what is your favorite compressor?

[six_minds]

Was just testing out this new UAD fatso thing- its not really just a compressor, tape saturation, but the thing sounds amazing for a plugin... It eats up a hell of a lot of DSP but seems to work as a pretty nifty bus compressor... Definitely overkill for utility purposes though.

[coldfuture]

My favorite compressor right now is the only one I own. Neve Portico compressor. I love that thing.

I also think the built in Logic software compressor does a great job on certain material.

Other hardware compressors I like:

DBX 160s (blue faceplate): great at mild settings on whole mixes (very SSL buss comp sounding)

API 2500: unreal sounding on almost anything
Summit DCL-200: messed with an earlier model, adds a nice thickness and "film grain" to a mix.

Chandler/Abbey Road limiter: unreal on vocals.

We recorded my wife singing through that and a Chandler Germanium preamp on her first track here:

http://www.reverbnation.com/maliamartinez

The song "A Familiar Place" will give you an excellent idea of the amazing and subtle limiting that thing can do on vocals.

Here's some secret sauce though... my FAV way to get the glue and coherence that most people look for out of out compressors is not to use compression at all, but to run subgroups through my mixer (an A&H zedr16, but should work with any A&H board) and drive the signals to the master output until its as close to clipping as it can go. I then back it off until I hear only a subtle saturation.

I do this on say, the drums, and then record those to a stereo stem and bring them back to the mix. I then do this to a few groups like that until I am ready to sum the whole mix... then sometimes even pass the whole mix through this treatment a couple of times. The analog pres give it the separation between the parts and the saturation gives it a paradoxical "glue" so the parts are forced together a bit like a comp might do.

Lovely. I wish I had figured this out years ago.

also,

i have an alesis 3630 which is the compressor that Daft Punk famously use, and to be honest i dont like it at all.
even with no compression on, just putting a signal through it degrades the sound quality, it comes out all dry and flat.

I heard there might be a reason that your experience is not favorable with that compressor. The one Daft Punk used was modified to improve the i/o stages along the lines of what www.blacklionaudio.com used to do. They don't do that mod anymore, though.

I can't confirm this, as I don't know Daft Punk, but the 3630 is well known to be very "mod-able" so I can see this as being a feasible explanation for the let down of the normal model as compared to the expectation based on the legend of them using it.

[steevio]

so I can see this as being a feasible explanation for the let down of the normal model as compared to the expectation based on the legend of them using it.

there wasnt any expectation from me, i bought it before i knew they used it, purely because it was all i could afford at the time.
its just so dull.

[coldfuture]

so I can see this as being a feasible explanation for the let down of the normal model as compared to the expectation based on the legend of them using it.

there wasnt any expectation from me, i bought it before i knew they used it, purely because it was all i could afford at the time.
its just so dull.

I hear ya, no desire to use one over here.

[coldfuture]

i think the point i was making was that i don't think its worth sending your signal out into the the noisy analogue world unless what you do with it before you send it back is going to be better than what you can do in the box.

I agree.

But then again I like noise, and sometimes want that in my recordings. Sometimes the very reason to send the recording out to the analog world is the grunge it up.

One of my favorite tracks I ever made had the most bizarre noise problem: I had a preamp with its own converter that lost wordclock sync and ended up pasting this weird constantly variable digital "bitting" all across one of the acid lines. My guess was it was set to the wrong sample rate and dropping frames as it came in.

At first I was shocked, then totally stoked on the sound as it was so bizarre and unique. I left it in the song and cannot imagine it any other way.

Its all down to what you are after I suppose.

[Brankis]

@manzatour, there really isnt much point routing your audio in & out of your computer to a budget hardware compressor.
(maybe if you had $4000 - $7000 to spend it would be worthwhile.)

i disagree... you can get an empirical labs distressor for around a grand on ebay which pretty much sounds great on everything... the FMR products are also around $200 each and they compete with the distressor for sure... i have both

well i cant argue mate as i've never tried either,
also i was talking new prices, and i seem to remember the distressor was over $2000 for a one channel comp ! when it came out.

its worth mentioning that buying a used compressor is a sketchy business, especially a pro quality one. most of the used kit ive bought over the years has had varying issues and most of it has been in for repair. it can get expensive. even just replacing tubes can get expensive, especially if its got lots of them.

