Hairball Audio 1176 Compressors
Seven hand-built and modified 1176s spanning multiple revisions, including four Rev A units. Different flavors of the same classic available across the studio.
This isn’t a museum. It’s a working collection assembled over twenty years of making records custom builds, modified classics, rare vintage pieces and modern tools, all of it chosen because it does something we needed on a session.
57 drums & cymbals · 93 pedals · 51 microphones · 40 compressors · 28 guitars & basses · 19 amp heads · 22 EQs
More than forty pieces in this building were built, modified or voiced here. It started as a way to afford gear we couldn’t buy, and turned into the reason Panda records don’t sound like everyone else’s.
Seven hand-built and modified 1176s spanning multiple revisions, including four Rev A units. Different flavors of the same classic available across the studio.
One in every room. Panda’s go-to vocal microphone, assembled and tuned here.
Eight hand-built API-style mic preamps with custom op-amps, built at Panda.
Hand-built at Panda, and genuinely one of our favorite preamps. Neve-style warmth, thick and free to use with the room.
A large-diaphragm condenser built and voiced in-house.
A build of the classic British console compressor circuit. Nothing else in the racks behaves like it.
Cabinets built under our own name, loaded and voiced here.
Eight modified 57s. The standard mic everyone owns, rewound to do something nobody else’s does.
An LA-3A-style optical compressor, built in-house for vocals and bass.
Rare finds, signature tools, and the drums. Not the most expensive things here the most useful.
Among the most serious and expensive individual analog pieces in the building, and tools Panda genuinely uses. The fact that there are two is part of the story.
A first-of-its-kind custom iPad-controlled system for instantly auditioning combinations of eight amp heads and eight cabinets without repatching. Change the entire guitar rig in seconds while the artist keeps playing.
Diezel VH4, Soldano SLO-100, Bogner Helios and a Peavey 5150, plus the rest of the authoritative Panda West lineup. Any tone from any era of heavy music.
Fifty-one mics including an AEA R88 stereo ribbon, Josephson E22S pair, 1960s Reslo ribbon, four Shure Unidyne III 545SGs and a United FET47.
2× MEQ-500 and 2× EXP-500X. Four complementary Pultec-style EQs we reach for constantly for broad shaping, tone, and finishing.
Four of them. The most versatile compressor made, everything from gentle to completely destroyed.
Twelve channels of SSL EQ. Enough to run a full drum kit through the same console EQ that defined modern rock records.
The most recorded EQ in history, in 500-series form.
The stereo bus compressor most engineers reach for first, on tap for tracking or mixing.
A stereo ribbon mic built for room and ambience capture, the kind of sound you can’t fake after the fact.
A modern take on classic optical compression, built for vocals that need to sit still without sounding squeezed.
A tactile control surface for mixing, faders and all, when a mouse gets in the way of a decision.
A British broadcast limiter from the 1970s. Aggressive, musical, and almost impossible to find working.
Tape echo, chorus and spring reverb in one box. Every repeat degrades a little more, which is the point.
The definitive analogue polysynth. Pads, bass, and that chorus.
Real tape-replay sounds. Flutes, strings, choir, unstable in the way that makes records sound human.
Exactly what it sounds like.
Put the source where it sounds best and the gear where it is easiest to work. Panda’s rooms are interconnected through flexible routing and calibrated interfaces, making signal chains interchangeable across the facility. An amp head can live in the West control room while its cabinet runs in the East live room, without rebuilding the session.
One in every room, with two in Panda West. The same high-end preamp and EQ platform is available across the facility, letting signal chains translate consistently between rooms. Also listed under EQ.
Multiple EverTune-equipped instruments covering different pickup types and tonal options, single-coil, humbucker and bass-oriented, rather than forcing every record through one guitar sound.
Kick sizes from 18 to 26 inch, toms from 12 to 18. Shell size and tuning get chosen around the key, register, tuning and feel of the song, not one fixed drum configuration for everything.
24-inch kick, 13-inch rack, 16-inch floor. Loud, bright, and built to be hit hard.
14x6.5. Heavy bronze, enormous crack, and more sustain than you’ll usually want.
Everything here is included with the room unless specifically noted otherwise. Staffing and any specialty rentals are quoted separately.
Nothing matches that search. Ask us the list isn’t everything.
Looking for something not listed? We have backline, spares and oddities that never made it onto this page ask and we’ll tell you.
Every piece on this page is available with your session. Bring fresh strings and drum heads we’ll handle the rest.
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