Compressor for tracking

in2thegapagain85 · Post by **in2thegapagain85** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 9:03 am

I'm looking to get a compressor to use while tracking bass and vocals, just something to even out signals a bit and control the peaks. What would you all recommend that works well on these sources?

Budget, lets say is 300-500. This can be for new or used.

Thanks!

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 9:26 am

DBX 160a

A.David.MacKinnon · Post by **A.David.MacKinnon** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 9:40 am

^^^^^ good answer.

Plus older ashley units and the ART Pro VLA.
I'm also a big fan of the Electro Harmonics Black Finger on bass. It's a pedal so you'll benefit from running a re-amp device before it. Don't be fooled by it's cheap/crappy-ness.

sessionsatstudiom · Post by **sessionsatstudiom** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:45 am

I would vote for the DBX also. Good under and overrated compressor. Also you could look for a Joe Meek SC2.2 for around that. Was pretty cool at times.

ART Pro VLA good also.

Mike

agauchede · Post by **agauchede** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 12:02 pm

+1 PRO VLA. I don't have any experience with the PRO VLA II, though.

I built an 1176 "G" from Hairball Audio/MNATS for under $500. Sounds awesome! Might be an option if you're handy with a soldering iron and don't mind sourcing some parts.

Chris

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 5:42 pm

Bass - dbx163X

A.David.MacKinnon · Post by **A.David.MacKinnon** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 5:57 pm

vvv wrote:Bass - dbx163X

I have 2 of those and I love them on guitars, pianos and a bunch of other sources but I've never liked them on bass. They just seem too slow. I don't even know if that's the right description. I often get a big, big, big pick/pluck transient spike followed by the comp clamping down. It sounds great once it's clamped down but the spike sucks.

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Wed Jun 08, 2011 7:05 pm

subatomic pieces wrote:DBX 160a

100% yes.
You will never outgrow it. Thats what people dont understand about these things. They are like the Shure SM57's of compressors in that sense: always valid in your studio no matter what other things you manage to collect over the years.
I STILL use dbx 160A's and 160X's all the time.
This is in a place where i have collected like 9 zillion different compressor choices.

jnTracks · Post by **jnTracks** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 3:42 am

i use a pro VLA II for this. pretty happy, makes things sound thick. it's the low end of your budget

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:56 am

I like my Aphex Expressors. They have the lowest THD at .002%, 200k hz bandwidth, no phase shift, the widest attack/release range and that high frequency side chain expander that masks the compression effect.

They work like there's a little man inside running a fader up and down who's smarter and faster than I am.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:02 am

A.David.MacKinnon wrote:
vvv wrote:Bass - dbx163X
I have 2 of those and I love them on guitars, pianos and a bunch of other sources but I've never liked them on bass. They just seem too slow. I don't even know if that's the right description. I often get a big, big, big pick/pluck transient spike followed by the comp clamping down. It sounds great once it's clamped down but the spike sucks.

I know what yer saying'; I typically (not always) use a software hard-limiter thereafter.

BTW, the 163X makes a nice DI, also, with a bit of a sound of it's own.

Producer/Engineer · Post by **Producer/Engineer** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 5:25 pm

Mojo - Art Pro VLA ll
Transparent - (on the super nice mode) FMR's RNC

unchartedthickets · Post by **unchartedthickets** » Thu Jun 09, 2011 6:28 pm

what do ya'll think of the DBX 1066? there's one near me for a good price and i would like something different than the RNC.

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 3:42 am

Producer/Engineer wrote:Mojo - Art Pro VLA ll
Transparent - (on the super nice mode) FMR's RNC

That sounds accurate to me, though the RNC would not be my first choice for bass. For bass and vocals, I'd much prefer (and very often do) the RNLA. A lot of people complain about the distorting/farting out with fast attack times on bass. I've experienced that, and you can use it without it happening, but you're a little bit limited. The RNLA just seems to fit really nicely with bass. And with vocals, I've said this before but again don't want to exaggerate, but it has a bit of a feel of an LA-2A, or at least seems to do nicely as an obviously much much lower budget compressor that sounds nice on some things the LA-2A sounds nice on, for similar reasons.

JohnDavisNYC · Post by **JohnDavisNYC** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 5:05 am

gonna give yet another big up to the DBX160...

as Joel said, it's the only compressor listed here that you'll NEVER outgrow, and the only one you'll find in every good studio along side compressors costing much much much more...

my 160's get used on almost every session, and i still find new uses for them from time to time.

great units.

john

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Compressor for tracking

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