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I recently purchased a digi 002, and am working towards creating a small demo quality home studio. What mic preamps and compressors are out there that yield the most bang for the buck?

Comments

anonymous Sat, 06/02/2007 - 17:48

ART is not particularly admirable stuff. Those little "euro" mixers like the Behringer UB stuff have preamps that are fine for anything but audiophile mania. For compressors I always look at dbx first; they have the moves, they know what they're doing. Although my Ashly compressor sounds best on my own voice.

tifftunes Sat, 06/02/2007 - 20:35

+1 for the Mackie pre amps.

Best bang for compressors is the Alesis 3630 ($99) that everyone seems to hate. It is THE top selling compressor in history! And a lot of great music was made with this compressor. Much of that is for the jingle market however...

I prefer the software compression available from Cubase SX to the Alesis. But for a hardware solution, next up the ladder is FMR Audio's RNC ("Really Nice Compressor" @ $199). It is quite transparent, and the "Super Nice" mode is worth the price of admission all by itself!

I prefer opto compressors that add character, but aren't necessarily transparent. The better DBX comps fit this category, and are quite good (I have some experience with the now ancient 160).

I prefer to avoid a VCA compressor/limiter. I think good character is part of rock n roll! Therefore, the opto compressors are first choice. The two best known (as far as I know) would be the LA2A (new or old) and Ted Fletcher's Jow Meek compressors. The latter of which I have hundreds of hours experience with. Great stuff!

Anyway, there is no one answer for this stuff. "Making do" is one of the boundries that defined The Beatles Sgt Pepper's album. So, by that token, get what you can afford and learn to use it, and make the best recordings you can. Lots of great RnR was made with just a handful of Shure SM57s and cheap recording gear. So, have at it!!

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