i think the point i was making was that i don't think its worth sending your signal out into the the noisy analogue world unless what you do with it before you send it back is going to be better than what you can do in the box.
its a different matter if you've got other outboard gear and you're routing that back into the computer as well.

is compression all you do outboard ?

good point about being weary of used compressors. i really want to get some of those DBX 160x, the ones from the 80's. you can grab them off ebay for like 200 bucks but im weary of grabbing one for exactly why you said, not to mention they're like 20 years old...

anyways, as of now im doing my full mix outboard on a zed and i have the comps patched on the inserts but im considering switching to ITB box after reading this amazing thread on gearslutz that popped up a few days ago...

i dont know if anyone has seen this yet but there is a 40+ page thread about mixing ITB vs Analog and the guys who developed the Sony Oxford PLugs and SSL consoles are leading the discussion. the thread even has people like bob katz and marshall jefferson posting in it!

check it: http://www.gearslutz.com/board/high-end ... mixes.html

[steevio]

^^^
wow thats a convoluted and intense thread, better give myself a few days to read that.

to be honest though mate, nothing is going to make me sell my studio full of gear thats taken me nearly 20 years to put together and exchange it for a screen or two.
i go in there, flick a switch, it all lights up and hums gently, and i'm in heaven, everything just where and how i want it, doing exactly what i want it to do.
alot of that stuff in that thread is high-geek mastering lingo and just doesnt apply to me with my set up.
i like working the way i do, and its always worth remembering theres no right or wrong way to compose / arrange / master our music, you've just got to do you your own thing, and dont worry about what everyone else is doing.
now its the weekend !!!

[Brankis]

^^^
wow thats a convoluted and intense thread, better give myself a few days to read that.

to be honest though mate, nothing is going to make me sell my studio full of gear thats taken me nearly 20 years to put together and exchange it for a screen or two.
i go in there, flick a switch, it all lights up and hums gently, and i'm in heaven, everything just where and how i want it, doing exactly what i want it to do.
alot of that stuff in that thread is high-geek mastering lingo and just doesnt apply to me with my set up.
i like working the way i do, and its always worth remembering theres no right or wrong way to compose / arrange / master our music, you've just got to do you your own thing, and dont worry about what everyone else is doing.
now its the weekend !!!

see i wish i came at it from your perspective. but for someone like me just getting into my mid 20's and having really only been introduced to producing music digitally, there are things i never learned from a traditional audio standpoint which working in analog kind of forces you into naturally. stuff like proper gain staging and realizing that even though we have all this crazy headroom in our cute little 32bit DAWS that it's actually working against us in alot of ways. for me personally i never even knew the difference between 0dbfs and 0DbVU so like i think many people complaining about digital, i have been not operating my tools properly from the get go... i dont know about others but as far as the actual tracks ive been making, im pretty happy with the actual music content and sound design but not of the overall sound i was getting, like i knew the track could be perfect but it just sounded to flat and not open. and trust me im not lazy, im at this sh!t night and day like an obsession, working in a treated room and having spent years experimenting with every plug or gear i could get my hands on and really learning how to go deep on a mix. i always felt though like i was lacking some sort of controlled reference as to what ive been doing and that thread gave me the answer. but for someone else who has been working in an analog studio their whole life that stuff is just basic knowledge. But i think this is exactly why people using DAW's in this modern age grab a ZED mixer for instance and all of a sudden their sound improves when its really not a matter of the mixer itself or being analog, its about the fact that it forced the person to operate and gain stage at real world levels... for me its a feeling of freedom cause i certainly dont have the cash flow or credit left on my already maxxed out card to have the kind of analog setup that i would ideally want... i also know and have talked to many established artists who i think sound like the bomb and most of them are 100% ITB. In fact there is a thread on gearslutz where marshall jefferson says he does all his productions and mixdowns on nothing but a laptop with a pair of nice headphones and a $400 soundcard!!

anyways, i read that thread for a few days and since keeping all my digital gain staging in respect for optimal real-world values like in an analog system, my sound has improved more from that than any gear, plugin or mixer ive ever added to my setup. its all about electricity and finding that sweet spot and keeping the levels way down low it has given me the confidence going back and fixing old tracks to actually believe in my music and to finally start doing something with it