As I said above, our main 2 mix compressor has been the CraneSong STC-8. In addition to other stereo comps we have a Manley Variety-Mu and a Chandler TG-1 that we've mixed through but since getting the CraneSong in around '03 it's been our main bus compressor. These are all older models and none of them have built in side chain capabilities.
We have used the 670 on the drum bus in place of the Chandler and really liked it but I wanted to try mixing through the 670 (I'm just gonna call it that here). We didn't have a lot of time to mess around but before our mix session (and before the client got there) we put up one of the songs that I had been working on at home, deleted the master fader and ran the mix I had through the console so we could route that mix to both the STC-8 and the 670. Got them close settings wise and listened. The difference we heard was subtle so excuse my non-tech speak. They both sounded very good and just a little different. We heard the 670 as just a "fuller" and "sweeter", meaning it was giving us just a little more harmonic content. So we decided to use it on the mixes. I didn't record and comparison clips but I may try to do that sometime when we aren't working with a client.
Since the 80's I've been a put the comp on the 2 mix in the beginning and mix through it guy.
We really enjoyed using it. I can see using it on the 2 mix or on the parallel drum bus, or on the parallel guitar bus depending on where you really wanted that sweetness the most. Where we have it set up it's kind of visual too with the amp jewel light and the big meters. I enjoyed it and the client liked it a lot too.
