasize the low end!
Mix knob for parallel compression
With MIX knob at your disposal, parallel compression has never been simpler to achieve!
With _RHEA your MIX setting can be automated in your DAW. Did You ever wanted to push your compressor harder in chorus? Nothing simpler! Just record automation using touch sensitive encoder, or draw your automation lines in DAW!
THD – add color to your mixes
Side chain filters
_RHEA Side chain filter functionality allows to modify signal going into the compressor’s detector.
It includes 3 high pass filters at 60,90 and 150 Hz.
500 series and ng500 series compatible
Regardless its extensions, _RHEA is fully compatible unit with 500 series standard (*). Digital features can be enabled through front panel mini USB socket.
ng500 – Next Generation 500 series is a physical extension to 500 series, which makes _RHEA fully compatible with _TITAN frame – this allows to control all devices in chassis through one USB/Ethernet cable.
* Important note about 500 series extension: ng500
Hardware A/B
Even using _RHEA as pure analog signal processor you can easily switch between two parallel settings with a magic of a simple buttons.
Total recall and plugin control
Along with classic analog compressor You receive most demanded feature in audio industry – TOTAL RECALL.
Full plugin control through VST2/VST3/AU/AAX/AAX DSP – makes _RHEA compatible with most, if not all major DAWs.
Total integration with your beloved DAW will change your workflow forever!
Analog automation
I’m sure all of us wanted to use different device settings based on song section. Now it is possible! Just draw automation lines in your DAW and your analog device will follow!
And remember, you can use four touch sensitive encoders to record automation TO your DAW!
Main features summary:
Other features:
APP FOR MAC AND PC
Digital control features for fully analog units.
Specification
_Rhea specification
| Frequency response | 10Hz-150kHz (-3dB) |
| THD+N < 0.03% (1kHz,0dBu) | no compression |
| THD+N >= 1% | at maximum compression level |
| Input impedance | 20kohm |
| Output impedance | < 100ohm |
| Max signal level | +24dBu |
| Crosstalk | < -80dB |
| THD (MID switch) | 1% |
| THD (HIGH switch) | 3% |
| Attack | 0.5,1,3,10,30,50 (ms) |
| Release | 0.1,0.3,0.6,0.9,1.8,3.6 (s) |
| SC Filter | 60,90,150 Hz |
| Power consumption | 190mA per rail |
| Dimensions | 76x133x158mm |
| Box dimensions | 105x162x234mm |
| Unit weight | 0.95 kg |
| Box weight | 1,2 kg |
| Warranty | 2 years |
User Manual
_RHEA VIDEO STORIES
Watch the product videos
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
If the module doesn’t react to any changes to the knobs on the front panel, the first necessary step is to rewrite firmware into the flash memory (Factory reset procedure re-writes firmware into internal flash memory – it doesn’t affect anyhow unit configuration). To proceed with factory reset, please follow below steps:
- Connect unit either:
- Through front panel USB socket,
- Or keep the unit in ng500 chassis – _TITAN, but please note that chassis has to be connected to the PC/MAC either via USB or Ethernet cable.
- POWER OFF your 500 series chassis.
- Depends on the product please press following front panel control:
- _MIMAS – RATIO button,
- _DIONE – RATIO button,
- _RHEA – THD button,
- _PROMETHEUS – HIGH CUT encoder (top-right encoder),
- _HYPERION – LMF GAIN encoder,
- _CALYPSO – MENU encoder.
- While keeping this control (button/encoder) pressed, POWER ON your 500 series chassis.
- LEDs should present a strange pattern.
- Now open GConManager:
- WIN: C:/Program Files (x86)/WesAudio/GConManager.exe
- MAC: /Applications/WesAudio/GConManager.app
- Or click on the WesAudio “Tray” icon, and select “Open GConManager”
- Go to _UPGRADE application.
- Hit start!
