Budget Stereo Compressor recommendation ?

[TascamJimi]

Hey folks, hope all is well....I hope this doesn't arouse a 'oh no, not another compressor thread' I'm on the market for a budget friendly compressor and am overwhelmed with the amount of units, and hype, on the market right now. My son and I are total hacks that still record with a Boss-DR-770 and Tascam DP-02 so that gives you an idea of what we're into. Total garage rock !!
Anyway.... Music Ground has some great prices on the following :

Nady CL-5000
DBX 166
DBX 266XL
Alesis 3630

They actually have several DBX units on there under $100 As well as way too may Behringer units to list.

Can anyone recommend any of the above units, or even some that aren't on the list ? Open to all opinions and pointers.
THANK YOU so much...I'm new here but have learned an incredible amount just reading through all the posts.

Jim

 

[rob aylestone]

I have to say from the time when I had racks of compressors, the DBX ones always were easier to get the right sound on. I had Symetrix too, but they could sound horrible with accidental 'overcooking' - but I never had any horrible ones.

 

[Papanate]

The Compressors you mentioned are all average basic units - The DBX's and 3630 do somewhat of a good job - the Behringer: MDX4600 MULTICOM PRO-XL punches above it’s weight class - and exceptional one is the FMR RNC 1773 Really Nice Compressor - for the price point of $135 it outperforms your compressors by the far.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I've owned and/or used dbx 166, Project1 266 (original version), 3630 and MDX4600. I would recommend the dbx. I would not recommend the 3630 or MDX4600. The 3630 I had was just meh. The particular MDX I used noticeably degraded the sound when put in the signal path, even when bypassed. Maybe it was just that unit, but it put me off them for good.

There are several different 166 compressors. There's the original 166, the 166A and the 166XL. I've used the first two, and they're quite good. What they lack are attack and release controls and XLR I/O. From what I've read, the 166A is the best sounding. The 166A has a contour button that keeps it from overreacting to low frequencies. I found that very handy.

I liked my Project1 266 despite it being a low cost version of the 166. It had a wall wart power supply, which was less convenient. The newer 266 units have internal power supplies. I do like that it has attack and release controls, which the 166 and 166A lack. It also has a downward expander, which I find to be less obtrusive than a conventional noise gate, at least for live use.

 

[RFR]

I have an American made DBX 166. It’s pretty good.
Also have an ART Pro VLA ll. Like that as well.

Used to have an Alesis 3630. Eh, kind of junk, but it does have a certain ‘color’ it adds.

 

[RRuskin]

The Compressors you mentioned are all average basic units - The DBX's and 3630 do somewhat of a good job - the Behringer: MDX4600 MULTICOM PRO-XL punches above it’s weight class - and exceptional one is the FMR RNC 1773 Really Nice Compressor - for the price point of $135 it outperforms your compressors by the far.

FMR Audio has ceased operations. Someone else may eventually begin making their designs again but for now, the best bet is to find them on the used market.

 

[Papanate]

FMR Audio has ceased operations. Someone else may eventually begin making their designs again but for now, the best bet is to find them on the used market.

I am citing the used market - there are a lot of them out there.

 

[CoolCat]

Is this for tracking or mixdown compression? just curious...

KT76 a good price and is pretty cheap at times. Mono- single. $140 used sometimes, new price sale can be <$200.
Single Mono..
(there's one now $138. Re-box. biut its in 8 carts!)
These can get sound, some distortionish-sounds or clean...1176.

all the others mentioned, in my experience is dbx, symetrix, Ales Aphex, , Focusrite silver,Behringer ultra ic-based seemed familiar to me. they aren't color, more like a functional studio tool. For the ic-type Id go for the near cheapest one as they sound similar.

FMR seems to be accepted by studios all over. Its desktop half rack size. Its clean but can have some smoothing sound that works.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I tried the RNC once. I would describe it as a bit "puffy" sounding, which worked on some things but not others.

 

[RRuskin]

T

I tried the RNC once. I would describe it as a bit "puffy" sounding, which worked on some things but not others.

The "Really Nice" mode is so transparent that other than controlling level, one is hard-pressed to hear any compression at all.

 

[TascamJimi]

Hey folks, always great to come back here and see so many quality responses ! Those RNC's have doubled in price the last few Months. Production ceasing is the cause I'm sure.... If I recall they were $200 used not that long ago, now they're well over $300 so that's out. I'll be using it for stereo mixdown. It's overwhelming on how many are on the market, heck DBX seems to have over a dozen alone !! Thank you all for your helpful suggestions..... I have a lot more reading to do, but at least I have some signpost to help now.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

There's a difference between compressing for a mix and limiting for mastering. It's standard practice to do those in separate steps, but an argument could be made for doing both in one pass if you're trying to minimize the number of analog tape generations. But your recordings are digital, so I don't see why you would run them through an analog compressor when the advantages to staying digital are so clear. I wouldn't want to use any budget compressor on a mix unless I really had no choice. Also, I use plenty of compression on tracks, and sometimes on a bus, but almost never on a mix. One thing I spent money on was a good mastering limiter plugin. To replicate that in hardware would be in the thousands.

All that said, if you are bent on doing it, I'd go for the 166A (not the older 166 or the later 166XL). Using it on a mix will probably benefit from the contour switch. It also has a "peakstop limiter," so you could compress and limit in one pass. What that limiter does isn't pretty, but technically it would work.

 

[Papanate]

T

The "Really Nice" mode is so transparent that other than controlling level, one is hard-pressed to hear any compression at all.

That’s been my experience.

 

[CoolCat]

Hey folks, always great to come back here and see so many quality responses ! Those RNC's have doubled in price the last few Months. Production ceasing is the cause I'm sure.... If I recall they were $200 used not that long ago, now they're well over $300 so that's out. I'll be using it for stereo mixdown. It's overwhelming on how many are on the market, heck DBX seems to have over a dozen alone !! Thank you all for your helpful suggestions..... I have a lot more reading to do, but at least I have some signpost to help now.

I bought it a few times and sold it because ...nevermind....lol
but yeah used was like $85 back then and they didn't come with a p.s. new. So $100+ is now $150-200. New was $189 wasn't it.? Add in Reverb fees and Taxes etc...shipping.

Agree so many choices, Single or Dual , Color vs Clean, Rack or Desktop, noise gates or not, Price, Shipping and fess vs Avaialble local

When I was 15 or so, the dealer said "if you can hear the compressor, its probably set to too much limiting". Later, for vocal I was surprised finding a lot of the vocal tracks were small setting of 2 and weren't smashing the signal..well.. then the CLA 1176 ALL IN, stuff was, so its very versatile in how you use the comps.

Are you going to try to "level " all your songs to the same level for a set of songs, or something like that?
That old Alesis Master link was made for doing that. $2000 back in the day....made your ADAT stuff RedBook Mastering CD levels...

Tracking - Bass and a little on Vocals is one application. Channel Strips etc..

Compressing aka Masters and Mixes...I never did any of that with hardware. Seems then its a much more complex signal.

 

[TascamJimi]

Hmmm..... the last few posts have me re-thinking things. Being a newbie is tough with so much information. I thought sending your mix through a compressor before burning to a cd ( showing my age again ) was just standard practice. Apparently it's not a 'written in stone' technique. I think I'm going to go back to reading and listening for more information. Sorry to have wasted anyone's time....All the post above taught me much and will come in handy with a little more experience.