MD8 users: Compressors and Effects Processors - What do YOU use?

[GraveRocker]

Which ones do you like? What's a good bang for the buck?

[jontflesh]

Grave,
I use a few things. When I need live effects I will use a Korg Pandoras box. It works pretty well for guitars, and vocals. For compression I kick everything to Cakewalt or Wavelab to do that.I will also use alot of effects through my puter. I am too cheap to go out and buy a "real" processor ;-)
jontflesh

[Ray J]

It depends on your budget. For a compressor, I'm hearing that the Behringer units are real good for the price. AMS has new ones for $129,$159,and $169. These are the Composers and Autocomp and something else. I would advise against the $89 Nanocomp by Alesis. I have one and don't like it.

For effects, I would suggest a used Lexicon. Sometimes you can get a good price on them and I hear they are very good. If you're really on a budget, the Alesis Nanoverb is useable for $99. I got one off of e-bay for $65.

There are a million choices however, I would suggest you click on Search and search the Rack forum or Other Equipment forum. You should find plenty of reviews there.

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Rocker of Gravies:

Forget the Alesis Nanoverb - this unit is not what you really want.

Lexicon, some good stuff there. I use an Alesis Midiverb 3; you can program the patches and create your own and save them right in the unit.

I also have a Dinosaur called the Ensonique DP-4; this unit, although older, has some nice stuff on it and since the MD-8 has plugs for two FX units, you can do some stuff. Of course I may be forgetting budget. So, I'd listen to the Lexicon, and Yamaha also makes a nice FX box, and Alesis has a couple of good boxes too except the Nanoverb. That's the unit everyone gives away on an ADAT promotion. It's a vacuum.

Happy shopping and call all of those 800 numbers; you'd be surprised how the selling price can drop more than 100 balloons from one place to another.

Green Hornet

[Nilbog]

If your on a buget for a compressor, the RNC by FMR audio is the way to go. I got mine for $180 and love it.
As far as effects, let me know what you find, because I'm looking for one too. I was thinking about the Benhringer virualizer or whatever, it looks pretty nice.

[twist]

Virtualizer is a nice unit. Dual engine processing makes it pretty versatile. Took me a while to understand the best way to use it though. Lots of different effects,especially for vocals. And a pretty nice price. Got mine at Full Compass.

[Blackwood]

I've just started using my MD8 even though I've had it for about 6 months and I love it. I'm using an Alesis 3630 compressor (stop making the sign of the cross at me!) which I like so far although I don't have a lot of experience. I use one of the older Alesis racks (Midiverb I think) for effects but I want to upgrade because it only has one channel and is not programmable. It's the "set and forget" type of effects box. It's not one of the "Nano.." units either.

Good Luck.

[GraveRocker]

Thanks for the input and advice. The suggestions that have been mentioned are in the right price range. Too many choices . I've had the MD8 for only a couple of weeks and haven't had chance to sit down and do any extensive recording with it. Mostly sampling a few instruments to see how they sound using different recording methods (mic'd, line out, direct). I'll report back on what I get. It may be a few weeks or so.

[Nilbog]

Well, I just got the behringer, and really like it. It does have everything I wanted, and I think musicians superstore had it priced wrong at $109, but they had to give it to me anyway! mwah-ha-ha
I havent had a chance to use the vocoder yet, but the reverbs sound pretty good.

[GraveRocker]

Well....I went down to my local Mars and picked up a DBX 266XL. I ran my stage mic (Audio Technica 105-HE) thru it and into a Peavey XR-684 and started turning knobs. It took out all the noise of the PA and smoothed out my vocals and gave them some warmth and punch. I haven't tried any recording yet. This is my first experience with a rack mount compressor and I like what it does. The unit will do dual channel or stereo. Has a bypass switch and an Overeasy button which seem to engage some sort of partial compression concerning the threshhold. I'm going to try some guitars thru it tonight and some recording and see what happens.

[enemyofthesun]

there are two ways to look at this.

1) buy the bare minimum (nanoverbs and Art MP1s)

2) start investing money (reasonably) in components that you can use later if you plan to really get into putting together a semi pro studio (dats etc).


I am going with route 2 and slowly building this up. I am using all of this in conjunction with my md8 but down the road will upgrade to DATS and a DAW for editing. So currently I am using this :

1- Joemeek VC1 (preamp/compressor) this unit that will make your recordings sound 100% better then going direct into the MD8

2) TC Electronics M1 FX processor (awesome reverb)
3) Alesis 3630 (compressor)
4) BBE Sonic Maximizer (adds punch to your mixdown)
5) TC Electronics Finalizer (mastering unit that makes your well recorded mixes sound radio worthy)

6) TASCAM CDR/CDRW

[Haslands]

You'll probably laugh at this, but you did say "bang for the buck" right? I use a BOSS SE50 half rack mount. It has some really great delays, reverbs, halls, and loads of other freaky sounds. You can also manually adjust the rate and pitch on them too, to customize your effect. Not only is it good for guitar, there are some nice effects for vocals too!
I don't believe BOSS makes them anymore, but if can find one used, it will probably be worth $75-$100 US. NICE!