Stereo Bus / Mastering compressor for home studio

alexdingley · Post by **alexdingley** » Thu Apr 14, 2016 7:24 pm

joninc wrote:your initial post said "I'm looking to get some beef in my master chain"
BEEF is somewhat subjective.
This unit will probably be very clean and won't add a lot of tone to your chain. Something with tubes or transformers will likely color and add harmonic content more.

Very solid point!! Thanks for the input, because that makes a ton of sense. I should have chosen my words more carefully ? I just wanted some "beef" in terms of the final output levels that are hitting my mix-down deck + a little magic 2-mix glue. I am not so much looking for color at the master stage, and a really transparent 2-bus compressor will probably make me happier than a really colorful one.

I know that lots of folks on here are all about "the beautiful grime" that comes from the right transformer / tube unit... and I love a lot of that stuff too, it's just not what I'm looking for on this rig.

cjogo · Post by **cjogo** » Thu Apr 21, 2016 10:24 pm

Went through a lot of comps -- in 30 years ... If you have the budget :Elysia Xpressor or Chameleon great for the lower end ..

Ended up with the Pro DEQ 2496 Dig/Analog I/O --

alexdingley · Post by **alexdingley** » Sun Apr 24, 2016 1:15 pm

yeah... lemme get as much of that Behringer love into my master signal chain???STAT

cjogo · Post by **cjogo** » Mon Apr 25, 2016 11:10 pm

alexdingley

Always had a few pieces of Behringer in every system since the 90's ~!! If it works == insert it

..

Earlier times : First DAW
My fifth board ( since '78 ) was Behringer

Don't know many pieces of gear with this multitude of I/O == especially at under $200 used

alexdingley · Post by **alexdingley** » Wed Apr 27, 2016 6:07 pm

Totally get it, but I'm looking for an analog master processor... I'm going to be printing mixes to a DSD recorder, so I don't want to digitize them with any pair of converters, other than the ones on the mix-down deck.

Totally cool pics, though! In the old black-n-white photo, is that a Vestax 4 track Hard disk recorder? I remember selling those back in '98, when I worked in pro audio.

Waltz Mastering · Post by **Waltz Mastering** » Fri Apr 29, 2016 6:57 am

Check out the Foote P3s. which is right at your budget but can also be found used.

Versatile piece that will bring something to the table in the mastering context
as well as tracking and mixing.

The Daking and Drawmer stuff shines more in tracking and mixing, but ime doesn't
deliver for mastering.

I have a P3s_ME and use it for stems and some projects but favor a Tube Tech and Manley more. You can also find the Vari-Mu under 3K used.
Good luck

Message Board

Stereo Bus / Mastering compressor for home studio

Who is online