Drawmer MX-30

Little is documented about the Drawmer MX-30. Period advertisements indicate it was a dynamics processor aimed at the budget market (Sound on Sound, July 1997, p.147). Period advertisements and reviews say it was a gate/compressor/limiter aimed at the budget end of the professional market (Sound on Sound, July 1997, p.147). Sound on Sound (UK, July 1997, p.147) called it "an exciting breakthrough... a dynamics processor from the world's experts for the price of, well... something rather less." The ad campaign for the MX-30 ran across several 1997-1998 issues and priced it at £225 including VAT every time (Sound on Sound, March 1998, p.219). The tagline read "Buy the Drawmer MX30 at £225. Don't compromise your audio excellence. Choose Drawmer. You can afford it." That suggests it was positioned as an affordable entry point into Drawmer's established signal-path reputation.

Past its price and basic function, no detailed specifications have been preserved in the sources available to the Archive. That covers frequency response, threshold range, attack/release times and input/output configuration. No service manual, schematic or design notes have surfaced. It appears to have been a single-rackspace unit with standard XLR and TRS connections, going by the period studio norm, but no surviving document confirms this.

Type: Dynamics processor (gate/compressor/limiter)
Period advertised: 1997–1998
Original price (UK): £225 inc. VAT
Manufacturer: Drawmer Electronics, UK
Notable: Stressed as carrying Drawmer's "professional industry favourite signal path" at a lower price point