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Hello everyone,

I made a quick overview and demo video for the Fostex MN-50. I was surprised to see that there were zero videos on YouTube show casing this compressor. If you've been on these forums long enough you must have seen the name of this unit come up again and again. Often touted as the secret weapon for a trashy drum sound. Some say it's a hunk of overrated junk, other's keep it in their back pocket for when it's needed to spice up a track. I hope the video can be appreciated around here.

 

Cheers, 
Mario

Comments

audiokid Tue, 10/04/2022 - 07:22

Interesting. Been in pro audio for 4 decade and this site has had most of the worlds finest vintage sound engineers that go back to the Motown years and I cannot find one topic or one post about this comp ever talked about  I've never heard of it either. Good to discover something new after all those year 👍🏼

I suspect however, this wasn't something anyone would have ever considered useful back in the day and today I'm pretty certain any plugin would be more useful today but that sure doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a fun one to have for something. Sometimes the noisiest rack crap gets surprising results! 

Thanks for sharing.

Evilash1996 Fri, 10/07/2022 - 16:52

"...I'm pretty certain any plugin would be more useful today." I shudder at your comment! Plugins are for traitors!

Kidding of course, maybe one day I will step into the world of plugins but for now I hold onto my noisy, buzzy sounding gear and refuse to change! ...In all seriousness you are correct in the fact that these units were probably disregarded with indifference when they were current. If I was told professional engineers from the Motown era were using this piece of equipment on their drums I'd faint in my seat; this unit is definitely more tailored to the garage/lo-fi/DIY type of crowd.

I heard about this item by searching endlessly through threads (not just this forum I browse through them all) titled something along the lines of "Cheap gear with a bug punch" or..."hidden gems people sleep on"...ya know something along those lines.  Hell most of the gear I own is because I am searching through these cheapskate threads.  I like to consider myself "frugal" instead of cheap though ;)  Do you have any sleeper gear you can reccomend?

Cheers,
Mario

Paul999 Sat, 10/08/2022 - 06:21

Well done video Mario!, 

The sleeper gear I would mention is the Behringer B906 mic and although it is a plugin the Waves MV2.