Stereo tube compressor recommendations, please

[Max]

The drummer of the band I regularly go on tour with as soundguy wants to buy a stereo tube compressor.
I was a bit surprissed when he asked me if I could recommend a stereo compressor in the $1500 region. He doesn't work in a studio and appart from some home recording isn't very experienced with compressors or recording gear but he knows the kind of sounds he's looking for. He says that the tube would be important to add some harmonics.
He just came back from a recording session with his other band and the engineer used a SPL Kultube to squash the drum sub mix. Now he wants a Kultube for future studio sessions or live applications.
His drum kit consists of a bassdrum, snare, hihat and a single ride/crash. He doesn't play very dynamic, more like a drum computer. At shows, I always have his drum mono on the PA, so a good mono compressor would probably do as well.
Any experiences with the SPL Kultube? I was never really happy with the SPL gear I've tried, so I'm a bit suspicious.

[dokushoka]

Why do you specifically want a "tube" compressor? There are many wonderful stereo compressors for drums that are solid state. Some that come to mind are the SSL Quad compressor, Urei 1178 (excellent at adding "excitement" to drums), DBX 162, etc. Tubes are nice, but not really an essential part of getting "color" or "character" from a compressor.

[Mane1234]

I'll second that comment about the 1178...I love that thing on drums. I sure would n't want to be taking around a 1,500 dollar compressor for live application either. You might be able to find a used Summit for that price. Drawmer would be a fine choice too. If you're willing to go solid state there are lots of choices out there.

[AGCurry]

I'd suggest he spend his money on some cymbals and maybe a tom tom or two...

[Max]

Thanks for your advices. I'll tell to have a look at the Drawmer and the Summit boxes.
I've suggested an 1176 or a Distressor. His drums are so minimalistic that I mix them mono anyways, at least for live shows. He told me that they've tried both of them and he found the Kultube better for this application.
He wants a tube in there to add some harmonic distortion when compressing the shit out of a drum sub mix that will be blended with an uncompressed drum mix. He doesn't want anything that compresses subtle but something pretty aggressive.
I've used a RNLA for this so far and was pretty happy with the results.
Any opinions about this SPL box?
I'd love to hear Bill Skibbe's Red Stripe for something like this.

[Derrick]

distortion? Would a Symetrix 150 work well here for mono drum compression?

[dokushoka]

Thanks for your advices. I'll tell to have a look at the Drawmer and the Summit boxes.
I've suggested an 1176 or a Distressor. His drums are so minimalistic that I mix them mono anyways, at least for live shows. He told me that they've tried both of them and he found the Kultube better for this application.
He wants a tube in there to add some harmonic distortion when compressing the shit out of a drum sub mix that will be blended with an uncompressed drum mix. He doesn't want anything that compresses subtle but something pretty aggressive.
I've used a RNLA for this so far and was pretty happy with the results.
Any opinions about this SPL box?
I'd love to hear Bill Skibbe's Red Stripe for something like this.

Harmonic distortion? Why did the distressor not work? Most of the tube comps I know of don't really create any obvious distortion, except maybe the Fairchilds...

I just don't see the hang up on the whole tube thing. If you really want that sounds, just follow up a comp with a tube line amp for your make up gain.

The 1178/1176 is capable of getting VERY gritty. Also worth checking out is the Spectrasonics 610.

[lazerlove5]

I've had great luck with a TL Audio 5060 Stereo Tube Compressor. The 5060 has both presets and manual control.

TL Audio (and HHB) make other affordable tube compressors.

[snuffinthepunk]

no, but i was interested so I looked it up and it seems to get a good review. And it was compared to an SPL transient designer, which i heard for the first time on saturday on some shitty sounding drum tracks and it turned them from shit to shine. So this Kultube could be a good bet.

here's the article I read from mix magazine:

http://mixonline.com/products/review/au ... index.html

[macr0w]

I don't know about the kooltube but I have an Empirical Labs EL7 FATSO that I love on everything. Plenty of harmonic distortion. Killer on drum bus. I'm addicted to it. It's hard to stay away.

[snatchman]

ART Pro VLA...!..

[weatherbox]

the Drawmer 1968's output section can be driven hard to get the tube cooking and add a little hair without being seriously fuzzed out. If the guy wants something that's going to be truly nasty though to run under the uncompressed track, I'd get a solid state limiter and slam the input. I use an FM radio limiter for this sometimes, Symetrix 501 can do it too.