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Subject: Cheap outboard compressor

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Original Message 1/16 08-Jul-07 @ 04:41 PM - Cheap outboard compressor

rags .aka. welder

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Okay, a quick question, a guy I know wants to get some cheap, reliable compressor (second hand is ok) for spicing up some loops he wants to play from an AKAI sampler. I want to help but I know jack about outboard so any recommendations would be appreciated.

thanks!

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Message 2/16 08-Jul-07 @ 11:07 PM Edit: 08-Jul-07 | 11:09 PM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

milan

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"spice up"? you want it for the color? mebbe a second hand focusrite compounder or something... they had a unit with compression and some other tricks, cant remember the name anymore. hell, is anyone using hardware anymore?

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Message 3/16 08-Jul-07 @ 11:40 PM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

rags .aka. welder

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naah, believe me, there are hordes of ppl who wouldn't even touch software... not if their life would depend on it.

I think his drums just need some "punch"... IMO any compressor would be good for that...

anyways thanks for the tip!

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Message 4/16 09-Jul-07 @ 10:17 AM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

milan

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ah i see... well maybe a used dbx 166 or something like that would do the job as well. thng is, i stopped following the h/w scene some time ago

dbx, joemeek, ART, mindprint, focusrite, all had affordable and usable compressors. never liked cheapie behringer and alesis ones (didnt do anything IMO). dont know about cheap samson and presonus ones *shrug*.

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Message 5/16 09-Jul-07 @ 07:33 PM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

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well u cant go wrong with an old s/h cheap drawmer (mebbe not the fixed soft knee version LX20, but they still are ok) or an old symetrix are good & quite cheap... you can also really spice up loops playing them out of the pc into a small combo guitar amp and then record the speaker and mix-in with original or use as-is

also dont ignore cheap footpedal guitar comps..

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Message 6/16 09-Jul-07 @ 08:12 PM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

rags .aka. welder

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Cheers!

I'll tell him, great info!

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Message 7/16 10-Jul-07 @ 03:49 PM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

monkeybasket2001

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old symetrix are good & quite cheap
>>>>>>>>>>.

some of these and the old DBX's are secret weapon kind of stuff- i have a Symetrix CL-150 which is my bass comp and a dbx119 which is for my drums- niether would be great for you but the other models will- ones that give you attack and release etc

i used to use DBX 266XL which i found ok for instruments but not great for drums- then again i was not great at comrpesing back then

if you mate would never touch software he sounds like he's anal enough to find any cheap outboard unsuitable, as most compartive soft compressors piss all over the hardware equivelnets- for decent hardware compression you'll need to spend over 500 pounds, maybe even more

Milan, i still use hardware for drums- i just cant sem to get decent drum tracks going in software but all mixing and compostion is done in the pc- took me ages to see the light when i did i never looked back

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Message 8/16 10-Jul-07 @ 04:26 PM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

rags .aka. welder

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"if you mate would never touch software he sounds like he's anal enough to find any cheap outboard unsuitable, as most compartive soft compressors piss all over the hardware equivelnets- for decent hardware compression you'll need to spend over 500 pounds, maybe even more"

Yep, well, he is not THAT anal, it's just there are quite a few analog-fetistst snobs around here in the local boards who all said it is a mistake to buy anything under ~2000 USD, and I wanted to present some valid alternatives to that...

I mean I find this kind of stupidity is very common these days, now that we have really good gear, really cheap, now it is suddenly "not good enough" and you must use uber-analog-tube stuff if you want to hang around with the big boys (who will never ever finish a proper tune BTW, all they care about is having THAT gear...)

But thanks for the tip, I hope it wasn't for nothing...

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Message 9/16 10-Jul-07 @ 04:57 PM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

monkeybasket2001

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i don't listen to such people- i only know that the cheap comps ive used- behring, alesis 3630 and dbx266xl were all not great looking back- the two cheapos i do use were old units from the 80's or earlier...

my ears aren't clever enough to tell whether a plugin is quality or just enjoyable to listen to- but found the cheaper ones (URS, Voxengo etc) to be very nice sounding-

ive tried demos of most plugins and have def found my favourites- ofetn someone will say this is THE eq or THE synth and im not blown away- i do feel my choices are my own even if originally rcommended by someone else.

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Message 10/16 10-Jul-07 @ 06:20 PM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

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lol, there's so much pure cock talked it has to be said.... today i listened to some music of one of the gearsl*tz admin people who uses lots of expensive fancy toys... it completely sucked.

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Message 11/16 11-Jul-07 @ 10:24 AM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

monkeybasket2001

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lol, which tune? love to hear expensively bad tunes!!!

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Message 12/16 11-Jul-07 @ 01:19 PM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

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lol, no way... the problem is, i reached that age where a part of me still says "it sucked!!", but then afterwards you feel like you should qualify that with a more reasoned response

so lets just say that this guy has alot of flashy gear as far as you can tell from his posts, and while the definition & eq was well balanced (ok that is just experience of mixing & even then some of it is still subjective), i found the music pedestrian and not very interesting, and the mix itself while decently balanced also wasnt very creative. To me it sounded like someone could mix and eq ok, but the same results in terms of 'overall track x-factor qualty' could have been had from very cheap gear with the same experience

Now if the music itself was more interesting and not so pedestrian then the gear would be even less relevent. So listening to his stuff you kinda feel like, well if this music was more interesting i'd be prepared to lose any subtle sound quality difference between cheap and really expensive processing gear as long as it was mixed & balanced well... I spose this just re-enforced my view that good creative music done with with decent mix/balance skills but cheap gear wins over less interesting music done with very flashy gear any day.

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Message 13/16 11-Jul-07 @ 01:36 PM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

monkeybasket2001

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Now if the music itself was more interesting and not so pedestrian then the gear would be even less relevent. So listening to his stuff you kinda feel like, well if this music was more interesting i'd be prepared to lose any subtle sound quality difference between cheap and really expensive processing gear as long as it was mixed & balanced well... I spose this just re-enforced my view that good creative music done with with decent mix/balance skills but cheap gear wins over less interesting music done with very flashy gear any day.

>>>>>>>>>>.

heh thats what i tell myself- despite going for that aged sound i'd love to be able to warm modern soundingmixes, but all im then admiring is the production values in those sort of tunes.... a lot of stuff i listen to is old skool souding so whilst the dirt adds the character its the music that does it for me... i never find 'producer' dance styles as listenable (trance, dn'b) in terms of music (even though trance often stick rigidly to classic music formulas)... if i could just crack a few more techniques i could fcous on my music soley and quickly dial in settings i need, as it is ill spend too much time on it and my music will suffer...

still im getting tips off a pro who has stuff released so am getting there....

my mate is almost the opposite, he doesn't care about production avlues- he just knocks out hundreds of tunes (well ideas- more than my lopps but less than whole tracks) and beats- most sound horrible productionwise (and sometimes musically too!) but in thats sense he's pretty pure...

- phew! dont know why i went off on one there.... still, im often to listen to that platinum sounding lift music

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Message 14/16 12-Jul-07 @ 03:25 AM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

damballah

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FMR RNP -- cheap and good

that alesis is notoriously bad

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Message 15/16 12-Jul-07 @ 11:49 AM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

monkeybasket2001

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that alesis is notoriously bad
>>>>>>>>>>>>>

unless you are daft punk

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Message 16/16 12-Jul-07 @ 05:10 PM - RE: Cheap outboard compressor

sox

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Joe Meek probably does the best job for limited deniros....I've got an MQ3 and it made a noticeable difference to my voice recordings when I got it...

Stay away from da Behringer stuff... not really worth it even for budget gear....

sox

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