![]() ![]() I also have an Alesis 3630 but I only use it for 8 bit drums from my Drumtraks.In the age of low-cost digital audio workstations (DAW), most editing apps now come with a built-in suite of plugins for a range of applications. They have seriously good build quality, much better than some of the cheaper DBX compressors and are pretty inexpensive on the used market if you look around. I wouldn't use them as buss compressors for recording but I do use them on individual synth signals. They're rack mount compressors made primarily for sound reinforcement but they work great with wild synth signals. Not that there's anything bad about the DBX chips and for taming wild signals I also recommend the DBX 10. They use SSM VCAs and detector chips and I find them to be different and more transparent than the DBX chips found in most cheap compressors. It's no longer made but they show up on the used market a lot. Another great inexpensive compressor is the Rane DC24. I've got a pair of them and they do stereo and mono compression and they are transparent and flexible and overall, the best deal around. I've got quite a few compressors and the best inexpensive compressors are the RNC 1773s. I have two original 19" blackface so I'm settled there, the Soundskulptors however are superbly designed and sound as good as the originals they were inspired/cloned of but for the fraction of the cost especially if you DIY. (I am at a similar stage, looking for compression / limiting options) The cp554 looks like it is more of a Neve inspired processor? ESP has the workings in his VCA article here The main difference is that the dbx202 VCA's are paralleled here (not in the Gyraf version), which I think the originals did as well, I guess to get lower THD. The CP4500 looks like it is a version of the SSL 4000 Series Bus Compressor. Then he also released the Diode Bridge CP554 compressor which sounds REALLY good, I need two now that I have one If you want to go down the rabbit hole of API 500 modules there's some amazing kits available from Soundskulptor out of France, I have his CP4500 Stereo Bus Compressor and the whole things is just sweet spots, pretty amazing. you can experiment with these plug ins to see if compression is really what you "need" to accomplish your sonic goals. also good: TDR Kotelnikov, for much cheaper. ![]() Is there a reason it has to be OTB? good hardware comps cost gobs of money, or you can get Tone Projects Unisum for $200 (less on sale days) and have nearly all your compression needs covered forever. a zero-attack setting on a compressor usually sounds like poop (hence the existence of limiters, which are essentially zero-attack super high ratio compressors with look ahead specifically designed to enforce an absolute ceiling on levels without actually sounding like it's lowering the volume or causing audible distortion). a typical compressor setting has at least a medium-short attack, so it is still going to let transients through. they don't, in fact they can cause more problems then before with the wrong settings. there seems to be a misunderstanding that they magically control levels and fix problems. often cutting a high mid frequency between 1k and 5k by a few dB or more is the perfect solution for making lots of disparate sounds work together.Ī compressor is good for making things sound punchier, or for gluing a bus full of sounds together, or for causing weird and subtle non-linear distortions. ![]() I find EQ to be a much more useful tool for actually "taming" sounds- as in they have a harsh frequency in them, and i want to lower the response of that frequency. there are limiters, which will brick wall limit the level, but things going through them that touch the ceiling will still sound very loud. Compressors control transients, they don't really "tame" sounds unless i'm misunderstanding what you mean. ![]()
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