Outboard Compressors

I have an Alesis 3630.

plus one on that 3630. I also have a dbx 266xl which is a good little work horse, a behringer something something and a great little smasher called a gc2020, from yamaha i believe. no manual so guess work abound but it does nasty things to drums.
hope that's helpful.
peace.

Thanks for the heads up on the 3630 all. I had read some on gearslutz about it and it seemed like everyone had something bad to say about it.

Its good to hear the MPC heads enjoy it...will have to give it a try as its definitely in my price range and there are a fair amount of MODS to be done for it. Appreciate it!

Gearslutz is like any other forum, you will ALWAYS get bashing. THe best bashing comes from guys with zero field experience.

I've recorded countless albums on the 3630, it works solid. People put too much faith in the gear and forget that the most important component is the person operating the gear.

poundaproblem wrote:I've recorded countless albums on the 3630, it works solid. People put too much faith in the gear and forget that the most important component is the person operating the gear.

Truth.

Pound - have you used it on anything specific or everything? It seems like a good box to run drums and bass through. Your experience?

I mainly use it for vocals

I dont like it on drums overall (for a kit) I would use it on snares tho in a heartbeat and single shots

Never tried it on bass to be honest.

Also on the 3630... I got it for a mere $40 on Craigslist. Best $40 I've spent in that regard.

The 3630's are dirt-ass-cheap for a reason. Yes they can make your synths duck your kicks ala Alan Braxe/daftpunk style, and it does come down alot to user skill.. I say grip the 3630 so you can play with it but as for a midrange comp that will suit mpc/beatmaking well check the Focusrite Compounder, they can be had for cheaper (than you might expect) on ebay if you lurk hard enough.. Focusrite makes some decent stuff and its got a bottom end expander thats supposed to be pretty usable. Generally those exciter type features are marketing BS . The focusrite gets some good reviews and even so by the usual gear haters over on Gearslutz... FWIW i havent used the compounder but thats the next comp on my list.. A caveat here, I DO plan on buying a 3630 of my own so I can pump the fuc!< outta my synths sidechain style and otherwise, then free up a better comp of mine for other more important tasks, I just wouldnt want it as my ONLY comp.

Really if you are OTB then you should be considering several comps (the compounder is two chan).. Really i could easily have a smattering of many different comps across my mixes..
one for..
bass synth/sample tightening
duck the synths under the kick
individual drum tracks/elements
drum buss
vocals
main 'glue' comp for master buss

I bought a symetrix cl150 at a used music gear shop (cheap!) and its kinda an unknown piece but there was a lil internet info on it so i picked it up.. It works nicely as a parallel comp and i can get some really crunchy snares from it as well as abusing its sidechain inputs, point here, take a chance, look locally and see whatt you find..
It doesnt have to be a 1176 or nothing, just aim higher than a 3630...

Another one to look at is the dbx 160a,160x,theyre a lot better than the 266 or 166xls or whatever those cheapy sub $250 new boxes are.. the 160's are classics..
Search gearslutz for compressor topics, A LOT more info on there than mpc-forums...

^^^Yeah, I once owned two dbx 163x half rack comps. Got rid of them 'cause they were too simple to use.

One slider adjustment & gain control was all it had to offer. But TBH, I gave them to my uncle who never did anything with them and actually still has them.

Moved on & grabbed the DDP and never looked back.

yeah i need another yet another compressor to. i need to get rid of * ahem * Behringer Autocom MDX1200 that i use as a limiter on synths, cos thats all its really good for. My MPC goes through a Phonic PCL3200, and i love it. can get a fair range of effect with it and of course it can be used for de-essing, ducking and differential compression. i hae been looking at the new DBX comps so good read this thread... I dont really want to spend a lot of cash on a tube compressor....though i do have my eye on those SSL lunchboxs. hmmmmm

Just recently heard about this one. Sounds interesting for $500

http://overstayer.squarespace.com/stereo-compressor/

I use SSL and love it. Keep in mind, if you run a compressor then why not a pre-amp as well. Outboard gear requires a signal flow that makes sence its from source,running thru cables, thru an interface, thru cables, into a pre-amp, thru cables,into compressor, thru cables into interface, thru cables into destination, from destination ,thru cables, into interface, thru cables into monitors which are have built in compression in the speakers via the magnets and and ohm resistance.

Its not like you just get a compressor and it sounds great. You have to come correct or your wasting your time. Good luck.

I have a DBX 166xl, Drawmer MX30 and a nanocompressor.

I love the DBX for drums.

I do some band work with soundsystems @ festivals, and so tried out a lot of DBX/BSS/Drawmer, but for the money the focusrite's were head & shoulders better than the other ones I tested.
now I use:

focusrite compounder for kik & bass (kik from audio out 1 on the MPC - to comp - to mixer)
focusrite penta for taming my analog synth, or other things (mic/instrument pre's)
focusrite mixmaster on the main out of the mixer, to straighten everything out a bit.
it's a winning combination, an soooo shiny!

all mint, and all 3 off ebay for £420 UKP ($675 USD)
New price would have been over £1500 ($2400)

even compressed kik samples just sound better through a nice comp. I think it's the class A electronics, & overspec'd power supplies.

The mixmaster is especially good if there's lots of (mixer) channels of stuff going on, and just one pair of hands. the multi band compressor can affect each frequency band without affecting the rest, and it's got a really nice A/D card in it, for recording stuff. better than your average external soundcard, although it doesn't do D/A conversion..

maybe they're more expensive abroad though, don't know.

first of all the 3630 is junk i had one in like 97 98 and i was on crack when i thought it sound ed good. thats why you can find one for under 60 bucks. for the cheap if you like the art look for the TUBE PAC its a half rack with a pre and a comp in one there mono so get 2 of em for st. i have some expensive comps and i still use the tube pac arts. they sound better than the stomp box 1 trick pony joints. also check the joe meek
half rack stereo compresor very cool sound. I use this on the go a lot as well as recording its cheap and it bangs will act as a limiter as well. but for the compressor sound that they all talk about bringing out the mix expect to send some loot.

pcise77 wrote:first of all the 3630 is junk i had one in like 97 98 and i was on crack when i thought it sound ed good.

That's why I didn't buy into that joint, because I didn't want to get hooked.

Nah, but the only alesis efx box (non dynamics processor) I invested in was the Q2. I still have it, but it was the last thing I told myself that I'd throw money away on for something that didn't advance with the times.