Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Recording Techniques, People Skills, Gear, Recording Spaces, Computers, and DIY

Moderators: drumsound, tomb

Post Reply
drliebs
gettin' sounds
Posts: 109
Joined: Thu May 22, 2003 1:25 pm
Location: Ohio
Contact:

Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by drliebs » Thu Oct 17, 2019 11:05 am

I am helping run sound for a house of worship and they have a nice small setup but lack compressors. Performers vary and there are at times 5-6 different singers of various tones and dynamic ranges. There is no efficient way to create an input path for each person, it has to be a one size fits all so we make some compromises and react on the fly.

I want to suggest we put a compressor on each vocal channel as I believe this is an absolute necessity. Budget is super small. Less than $300 a channel.

I am considering the DBx 266, my experience with it has been as a utility compressor not necessarily my go to for vocals but given the choice between this and no compressor I think it is still a good choice.

What other hardware compressors have you used that might sound better for the budget? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
If it's not Scottish it's CRAP

dave watkins
suffering 'studio suck'
Posts: 410
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 3:25 pm
Location: Richmond VA
Contact:

Re: Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by dave watkins » Thu Oct 17, 2019 1:24 pm

pretty much all the lower end 2 ch dbx compressors like the 266 will produce acceptable results in a situation like this when you're just trying to keep the dynamics of singers in check. the various 160 variants would work well too and can be found used pretty cheap.

presonus acp-88 would work fine as well. 8 channels in 2 rack spaces and they can definitely be had pretty cheap now. if you're trying to keep things affordable and compact, this would probably be the move.

FMR audio is also worth looking into. their RNC is good bang for the buck and for $175 each is pretty darn affordable for the quality. the RNLA they make is also good if you're looking for something with a little character.

If you have a budget for $300 per channel for six channels you may just want to snag an X32 compact and forgo outboard hardware compressors all together. as much as i'm not a huge fan Behringer, it's a solid console for the money, and I've used X32's and Midas M32's for years now and find them to sound great and be simple to navigate as far as digital consoles are concerned. You'd have a usable compressor on every channel (16 local xlr inputs) and even dynamics on the master bus and various sends if you want. flexible EQ/dedicated high pass filters, built in effects etc. etc. I know a lot of times folks don't want to go digital in a house of worship setting with the intent of keeping things simple in case people who aren't sound engineers end up having to run things, but honestly, once it's set up and you have a couple scenes saved for typical mix scenarios, it can be easier to just turn on and run some mics for something like this.
the tape is rolling, the ones and zeros are... um... ones and zeroing.
http://www.davewatkinsmusic.com

User avatar
Nick Sevilla
on a wing and a prayer
Posts: 5555
Joined: Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:34 pm
Location: Lake Arrowhead California USA
Contact:

Re: Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by Nick Sevilla » Thu Oct 17, 2019 1:41 pm

Yep, the dbx live stuff is really great for this kind of application.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

User avatar
losthighway
resurrected
Posts: 2347
Joined: Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:02 pm
Contact:

Re: Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by losthighway » Thu Oct 17, 2019 7:05 pm

Seconding and "thirding" the DBX and Presonus recommendations.

kslight
mixes from purgatory
Posts: 2968
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:40 pm

Re: Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by kslight » Fri Oct 18, 2019 8:23 am

I agree with the x32 or similar digital mixer solution...there’s a reason these are so popular...lot of bang for buck/full solution versus just buying compressors per channel/etc and very practical way to do things.

It also means that you can find used low end dynamics for cheap if you must go that route...even though you have a $300/channel budget you could probably find things like Aphex or dbx/etc for almost nothing. I’d probably argue that in a live sound/worship context in this budget you may not find anything to be extra nice for vocals, but all pretty adequate for the job.

User avatar
digitaldrummer
ghost haunting audio students
Posts: 3476
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2005 9:51 pm
Location: Austin, Texas
Contact:

Re: Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by digitaldrummer » Sat Oct 19, 2019 12:48 pm

I've got a Behringer XR16 and love it. The number of effects (gates, eq, compressors, reverbs, delays, busses, and more) would take racks and racks of analog equipment. The XR16 and a tablet (with my phone as backup) are amazingly compact. With Behringer, just remember not to push it (like analog) and you are fine (i.e., be considerate of your gain staging). the XR18 and X32 are just more I/O.
Mike
www.studiodrumtracks.com -- Drum tracks starting at $50!
www.doubledogrecording.com

cgarges
zen recordist
Posts: 10890
Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2003 1:26 am
Location: Charlotte, NC
Contact:

Re: Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by cgarges » Sun Oct 27, 2019 9:15 am

If replacing the mixer isn't an option, I'd be looking heavily at the FMR RNC. Those are great-sounding, very flexible stereo compressors that cost less than $100 per channel.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

User avatar
vvv
zen recordist
Posts: 10139
Joined: Tue May 13, 2003 8:08 am
Location: Chi
Contact:

Re: Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by vvv » Sun Oct 27, 2019 1:01 pm

The FMR RNC and, for a few Eastwoods more, the RNLA are pretty great.

I like the dbx160XT a lot, and the 166 is useful on two-mixes (DOD sold a pretty good cooperative version as the 866II).

You can also find more vibey Meek stuff like the VC3 and (preferable) VC3Q and the various MC and SC units cheap. I'd also add the ART VLA II, and some of the Symetrix stuff, altho' I have to note that while I have such units (dbx, DOD, Meek and Symetrix) without issues they are starting to mebbe getting to need caps and such ...

Finally, IMO, the Presonus Eureka is usually available as an absolute steal, a "channel strip"-type with a slightly colored, leaning-clean, pre/comp and EQ.
bandcamp;
blog.
I mix with olive juice.

drumsound
zen recordist
Posts: 7474
Joined: Tue Jun 01, 2004 10:30 pm
Location: Bloomington IL
Contact:

Re: Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by drumsound » Mon Oct 28, 2019 3:29 pm

cgarges wrote:
Sun Oct 27, 2019 9:15 am
If replacing the mixer isn't an option, I'd be looking heavily at the FMR RNC. Those are great-sounding, very flexible stereo compressors that cost less than $100 per channel.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC
Agreed.

kayagum
ghost haunting audio students
Posts: 3490
Joined: Wed May 07, 2003 11:11 pm
Location: Saint Paul, MN

Re: Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by kayagum » Wed Oct 30, 2019 9:44 pm

If you need more than 2 channels, there are multiple used Presonus ACP88 units on reverb.com for under $300. Heck, I may need to get one!

User avatar
vernier
pushin' record
Posts: 255
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2003 6:40 pm
Location: USA
Contact:

Re: Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by vernier » Sun Nov 24, 2019 6:35 pm

Dbx 163 is my fave inexpensive compressor for vocals.

User avatar
Scodiddly
genitals didn't survive the freeze
Posts: 3958
Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 6:38 am
Location: Mundelein, IL, USA
Contact:

Re: Hardware Compressors for vocals on a budget

Post by Scodiddly » Sun Nov 24, 2019 6:50 pm

Buy a modern digital console. There are plenty of cheap options. The built-in compressors will be plenty good enough, and they vastly improved EQ over an analog board will improve things as well.

Also a digital board will make it much easier to manage different settings for different vocalists, and it'll help with other things you've likely been suffering with for way too long now.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 47 guests