Rnc?

  • Thread starter Thread starter muzeman
  • Start date Start date
muzeman

muzeman

New member
Hello all,
I've heard a lot of talk around about the RNC compressor,and was wondering about the actual quality of it.

I'm using a Presonus ACP22 and wondered if the RNC would sound better.The Presonus has more features,but I'd be glad to trade that for better sound quality.

People have written that the RNC sounds better than compressors costing much more.
What is it comparable to;Dbx,Meek,Focusrite,Manley,Avalon?

I live in northeast Jersey,does anyone know where I can get one up here?

Thanks
Pete
 
muzeman said:
Hello all,

People have written that the RNC sounds better than compressors costing much more.
What is it comparable to;Dbx,Meek,Focusrite,Manley,Avalon?
Click to expand...

I could not test it against any of the units you mention, I can only compare the original track and the compressed track. If you use it on the summing bus in super nice mode it is astonishing. You can really compress or limit heavily and the original sound of the recording does not change, all the high frequencys are still where they ought to be, the timbres of the instruments don't change, it just gets louder. Very quiet also. The unit *looks* cheap, but is very well built, so I think you can buy a used unit without taking much risk (I bought mine used, too).
The only situation where i couldn't find a proper setting was brass. If I really want to "squash" the sound, the attack of the instrument gives me distortion. But maybe I just have to try more.

Harald
 
It's the only hardware compressor I've used, but it's real nice for tracking in Super Nice Mode (preventing clipping), for mixing I use the Waves stuff on my PC. You can get them at http://www.mercenary.com
I've had some great experiences buying some $$$ gear from them. Good luck!
-Evan

muzeman said:
Hello all,
<snip>
I live in northeast Jersey,does anyone know where I can get one up here?

Thanks
Pete
Click to expand...
 
Thanks to everyone for your help.

I think Mannys in Manhattan has them,I am going to try to demo one there.

Thanks again,
Pete
 
What I hear is that the RNC can be compared to $600-800 compressors. That's a extremely incredable value. GET one, I'm sure you will not be disappointed...


Yeah...

No, really...
 
Only Problem Is...

...There are not too many compressors in the $600-$800 range...
 
Give me a break Recording Engineer, so the price is not exact. What is the RNC comparable to then?
 
Hey frank_1

I wasn't discrediting you, what you said, or the RNC... I own an RNC and use it EVERY session... I agree with you, I'm sure NO ONE will be disappointed with the RNC and that if they're still contemplating... JUST DO IT!

But, my point in my previous reply was simply, a complaint really; that there aren't many compressors, period, let alone anything "decent" in that $600-$800 range you mentioned. And I find preamps even worse-off...
 
I felt SOMEONE had to say something negative on the RNC, so here it is!

I had the RNC home and tried it out. It sure did sound very good, but there were two things about it that made me return it:

You can either use it for one stereo or one mono recording, not for dual mono. So if you're for example tracking bass guitar, where you might want to have one direct line and one mic'ed, you can't compress these signals separately.

Of course - one might argue that at that price, you could just buy two of them. But that of course doubles the price, and makes the competition from other units a bit harder.

The other thing is that the connections are unbalanced -10 level. I suppose that is OK if you use it with the inserts of a mixer console, but for me this doesn't work, since I don't use a mixer console at all - I use standalone mic preamps (TLAudio 5001 which doesn't have an insert) directly into my soundcard. Since I like to track more or less everything with some compression, all my tracking would be done at -10, and I simply don't find that satisfactory.

So for the home recordist (and after all this IS homerecording.com) I'm just as convinced as the rest of the world that the RNC is a great buy, but since I'm trying to move up a level, it just didn't suit me.

So what did I get instead? I was lucky to find a used Drawmer DL241 for the same price as the RNC. It's truly wonderful.
 
Just to clarify - the RNC is unbalanced, but can operate at +4 without any problems (what goes in is what comes out). I run the outs of my Great River MP2 (+4 unbalanced) into my RNCs and then into my Delta 44 set to +4, no problems! -10/+4 and balanced/unbalanced are two different things.
-Evan

Henrik said:
I felt SOMEONE had to say something negative on the RNC, so here it is!
<snip>
The other thing is that the connections are unbalanced -10 level. I suppose that is OK if you use it with the inserts of a mixer console, but for me this doesn't work, since I don't use a mixer console at all - I use standalone mic preamps (TLAudio 5001 which doesn't have an insert) directly into my soundcard. Since I like to track more or less everything with some compression, all my tracking would be done at -10, and I simply don't find that satisfactory.

<snip>
Click to expand...
 
Funny, it didn't work for me. I had to set the soundcard (also a Delta) to -10 to get a decent signal. Maybe I did something wrong (but the guy in the store didn't seem to have any objections when I described the situation).

But still, the dual mono thing was what really put me off.
 
Wowo, A Drawmer DL241 new costs like $700 or so. So in fact, two RNC's still are cheaper. :)

The way the RNC is made it would make it almost twice as expensive to support dual mono. So basically you get the second channel for free. ;)
 
Yeah, it's really not a good comparison in that sense. I was just lucky to find the Drawmer used at a decent price, actually less than one new RNC.

Generally I think people should buy more used gear.
 
Nope...

Never has any level issues with my RNC... It'll accept damn near ANYTHING I give it or send it to...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top