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I am seriously considering buying, as I love my dbx 160A on vocals...no overload into DAW and natural sound. Any words on the EFFECT of the distressor on vocals?What colored sound does it impart,thanks a lot.

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anonymous Thu, 02/21/2002 - 08:34

Originally posted by dontae:
I am seriously considering buying, as I love my DBX 160A on vocals...no overload into DAW and natural sound. Any words on the EFFECT of the distressor on vocals?What colored sound does it impart,thanks alot.

Green. Definitely green. The more you turn it the greener it gets.

Honestly, I think you'll notice an 74% improvement in sound quality over the DBX 160a. It's my favorite thing in the studio 93% of the time. I'm +/- very happy with it and would like aproximately 2 more of them. For drums and vocals they are 95% supreme. If you don't abuse them they are 68% sweet and transparent, too.

I have nothing bad to say about them...except there is a lil' voodoo to get used to behind the various buttons. Anybody got anything bad to say about them? It was fun bashing the Voxbox!

Sir Bob Sun, 02/24/2002 - 10:42

Originally posted by Chris Girand:

Honestly, I think you'll notice an 74% improvement in sound quality over the DBX 160a. It's my favorite thing in the studio 93% of the time. I'm +/- very happy with it and would like aproximately 2 more of them. For drums and vocals they are 95% supreme. If you don't abuse them they are 68% sweet and transparent, too.

[/QB]

Question: Is the Distressor 68 % transparent? I thought the whole idea behind the Distressor is lack of transparency.

And what do you mean by, "I'm +/- very happy with it"? :confused:

dave-G Sun, 02/24/2002 - 16:45

The Distressor is by far my favorite and most used compressor. It is capable of so many different "sounds" that to say there's a Distressor "sound" is an injustice to the flexibility of the thing. It can be made to behave as a clean, gentle compressor, or as a harmonic-distortion-thickened jackhammer.

Plus, it's absolutely fun to use. Not as immediate as something with minimal controls and a built-in, always-happening "sound" like an LA2A or BA6A, but once you get acquainted to the various combinations of modes, ratios and link-button interaction, a Distressor is like a musical instrument.. Have I gone on too much? I like 'em. They do a lot of things really well.

-dave G

coldsnow Sun, 02/24/2002 - 17:21

I have only owned mine for about a month now. My view is a little different. It kicks ass on snare and bass drums. If I want to overdrive my amp sound even more it's also great. To get some weird effects on vocals it's well worth it. I don't find it (so far) that great on most vocals, however. My favorite is a Purple 1176 (MC76) or a LA2a type compressor. I don't feel that the Distressor is a good modeler of 1176's or tube el ops, and I didn't buy it for that. Anyways, because you like your DBX on vox, you may really like it, I tend to not like the sound of VCA compressors on vocals. Just a slightly different opinion.