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I read the specs, found it to be exactly what I am looking for. I need a preamp that is better than the one on my 828 MKII anyhow, and have been lusting after a hardware compressor for some time.

When I do use it for vocals it will be with my RODE NT2-A mic. Anyone care to offer any comments about this combo? Should I be as excited as I am for it to arrive, or should I smack myself on the forehead with a resounding "DOH!"

Comments

bobbo Sat, 02/18/2006 - 08:12

I have the hhb radius 30 which is the just the two channel compressor version when the company had a different name, and I like it, I got it used for real cheap. And i've used it on kick, snare, vox, bass gtr (direct in), distorted guitar, clean electric, acoustic gtr, drum machines, samples, and I like it a bunch, but I don't know if its just my model or what, but I cannot use the "slow" release with out hearing the compressor turn on and off, it is very annoying, but it works completely fine with fast release, and it does that on every source i run it through.

My two favorite things i've done with it is run my groove tubes gt66 through my vtb1 then into the radius 30 with mild compression on a nice acoustic, and it sounded very nice, smooth, I didn't need any eq except some low cut and thats it, and I also did a very basic expiremental recording where I set up my gt am51 mic in my main room and ran it through the vtb1 also and through the radius 30, and set it on the limiter setting, and i recorded (with one mic that is) myself, which i play drums, and my buddy who played acoustic and sang at the same time, and it is one of my favorite recordings, My drums sounded big, huge, tight kick drum, big snare vocals cut through perfect and acoustic was perfectly mixed in and sounded pretty good for being a very shitty acoustic. and it had the perfect "squishy" sound i was going for, which is subtle to my ears but I try and listen closely so I can hear it.

It also sounds good when you run a "nice" bass gtr through it, all shitty basses will suck through anything.

saemskin Sun, 02/19/2006 - 20:31

been playing with this alot, and wow! Nice piece.
I'm making a few samples so you can hear the compressor, or not :P but now I'm curious about 3 things:

-should I be worried about burying the needle? I was creating a synth patch on my NL2 and I eventually turned the input gain all the way up (of course) it really sounded good, but the needle was sorta slamming itself into the side of the meter. Should I avoid this?

-Also, when the units VU meter reads between 0 and 1, the input on my DAW reads between -4 and -6. What's going on here that I dont follow? Every stage of my setup is set at -10dbfs btw.

-What's another compressor that sounds this sweet when overdriven?

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