Stupid compressor ??'s

hougahn · Post by **hougahn** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 9:30 pm

I bought an 1176 reissue, my first good compressor. i love it. but i wonder what would get me the most bang for the buck.

antoher 1176 for stereo stuff and whole mixes

or ...

an optical one for that squasshy slower attack. i use the 1176 for everything now and i think its great, but i dont have that much experience with quality compressors.

i've used (heard) la2a and 3a at a friends studio and was blown away at what they did to bass and rhythm sections.

money is tight as always, and basically i'm a musician that records my own stuff at home on computers with 1/2 mono and 1/2 stereo tracks. so i've convinced myself i need a stereo compressor.

oohh, and the lamp burned out on my 1176 in the 1st month. is that common??

MikeCzech · Post by **MikeCzech** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:01 pm

This isn't going to be the typical tapeop recommendation. Congrats on your recent compressor purchase, I have a 2-1176, I love it to death.

When I'm looking to get that squashy driven optical compressor sound from hell I use the compressors on my focusrite twin trak. I've heard other people get the same results with the Focusrite Compounder. It's a completely different type of distortion from the sound you'll get with all buttons in on your 1176. It's more crunchy and in your face.

xSALx · Post by **xSALx** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 2:12 am

I'm just wondering...are the compressors on the twin track and compounder the same as the penta. Because before I knew anything about engineering I bought the first thing the guy at hell suggested, whic was the penta.

It's not completely horrible it can do the aggressive squash pretty well on a snare drum, but unfortunately that's all I've really liked it on.

MikeCzech · Post by **MikeCzech** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 5:44 am

I know the twintrak and oenta are the same, and I've heard the compounder does dimilar things, but I can't vouch for it being identical.

hougahn · Post by **hougahn** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:50 pm

you know what i like even better than the all button is.... having a real slow attack and the fastest release. for some reason it makes shit crazy. i like the allbutton thing too, but it can make stuff tooo big, like overbearing. but its all good. i;ll look into the componder.

i have a track master with an optical compresor. it makes stuff sound cool too but it sounds noisy too, i dont know.

do you find that you use the 2-1176 as dual mono or stereo?? i think i need a pair of 1176s. i do love that sound.

would i get more use out of a stereo pair of 1176s or is an opto a better all around choice for stereo???

i really dont know

ideally i;d have a little bit of everything but i keep my gear addiction to like one big purchase a year.

thanks for the focusrite idea though, i can pick one kinda cheap on ebay

snatchman · Post by **snatchman** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 9:03 am

Hey...how does the 1176 type compressor perform on the 2-Buss? I always assumed they were to " aggressive(?)" for the mix-buss. Hummm....let me know!.....

MikeCzech · Post by **MikeCzech** » Wed Feb 15, 2006 7:53 pm

You know, I've only used the link feature a few times, for some reason it's not logical in my head. I figure it's better to just handle each track as it's own thing.. Jusy my opinion. I guess it's nice to have when I want it, but I wouldn't miss it.

I haven't been happy using it on a whole mix either. It would be nice for some folk stuff, maybe just an accoustic guitar and some vocals, that would probably be the best thing something like that; but I stopped trying because the first few times I tried it on a whole mix just it turned me off to the idea.

audiogeek1 · Post by **audiogeek1** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:48 am

snatchman wrote:Hey...how does the 1176 type compressor perform on the 2-Buss? I always assumed they were to " aggressive(?)" for the mix-buss. Hummm....let me know!.....

I have only used the 1176 on the mix bus once. It was a mid tempo disco style tune and man was it cool. I have tried it many other times and did not like the way it worked. The 1176 sometimes has too much color to be a good 2bus comp. I do enjoy color there do not get me wrong but the 1176 is just too much for me there. I use it everywhere else though.

Look into an Alan Smart C1 for 2 bus duties. Great unit a little more money but very cool. Also the Drawmer 1969 is very cool for this kind of thing.

Just some thoughts

Mike

hougahn · Post by **hougahn** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 5:21 pm

cool, thanks for all the ideas. i'm looking into maybe a focusrite compunder in the short term. thery're like 350 on ebay. but the c1 and drawmer are good ideas too. expensive but def. good,
thanks
matt

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Stupid compressor ??'s

Stupid compressor ??'s

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