If the module doesn’t react to any changes to the knobs on the front panel, the first necessary step is to rewrite firmware into the flash memory (Factory reset procedure re-writes firmware into internal flash memory – it doesn’t affect anyhow unit configuration). To proceed with factory reset, please follow below steps:
- Connect the unit to either USB or Ethernet.
- POWER OFF your unit.
- Depends on the product please press following front panel control:
- ngBusComp – far left Ratio on Channel 1 (Ratio “-”),
- ngLEVELER – use a small screwdriver and press button available on the rear panel via a small hole in the chassis.
- While keeping this control (button/encoder) pressed, POWER ON your unit.
- LEDs should present a strange pattern.
- Now open GConManager:
- WIN: C:/Program Files (x86)/WesAudio/GConManager.exe
- MAC: /Applications/WesAudio/GConManager.app
- Or click on the WesAudio “Tray” icon, and select “Open GConManager”
- Go to _UPGRADE application.
- Hit start!
This is a very common issue and in most cases the root cause lies in the connection of the unit and audio interface. If that happens it should be checked if audio interface input isn’t connected to the chassis input and if audio interface output isn’t connected to chassis output. As this initially would seem to be entirely wrong and shouldn’t work at all, as all our units implement “True Bypass” via relays, the unit will pass a signal when the bypass is engaged. The reason for that is that the relay is in fact hard wiring input to the output, and thus the unit will pass the signal, as it doesn’t go through any active circuit of the unit.
This is actually how it is supposed to work, so after the plug-in instance is created, please use a small triangle button which usually is on the bottom side of the plug-in and select proper HW ID from the drop down menu. If the drop down menu doesn’t list any hardware units, please check Your connectivity and other possible root causes in this FAQ.
This is a wide topic, and there may be at least several root causes, but there are few things that should be checked. However, the first and most important thing is to double check that GConManager doesn’t list this device in the _CONFIG app. If this is the case, it means that WesAudio unit can’t connect on the OS level, and some of the below steps may help:
- First of all double check if module connection is properly executed, this procedure is described here.
- USB specification indicates that USB 2.0 works up to 5 meters. This is however not entirely true, as it strongly depends on the peripherals that unit is connected to. Even if our modules are USB 2.0 compatible, your USB port could support USB 3.0 – USB is a backward compatible protocol, so it may be that USB 3.0 cable length limit should be considered which is 2 meters. We would recommend having a USB cable up to 2 meters to remove those limitations from the equation.
- USB HUB is very common root cause to those problems, if module can’t connect via HUB – just for the sake of the test, it is mandatory to connect unit directly to PC/MAC to verify if the problem isn’t caused by it.
- Please note any system warnings attached to “WesAudio Tray Icon”.
As USB controllers have limited capacity it could be a reason for random unit disconnection. Usually, it happens when a lot of USB devices are plugged into the PC/MAC. The usual behavior would be that the unit works normally, and after reboot it doesn’t, but it strongly depends on the OS implementation so exact reaction could be a little bit different. If this is suspected, just for the test, it would be good to disconnect most of the devices from the USB ports, reboot PC/MAC and double check the connectivity from stability point of view. If it leads to the conclusion that this is the root cause of the problem, we would recommend using a decent USB hub, and ideally a TB/USB dock station which tends to offload a lot of responsibilities from our PC/MAC.
If the unit was working fine, and suddenly it couldn’t connect (it is not visible in the GConManager _CONFIG app) that could lead to the conclusion that some devices were added to our USB line, and we could have problems with the USB controller inside PC/MAC. In that case please check the description in the above “Unit disconnects by itself”.
GConManager in Admin mode enables special functionalities which are used during WesAudio units calibration.
OSX:
- Please open terminal.
- Copy-Paste following command:
open /Applications/WesAudio/GConManager.app --args --admin
WINDOWS:
- Go to “START” and open “Command Line”.
- copy paste this command:
"c:\Program Files (x86)\WesAudio\GConManager.exe" --admin
