Your favorite snare compressor

[sir hills]

+ 1 for the Purple Action.

[drumsound]

Purple Action
Mindprint T-comp
RNC
it's been years, but I remember one record where the VLA made the snare awesome (i wish the rest of the record was...).

[T-rex]

I actually just a few moments ago tried my new Level-or on snare and it sounded really really good!

Otherwise 1176 or VLA if I compress the snare individually.

[mwerden]

inovonics 201 on the bottom

What do you get from compressing the bottom individually? Just curious. . .

[joel hamilton]

inovonics 201 on the bottom

What do you get from compressing the bottom individually? Just curious. . .

I get a different time constant.
The top head supplies the impact, the bottom has the duration and some more tone, but also the presence in many cases...
Its simply like two drums playing exactly at the same time. the top head triggers the bottom. Its like old school drumagog.

[jaguarsg]

dynamics in my otari c1 console (SSL style).

also like distressor, compex, 33609, 1176, adl-1000, solidstatesman, alesis microlimiter

[Recycled_Brains]

inovonics 201 on the bottom

What do you get from compressing the bottom individually? Just curious. . .

I get a different time constant.
The top head supplies the impact, the bottom has the duration and some more tone, but also the presence in many cases...
Its simply like two drums playing exactly at the same time. the top head triggers the bottom. Its like old school drumagog.

Not to completely derail the thread, but do you apply the compression going in, and sum the top/bottom to one channel, or keep them discrete and do the heavy lifting at mix time?

[drumsound]

inovonics 201 on the bottom

What do you get from compressing the bottom individually? Just curious. . .

I get a different time constant.
The top head supplies the impact, the bottom has the duration and some more tone, but also the presence in many cases...
Its simply like two drums playing exactly at the same time. the top head triggers the bottom. Its like old school drumagog.

Did you really just say that?
[/u]

[joel hamilton]

[
Not to completely derail the thread, but do you apply the compression going in, and sum the top/bottom to one channel, or keep them discrete and do the heavy lifting at mix time?

I almost never compress snare top or bottom on the way in....meaning like once or twice in the last 10 years, and one of them was a frank black thing I was doing all live to 2 track for the "wig in a box" compilation.

[losthighway]

Great ideas guys. I feel like a Purple MC77 might round out my drum compressors some day. I need to find a Solidstatesman, those sound like fun, they seem to be getting rarer and less cheap though. My 501 just made another track sound glorious today, it's funny how the same comp will totally work, or not for the same function on a different project.

After doing some tracks for some guys with a couple sub-par drumsets I was hating the situation during mix time. Then I laid down some stuff with my band and a brand new head on my snare. It was kind of a back to square one, sophomoric realization all over. "Wow, having a new head on a well tuned drum is the most important part of the signal chain! Duhhhhh"

[trodden]

I don't have much options, but the chain i have for the current session is working great..

beyere 201 into EHX tooob pre (pretty damn hot) into dbx 160XT.

stedman n90 on the bottom.

[Recycled_Brains]

beyere 201 into EHX tooob pre (pretty damn hot) into dbx 160XT.

I've been really getting into how nice that pre sounds when you get that orange LED cooking.

[losthighway]

I don't have much options, but the chain i have for the current session is working great..

beyere 201

Yes! I love the Beyer on snare, I don't love it on anything else though. If the snare sound isn't good with the 201 I either placed it wrong, or the drum itself doesn't sound right.

[trodden]

beyere 201 into EHX tooob pre (pretty damn hot) into dbx 160XT.

I've been really getting into how nice that pre sounds when you get that orange LED cooking.

totallllllly.. yeah orange light is flashing like mad... without the dbx in the chain it would be way clipping the converters... I have never used this pre in this situation before which is weird... but i think this has been my favorite use so far.. i always dedicated one of my API's for snare duty.. but nice that i have something else that sounds just as "good"!

[trodden]

I don't have much options, but the chain i have for the current session is working great..

beyere 201

Yes! I love the Beyer on snare, I don't love it on anything else though. If the snare sound isn't good with the 201 I either placed it wrong, or the drum itself doesn't sound right.

first time using the beyer 201! i've had it for months after reading so much on this board about it.. busy building my new place so i was really excited for my first session here and the first time to use the mic. I hear why people like this mic on snare. does the job.. before I was always a 57 or beta 57 or beta 56 on snare user. I am happy.