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which compressor

bbe

bbe

Nov 6, 2006
265
1
35
Brooklyn, NY
#1
i need a compressor for recording drums, percussion, vocals, bass, guitar, and saxophone. i am looking into these three because they are all in my price range. can someone here tell me which of these if best for recording.

BBE MaxCom
Behringer T1952 Tube Compresser
dbx 166XL Dual Compressor Limiter
Alesis 3630 Dual-Channel Compressor/Limiter


and which of these would work best doubling as a comp for my bass rig aswell?
 
#2
bbe said:
i need a compressor for recording drums, percussion, vocals, bass, guitar, and saxophone. i am looking into these three because they are all in my price range. can someone here tell me which of these if best for recording.

BBE MaxCom
Behringer T1952 Tube Compresser
dbx 166XL Dual Compressor Limiter
Alesis 3630 Dual-Channel Compressor/Limiter

and which of these would work best doubling as a comp for my bass rig aswell?
Click to expand...

The DBX is likely the best of that bunch... I have one myself and it's decent, but not great. No experience with the BBE. The Alesis is pretty much junk (used to have one), though there are some fairly cheap mods out there that make them passable. Not familiar with that model of Behringer, but I had a Composer about 8 years ago, and that was pretty much useless as well.

The FMR RNC is cheaper than the DBX 166XL and would probably blow everything in that list pretty much out of the water in most applications. It's not pretty, but it's the best compressor you'll find for the $$$. Apparently, there can be some issues with distortion or even a lack of bass on bass with them at certain settings... I hadn't spent enough time with one to really experience it myself... but they do sound really good on most everything.

Do you need 2-channels/stereo? The DBX 160A can be a good overall option as well... but it's only single channel and costs a bit more than your previously mentioned. Symetrix 501 (also mono) might be worth a look... I've seen people rave about those for bass. Also, some of the Joe Meek stuff (3Q or an MC2) might be worth a look as well... I use a TwinQ quite often and it works quite well on bass.

I'd recommend looking around used maybe so you can get more for less rather than buying something budget that will give you lesser results. There are a bunch of pro audio boards out there with classifieds, and there's always ebay too.
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c
 
#6
bbe said:
alrite. ill definantly look into the FMR, but can anyone here tell me how the ART TCS Twin Tube Compressor is?
Click to expand...

I'd be leary of any compressor that has "tube" in its name that's in the $250 or less range (or even less than $1000)... especially one that claims to do most everything under the dynamics sun (compress, gate, expand, limit, de-ess). You know what they say. Jack of all trades, master of none.

Good tubes are usually somewhat expensive... so how good could the one used in a budget compressor really be? On the plus side, swapping the tubes in such things to a better one will sometimes improve the sound a bit. Also, budget compressors generally use cheaper VCA's which are noisier and don't perform as well sonically. The ART stuff prety much falls in the same range as Alesis. With mods, they can be decent.

Some other suggested names that you should look for in the used market besides Symetrix are Rane, Drawmer, Ashly, and Aphex. Search around on some sites like Invalid Link Removed or http://www.tapeop.com/ or Invalid Link Removed and you'll have a better idea of what and what not to look for.

As with everything, you get what you pay for, though there are some gems out there that won't cost you a mint... especially if you go used. For the money, new you'll be hard pressed to beat the RNC.
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c
 
#8
http://www.carvin.com/products/single.php?ItemNumber=CG200&CID=PROC

I use this for my bass and it is an amazing compressor. I like the fact that it's a two channel so you can set up one channel the way you like and then you can go to channel two and mess around to see if you can get something better, if it goes south, just switch back to channel one. It doesnt color your sound unless you have the ratio maxed out then it will color your sound pretty hard. it's got an independant 6db boost for both channels, plus a nice output gain that really does its job. The sound gate really helps out when you are standing there between songs so you dont get any kind of noise from either pickup hum or string noise from moving around. chack it out and look at the manual, it goes into more detail than the main page does.
 
#10
seamonkey said:
Are you using a PC or Mac to record?
There's many VST Compressor plugins,
About all the recording software comes with one.
There are many flavors from free to top notch commercial ones. The algorithms are solid.

Here's some free ones that are interesting:
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http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=5
Link Removed
Click to expand...

Probably depends what he's trying to do... you can't compress before you hit your pres/inteface with software plugs for tracking. Plus, he wanted something he could use with his live bass rig.

I'd have to say, even though there are some very good software compressors, the real hardware versions will probably always be better.
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c
 

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