compressor help!

[bob]

well i'm looking to get a compressor mainly for processing drums. This is my first compressor and I will probably spend about £100. Any advice on which one?-I know that there aren't too many in this price range but any advice would be good. So far the dbx 266 has caught my eye.

[Sheridan]

any of the lower end compressors will all sound the same. in my opinion. I have an alesis 3630 and it does the job right. I like it a lot. I myself though would look at berhinger. we use a lot of the dbx stuff at my school and they are great, but a lot of my instructors talk highly of berhinger in regards to lower priced gear.

[bob]

behringer are certainly cheap I've just heard stories of their nastiness, but I suppose you get what you pay for don't you.

[c s]

behringer is in fact a two-edged thing. some gear is totally ok, as my mixers sound good for example, or an enhancer which a friend of mine bought. on the other hand their monitors were doomed by the press as "hi-fi speakers". also manufacturing quality is not always exactly cutting edge. i had a problem with a main fader and still had it after it was 'repaired', then i finally got a new mixer which now exposes the same problem every 3-6 months, but it's not really broken, the problem goes away again and as i said, the sound is not bad at all. the price was less than half of a mackie mixer and i claim that it sounds far better than half as good. and i do the real mixing inside the computer anyway.

[d-stroy]

Originally posted by bob
behringer are certainly cheap I've just heard stories of their nastiness, but I suppose you get what you pay for don't you.

definitely! i can't recommend behringer either, fried a mixing console couple of months ago, such a friend of mine, his didn't even last for a week, trash!

for compressors i can recommend drawmer.

[piscaries]

At all the major music stores in the US they've been blowing out T.C. Electronics Triple C compressors for about $200 (£125?). They seem really nice. My friend has one, but I've never really sat down and played with it so I can't give you an honest answer. I've had an Alesis 3630 and I can say that they did get the job done but don't really know how they compare to others in that price range.

[deccard]

i wouldn´t really recommend a cheap compressor. save some money and get a used better one. it really pays. my first one was a behringer autocom but that thing has not really the power to give some real pumping sound. better use some plug ins instead.
i have a spl dynamax and a dbx 1066 and they´re both great for their price.

[Ruben A]

I also had an alesis 3630 - I liked it aswell!
Now having an Aphex Easyrider.. which works very strange. But it ends up ok.
Behringer compressors are popular here too. You get a great value for your money... Maybe you can start with that and see how it works?

[marcin]

as for cheap compressors, go for Really nice compressor
RNC 1773 FMR Audio (http://www.fmraudio.com)
Its very cheap and its used in top class studios! really...
SOS wrote that its best compressor in the price range
to 2000usd and it costs only 200 bucks.
In my opinion stuff like Alesis, behringer sucks.
If you got some more money go for Emperical Labs distressor,
or Summit Audio's compressor.
Marcin

[piscaries]

also, presonus compressors look to be nice. not sure how they spec out against others in the prce range though.

@marcin
that fmr compressor looks nice... may hove to check that out. anyone here use the compressor modules on the nord modular or know how they compare to dedicatied compressors?

[marcin]

@piscaries, dont expect from nord to be all in one instrument, standalone
compressor sounds much better.
nord's compressor module is just usefull addition but nothing serious.

@bob, i forgot to mention that Joemeek's compressors sound excellent on drums,
try budget model SC 2.2, it costs 600 euro.

[bob]

Thanks for all the help! now I need to decide.....I hate deciding things!

[_JM]

Go for the FMR audio, it's amazing. I bought a DBX266 for $125 years ago. It's a doorstop now. You're better off saving another $80 and getting something usable. At the time it was good for learning the basic compressor settings, but you can do that with software nowadays.

If you're really into compression, the Presonus ACP88 is great. It's ~$700, but you get eight channels of really nice compression and gating.

JM

[anarchosyn]

RNC ("really nice compressor" - RNC is the real name)

Kills for the price.. do a quick search for it.

3630s blow, IMHO.. I've had one for nearly 5 years now.