best cheap compressor

I personally never liked my DBX compressor, i sold the model i had right away and bought a really nice compressor (RNC) for about $180 nothing comes close IMHO at that price range.

The RNC is reputed to be an extremely nice and transparent compressor. Have not used one myself though. You can check out http://www.sound-room.com .

http://sound-room.com/customer/home.php?cat=7

sidhu

i demo'd a RNC in a shop and literally said out loud "wow" when i set it to super nice mode (soft knee-like), the thhing is very transparent and soft knee sounding, it sounded great. This character prob good for voice i'd imagine... do others agree?

I personally love the RNC as well. Although I've used dbx 160's extensively and they get a really great "breathy" sound if you're into that. They're not nearly as transparent as the RNC in my opinion, but that can be a good thing. Either way I think you'll be happy.

I use the RNC for mainmix compression whenever I'm doing a quick mix through the board, love it. I set it at a low ratio with average attack and quick release, really punches out the drums & bass.

the DBX 166 is a fine unit. It works great and sounds great. Adjust your ratio to around 4: 1, for nice vocal compression, maybe a little bit more. Make sure your gain reduction hovers between 10 and 20 DB on your loud passages. Make sure your output level is not too high so as not to overdrive the input to your computer soundcard. Very easy to do. Turn your computer soundcard line level input up to 7 or about two thirds of the way up. Adjust the output of your limiter carefully.

The RNC looks like a nice unit but I would prefer to maintain the balanced connection from the Pre's to the Soundcard and the RNC uses unbalanced connections. I am primarily looking for limiting to prevent accidental clipping of the cards input. I may pick one of these up just to have a a decent compressor but my primary need is limiting.

The 160a is a very well-respected compressor that LIMITS well, too. The RNC is a great-sounding little box, mucho better than the 166, but.. based on how you stated you wanted to use it, I would say that you'd be better off with a pair of the 160a's...IMHO

The dbx 166, 160X, 160XT and current 160A were hot items is days past when there was far less to choose from and compression was a young child. After hearing, using and owning very good compressors, you quickly learn how the artifacts from those units lead to crappy sound. The newer 166XL and 1066 while useable and a bit better than the old models, I for one was very disappointed in their sound. Now the blue 160SL and even the purple 162SL are a whole different product that are both wonderful. Good enough where I even had to buy two 160SL's because they are such a work horse compressors for me.