wilser said:
I personally love the Rane DC-24 compressor unit, You can use it to compress your signal two times, stereo or a multiband compressor (lows and highs compressed separately). It is one of the quietest units out there (if not THE quietest). A lot of studios use it for compressing everything even the masters.
I love them both for some of the things they can do.
I hate them both for the things that they can't do.
I hate needing to have both of these in my rack to get what I want.
I wish someone made something that something that combined the best features that these two offer.
Read my comments about my rig from another recent thread:
My current setup, while working OK is quite cumbersome, and frustrating because of that.
 My signal chain after going from a SansAmp RBI to a Rane PE 17 parametric EQ (high and low pass filters set at 8K and 35)
.goes > dbx 166XL (channel 1) with only the noise gate set > Rane DC 24 split band gate/compressor/limiter (where I bypass the noise gates, as well as the limiters, because the ones on the dbx work better) with the crossover split at about 150 Hz
lows compressed at 3.5:1
.highs compressed at about 1.5:1 (split bands recombined to one) > then back into the dbx 166XL (channel 2) where I set the compressor at infinity:1 with fast attack/release to act as a limiter > amp (Stewart 2.1) > cab (Acme Low B4 II). Using the Rane DC 24, I like being able to compress the low bass differently from the upper mid to high frequencies, but I am irritated that the limiters react way too slow to even notice the fast transient peaks (a moderately hard slapped note) and have no adjustments for attack/release (I keep wondering how these limiters are of use in any application???....doesnt a limiter by definition need to clamp down on sharp peaks close to instantaneously??). The attack/release on the compressors is also pre-set (program dependent as the manual says), which is something I wish I had manual control over. And the Rane noise gates are such that even when set at their most sensitive, they will cut off a ringing harmonic or otherwise decaying high pitched note abruptly and prematurely. By contrast, the dbx gates can be set very precisely right down to a zero noise floor with a knob to control the speed of the opening and closing of the gate
.works great for bass.
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So, despite really liking the idea of split-band compression, the limitations of the Rane DC 24 make me want to dump it, and just use the dbx. The shortcoming of the dbx is that even with the adjustable attack and release times set fairly slow, I will hear pumping from time to time especially when I hit a double stop
the lower note will trigger the compressor hard and the higher note kind of drops out noticeably. I am wondering if my dbx 166XL is one of the cheaper models you warned of, and if I should go for another higher quality model of dbx
..? Ashdown now is making a reborn version of the dual band Trace Elliot pedal box compressor, but it also seems to lack the level of control I am looking for.
http://www.ashdownmusic.com/bass/detail.asp?ID=153
Finally, I must say that in consideration off all of this, I am interested by the evolution of the swiss army knife in a single rack space that is being offered in the Presonus Eureka. This $500 unit provides a solid-state preamp with a tube emulation saturation control, parameteric EQ and a compressor that has a side-chain high pass filter (which I suppose allows the highs to go through without compression?)
..and the buzz on the bass forums is good so far. Heard of this one?
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If all of this diatribe is more than you want to think about, no worry, and no need to craft a reply. Im just trying to find the best compression/limiting solution I can.
