Conveniently using stereo equipment in mono with a patch bay?

  • Thread starter Thread starter maxmax77
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maxmax77 said:
Hi everyone,

I am setting up my first patch bay (TRS), and I’m plugging in some of my stereo equipment like the FMR really nice compressor. This piece of gear, in addition to some others I own, can operate in either mono or stereo/dual mono.

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Max
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How are you liking your FMR compressor? I've had their RNLA7239 Leveling Amplifier on my wish list for the past year. I'll also need a larger audio interface for patching it in, so it'll still be awhile.
 
spantini said:
How are you liking your FMR compressor? I've had their RNLA7239 Leveling Amplifier on my wish list for the past year. I'll also need a larger audio interface for patching it in, so it'll still be awhile.
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Loved it while I had it — my old apartment flooded from a burst pipe, and the RNC didn’t make it (fortunately most of my gear was salvageable).

I think the RNC is quite cleverly designed. Most love it for the “super nice” mode, I used that mode all the time for acoustic guitar, vocals, anything where I wanted smooth, essentially unnoticeable control of the audio signal’s magnitude. Only thing to be aware of when using super nice mode is that the settings for attack, release and ratio cannot be interpreted literally like they can be in regular mode: since super nice mode has 3 cascading compressor circuits, the dials operate differently than in regular mode. But like, in a super cool way.

Regular mode was equally useful, and here the dial settings were literal. You can get much more noticeable compression with this mode, which I liked just as much as super nice mode. It’s a scalpel in regular mode, great for fast transient control or crazy pumping effects or anything in between. Between the two you’ve got a super flexible piece of gear. Wasn’t crazy about it for bass guitar, but I wasn’t very good at using a compressor on bass at this point so it may have just been user error. I bet it could flourish on many bass parts with appropriate attack/release settings in super nice mode.

Only con I can think of for the RNC is the lack of balanced inputs — the outputs are actually electronically balanced, which is nice. I kept the unbalanced cables short, at least a foot and a half from parallel power cables, and perpendicularly crossing power cables when needed and I never had audio degradation/noise issues.

When replacing my RNC, though, I decided to save up and get a Serpent Audio Splice mkII. Amazing 1176-style comp with tons of excellent sculpting options like a 2:1 ratio, input and output transformers from the blue stripe and blackface models, a wet/dry control and more. It meets so many of my needs, but it being mono I’d love to have a stereo comp on hand too. Maybe the RNLA or the RNC would do everything I need there! Getting an RNC, RNLA and PC-6A in one rack tray would be perfect…that being said, I may save up for one of those incredible audioscape bus compressors, one of Drawmer’s stereo comps, or an elyssia xpressor.
 
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maxmax77 said:
. . . Wasn’t crazy about it for bass guitar, but I wasn’t very good at using a compressor on bass at this point so it may have just been user error. I bet it could flourish on many bass parts with appropriate attack/release settings in super nice mode. . .
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I haven't tried either model yet. The RNLA is supposed to be nice for bass - me being a bass player, I'm always looking for that magic.
 
spantini said:
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I haven't tried either model yet. The RNLA is supposed to be nice for bass - me being a bass player, I'm always looking for that magic.
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I’ve heard that too! Yeah in your situation if I was getting a comp mostly for bass (that wasn’t a pedal), I might get the RNLA over the RNC. If I had to guess the RNC would probably be a good tool for bass, but it might not have that “magic”. You considering any pedals?
 
My old favorite has always been the Boss CS 2 or 3. I began using them after I bought my '65 Höfner 500/1, around 1980. They worked well together for live gigs. I keep an eye out for good used ones, but I'm not wanting to pay more than around $50. All the ones I've run across are in the $60 and UP range.
 
That's awfully tempting, but so many reviews concerning poor or lacking performance, e.g. noise, lack of sustain, extremely short life-span and other various issues. I really don't mind the plastic housing and complicated battery access. Hell, it would be almost criminal not to buy one at this price just to see if I got a good one. GC doesn't carry them. Amazon is currently unavailable. Sweetwater has them with a 30-Day return, I might just jump on that one. WTH, right?
 
Quality control might be an issue, but it’s a nuts-on clone which should be indistinguishable from the original in fair comparison.

i can say that I hate it as much as the boss one. :)
 
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