Alesis 3630

  • Thread starter Thread starter Antz_Marchin
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This thread died a while ago - for some reason, someone resurrected it....

Hey - if you've had good experiences with it, I'm happy for you - maybe you were lucky and got an extraordinary unit, or you simply don't have very critical listening skills -- but I for one, having experienced the completely distasteful effects of using a 3630 on a given signal, there's nothing you could possibly say that would convince me that the 3630 is not a piece of genuine crap.

As for mod'ding it - why go thru the hassle???? Just buy a decent compressor in the first place!
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Hey - if you've had good experiences with it, I'm happy for you - maybe you were lucky and got an extraordinary unit, or you simply don't have very critical listening skills -- but I for one, having experienced the completely distasteful effects of using a 3630 on a given signal, there's nothing you could possibly say that would convince me that the 3630 is not a piece of genuine crap.

As for mod'ding it - why go thru the hassle???? Just buy a decent compressor in the first place!
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Hey, I never said I've had good experiences with it, but a 166 isn't not so much better now is it?

The problem with the 3630 is that it's a bit tricky to find the best settings for the controls, but it ain't as bad as you want me to believe.

The best compressor is no compressor at all or two inch tape. :D
 
Han said:
Hey, I never said I've had good experiences with it, but a 166 isn't not so much better now is it?
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Actually I have several 166XLs and while they can't come close to the transparency of high-end comps or even the RNC, they are very far above the 3630 in terms of sonic integrity (of course, this is based on my actual experience with both units, not simply brand-bias/prejudice or conjecture).


Han said:
The best compressor is no compressor at all or two inch tape. :D
Click to expand...
I agree with you on that point, Han!

:)

BTW - checked your site... nice place!
 
I've had some pretty fancy compressors like the Manley and the 1176/1178.

To be honest I liked the 166 more than the Manley, but that's just me. Later I found out that many Manley's got back to the factory to get tweaked for better sound. But I had gotten rid of it.

RNC's are not distributed where I live, but I have to find out about that baby I guess.

Like I said, no compressor at all, nothing wrong with riding faders on an automated board right?

Try to use your 166's or RNC's by 'multing', mult the compressed signal to another input of the board and mix it with the uncompressed signal to taste. Best of both!

Cheers, Han
 
Thanks for the site Han, I will probably try this with my six compressors I use. (all 3630)
 
Han said:
Try to use your 166's or RNC's by 'multing', mult the compressed signal to another input of the board and mix it with the uncompressed signal to taste. Best of both!
Click to expand...
I do it all the time!
 
I have used both the Alesis and the Behringer Composer. For the extra money I would definitely go for the Composer. Even the composer is not the compressor that I would like to have but it's very usable in comparison to the Alesis. I consider the Behringer a fine unit especially for live sound/limiting. I am no gear snob, I have a rack full of behringer/ART/Rane stuff. I don't know that I would even want to use the Alesis live. It dulled out the sound and had clicks and background noise as well. I have used three different 3630s and I did not have a good experience with any of them.

I even noticed the difference running it on a pretty noisy behringer mixing board.

For the extra 50 bucks or so get something better.

To people that like the sound of the Alesis, I am curious what you are monitoring on ?

If you get good results out of that thing then more power to ya. BooYa!!

Lookit .... This might just be my 100th post.
 
Fela said:
To people that like the sound of the Alesis, I am curious what you are monitoring on ?
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Maybe Alesis monitors?????? (that WOULD explain it!) :p

:D :D
 
So no one answered my question? Dosnt a compressor just take a signal and apply a logramithic change in dynamics after crossing a given threshold? What makes the Alesis suck? What makes one compressor better than another (besides extra features, like a name or a different design)?
 
The circuit design... the quality of the components.... how transparent the unit is to the signal even when bypassed....

The 3630 in particular - at least for the ones I've tried - all produce serious artifacts - clicks, pops, crackles with the compressor or gate engaged.

As well, they don't seem to like the +4dBu gain structure, although it's supposed to be able to handle it.

For the money, you can do a lot better -- the FMR Audio RNC would be an excellent start..........!
 
Thanks for answering blue. I have never had problems with clicks and pops when using the gate. What causes that? What do you mean transparent?
 
Yo Blue bear buddy, have you ever tried the old Alesis MicroLimiter? The one before the 3630 appeared?
They're a bit (a bit?)noisy, but they really can do funny things with some sounds.

Weird manufacturer that Alesis is, the old Microverb1 is very quiet, then comes the Microverb 2 and this one is noisy as hell.

I sometimes use a 3630 for de-essing and that can work quite decent, if you know how to tweak those knobs that is!

I'm sorry to say this, but IMNSHO many peeps don't know how to use a compressor/limiter. Even the 'mastering' engineers often have no clue how to tweak their multiband compressors.

If you really know how to use these babies they can perform a miracle. Even a DBX 266XL can sound wonderful on your mix bus, it only depends on how you tweak them.

Some call it skill.
 
Hey I got a better oops I mean worse comp than a 3630!!!

Its a Art SC2 ha ha ha, thatt things has been collecting dust for a
looooooooong time!!! he he he he he...

Allrighty then! since we're talkin comp, I'm looking to add another flavor!! what's a step above the RNC???? Some thing balanced
Pa leease.

T
 
Han - never tried the Alesis micro stuff...

I agree - much of it IS knowing how to play the knobs -- but I must say - I'm no rookie at it and I STILL couldn't get a 3630 to work for me, in any capacity....!
 
Is the nanocompressor worse, the same, or better than the 3630? Because anything worse must really suck.
 
Crawdad told me when I was up there, that the RNC has a preset on it named Real Nice or something like that and it has virtually no compression artifacts whatsoever. That's what I want 'cause I hate compression but I would like to be able to limit things a little bit.
 
Too much of anything is always no good. Eq, compression, reverb, chorus. Blue, how does your 3630 make popping noises, I have never had that happen?
 
Jblount said:
Blue, how does your 3630 make popping noises, I have never had that happen?
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AT the time when I had one, it produced pops when running a signal into it via the +4 inputs......

There were also pops/clicks from using the gate - each time the circuit kicked in/out....
 
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