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anonymous 9 December 2001

Hi all - I'm in the market to get a REALLY great compressor to track into Pro Tools. Primarily I record vocals and guitar .
I want flexibility in the compressor (ie from transparent to obvious) and also lotsa headroom. In particular something that can handle transients and peaks without 'popping' artifacts..
Money is no object so please cast your votes...thanks! :D

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Jon Atack Mon, 12/10/2001 - 14:02

I must be the only one who doesn't like the Distressor on voice (with or without the British Mode)...and I had four of them before selling two recently.

Personally, for all-around vocals and guitar I would recommend an 1176LN, a LA2A, and a Tubetech CL1B. All three have a different tone and are about as good as it gets at what they each do well.

Jon

Guest Mon, 12/10/2001 - 15:14

John, he is after ONE versitile unit!

:)

I personaly, one day, want an EAR compressor, it's a Fairchild style compressor.. And they are known as THE top of the pile.. while an origional mono fairchild unit may run to over $20,000 and stereo units MUCH more, the EAR is much less.

http://www.earpro.com/cl660.html

If money REALY was of no object, I would buy a stereo Fairchild in a heartbeat.

:)

anonymous Mon, 12/10/2001 - 19:14

Originally posted by Julian Standen:
John, he is after ONE versitile unit!

:)

I personaly, one day, want an EAR compressor, it's a Fairchild style compressor.. And they are known as THE top of the pile.. while an origional mono fairchild unit may run to over $20,000 and stereo units MUCH more, the EAR is much less.

http://www.earpro.com/cl660.html

If money REALY was of no object, I would buy a stereo Fairchild in a heartbeat.

:)
thanks for all the responses my shorlist is the distressor / cranesong trakker or STC-8 at the moment... BTW when I said money was no object I was speaking in the 3-5 K range - 20K+ is in my opinion craaaaaazy...
;)

anonymous Thu, 12/13/2001 - 06:44

I agree with what Jon Atack stated...

As for the 3 mentioned, my vote for 'just one' would be the 1176. It works well with almost anything.

Although the LA2A is great on many sources, there are things it is not appropriate for.

The CL1B is probably the most versatile of the 3 (more knobs), but consequently a little tricker to set up.

Again, for the 'desert island' approach, I would choose the 1176.

YMMV

anonymous Thu, 12/13/2001 - 22:02

I have no friggin idea how to quote here, so;

THE MIX FIX posted:

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Yes. Of the three. 2 knobs on the LA2A, 4 on the 1176, many on the CL1B.

<>

Not. Never said bad.

Just that it's hard to screw up something simple and easy to screw up when presented (many) more options. Hence the tricky.

Normally, during tracking, I'm not (personally) into tweaking the compression. I prefer to do some general processing, and save the tweak stuff for mix time. Usually keeps me from screwing something up (too badly) as well. Kind of like a haircut...

And the question was worded as to lead me to understand "going into PT" as tracking... Not mixing.

But, I track with all three, and I mix with all three, and I recommend the 1176 for the reasons stated.

YMMV

mixfactory Fri, 12/14/2001 - 01:38

Probably the most versatile compressor on the market today is the Distressor. Old would be the Neve 32264a. If you are doing vocals maybe a CL1B. I don't use compression when tracking guitars, but the few times I had, the CL1B did a nice job of staying out of the way. It is more neutral than colored, if that matters any.

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