Any Compressors Worth Considering that are Cheaper than the Distressor??

SonicAlbert said:
The Distressor is just completely different than the PRO VLA. I'm not sure why you would be considering them as an either or situation.
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I'm NOT considering them as an either/or. The VLA was mentioned three times by other people in this thread. I'm just interested in hearing unique ways people are using the Distressor. The more I hear about it's versatility, the more likely I am to want to spend the money for the Distressor over a $200 unit. The reference I made to the VLA was a reference mainly to price.
 
I've used a distressor before, and not many things can come close to it for versatility and the ability to get so many different sounds in one box. You'd pretty much have to buy about 4 or 5 different comps to get the same amount of tonal ranges.

That said, there are a lot of very useful inexpensive comps that do what they do really well, but to really take advantage of some killer stuff for cheap, you need to be willing to buy used. Moreso than with any other type of gear, in my opinion. For transparent stuff, my favorite is Aphex (Compellor, Dominator, whatever). If you want to make drums slap, slam, and pump, you should really check out the Valley People Dynamite, or the JBL/UREI 7110, both used. Symetrix even has a whole range of cheap, used stuff that all sounds surprizingly good and very useful.

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I own an RNC, an LA2a and an 1176..but not a distressor..what I can say is while the rnc is cool and great at the price point it is DEFINATELY not in the same league as the LA or the 1176 (or the distressor)..Vox cut thru a great comp, even if it is only cutting a few db here and there will be in a whole other league....

Cheers,
Ray
 
undermind said:
I'm NOT considering them as an either/or. The VLA was mentioned three times by other people in this thread. I'm just interested in hearing unique ways people are using the Distressor. The more I hear about it's versatility, the more likely I am to want to spend the money for the Distressor over a $200 unit. The reference I made to the VLA was a reference mainly to price.
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As far as versatility, if you are going to spend money on one great compressor for your rack, the Distressor is an excellent choice. It really does so much, and has so many different sounds and tricks up it's sleeves. It's also a great one to learn on, as you can really hear what you are doing.

If you touch it lightly on lower compression settings for maybe 3-4 db of compression it is extremely clean. But if you pound it with level and set it to higher compression settings you can really get some great distortion out of it. Especially with the Brit mod. In addition, it has the 10:1 opto setting, which is another tone entirely. The Distressor is just a great unit.
 
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