looking to add a comp limiter
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Posted on Apr 13, 2009 01:10 am
black2002ls
Member Since: Jan 29, 2009
I run the house sound system at a local music venue and I feel its about time for me to start building my own base of equipment. I plan to start with things that will improve the sound quality and ease of use of the system that I work with most frequently.
I feel right now 2 things the system I currently work with could use is a compressor/limiter for vocals, drum, and bass. As well as a cross over. Any recommendation on brands and specific items would be great. I would like to get the most bang for the buck as well!
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Apr 13, 2009 05:54 pm To start with, I would look at a Gate for the drums, and comp for only the bass and vocals.
For brands, I would say DBX to start with. Take a look at the DBX 1066 for the comp. www.zzounds.com/item--DBX1066
It has a gate, but they are not the best. I would look on ebay for a Drawmer gate. www.drawmer.com/products/pro-series/ds404.php
The 404 is a great unit. But the knobs will seem as if they are backwards. Once you get use to that, they are fantastic.
Apr 13, 2009 06:47 pm ouch. pricey units. I know quality comes at a price. Anything mid range to recommend?
how are the BDX 266XL's?
Apr 13, 2009 07:03 pm Any DBX is just fine.
Apr 13, 2009 07:44 pm thanks for the input. I've been looking for some used items in good condition, I know its risky, but Having lost my job and trying to build this with what I have available, its my only option.
Apr 13, 2009 10:12 pm Oh, so sorry to hear that. I'll keep an eye out for unbeatable deals.
Apr 14, 2009 12:59 pm If you are near a large urban area, Craigslist might be a good place to look. I'm actually negotiating on an Alesis 3630 compressor- for less than $50 (these are new online for about $99). Of course, there is no guarantee, but if the price is low enough, I can take that risk. I've read decent feedback on this model, but welcome anyone else's 2 cents. I can say that I used a Behringer (MDX4600), and it didn't work as expected. It seemed like it was either On or Off, with no way to set it at a lower level of compression, despite what the knobs and manuals said. To be honest, I thought for a long time that it was just how I had it set, but the two previous sound guys in my venue pulled it offline, and I wound up doing the same thing. All four channels acted the same way, so I really felt it was not malfunctioning (either this model is a piece of junk, or I still had it set wrong). Either way, it's gone, and I have a bad feeling about anything Behringer...
Apr 14, 2009 01:14 pm Behringer well, there are OK I guess. I have always found them to noisy. And don't even attempt to look at the silkscreen for your settings. They are usually way off.
Sad to say, I find that Alesis is very much in the same category. Our industry is very much "You get what you paid for" driven.
If you can find a Drawmer, or Focusright Red, or a Klark Teknik for cheap. Well then you got something there.
DBX sadly now a days has fallen to the mid category. Along with PreSonas, and BBE. Any of these are just fine. And will work for a good long time for you.
But, like I said. You get what you pay for. So just be aware of that when looking to make a purchase.
Apr 14, 2009 01:15 pm those are close, I'd like to get out for under $100 and thats the upper limit. funds are tight. However, I need to start building my equipment base. I'm watching a few on ebay to see what happens. I'm not a huge fan of behringer either, but my feedback eliminator is holding up well
monmixrIf 50hz 60 will kill ya.Member
Since: Jan 08, 2009
Apr 15, 2009 06:29 am Ive used behringer composer pros, and for your budget, mabey thats the way to go.I forget sometimes on this forum about the cost of some gear. Im blessed to work for some large production companys that have world class gear. The bottom line is, will it work or not ? now, as Rob said, the behringer might be a little noisey but (and im not being mean) at this level, the whole rig is probably not as quiet as it could be, and you wont notice it. the gate on the composer works and so does the comp. as far as the screening, who reads that anyway??? get it in the ballpark and trust your ears. I agree with Rob that DBX in an attempt to get a larger market share has screwed the pooch, and at this point although I still have some 900 gates I love and some 160s I love, I wouldnt spend the money on anything new from them.
Apr 15, 2009 10:26 pm Ooooh, DBX 900. Only one guy around here even has them any more. Now if you ever find one of them for sale cheap black20021s. BUY IT!
Back in the day. DBX was king. They even made their own components for their pieces. If it didn't exists, they invented it. VCA's, IC's, you name it, they made it.
They sold everything to a company called THAT. And moved to the secondary market that they are now. It's sad really. A company that was ran into the ground like that. And for the life of me, I don't know why.
Anyhow, The 900 itself is just a frame. Then it has modules that plugs into the frame. You could put a compressor, gate, EQ, you name it. You just plugged it in and inserted it into the channel that you wish. Great piece.
Also, back in the day. They made the 160, and 165 with large VU meters on the face. Which is still a great sounding piece.
They are not as quite as the high dollar units out there. But, still not that bad either.
Here is what an empty 900 looks like.
And here is the 903 comps.
monmixrIf 50hz 60 will kill ya.Member
Since: Jan 08, 2009
Apr 16, 2009 01:31 am I have 7 904s and 2 903s in the frame and 2 spare 903s. I didnt think anyone would know what those were, but thats cause I wasnt thinkin about Rob lol.
Apr 17, 2009 10:49 am just picked up a DBX 266xl on ebay for 80 shipped to me. Should be here first part of next week, hopefully I have an acoustic show to work on Tuesday so I can get familiar with how everything works. Only thing about it is that it is missing one of the knobs, guess I'll have to contact dbx for that
Apr 17, 2009 07:31 pm If you talk to them nicely, sometimes they will send you one for free.
Apr 22, 2009 01:00 pm Can someone give me a little insight on using this DBX, I've read through the manual, I understand some of it, just not all of it, can someone put it in laymen's terms? Possibly some good starting points for using the compressor on the vocals? I'll have my first real test with this thing on Friday and Saturday
Apr 22, 2009 01:28 pm Well let me go through this with you. I'll start by going knob by knob on it.
The first part of the unit is a simple gate.
The threshold tells the gate, when do you want to release. So, think of it as your meters on your board. Just laid out as the ring on a dial. When the incoming signal reaches that level, the gate opens. And when the incoming signal drops below that level, the gate closes.
The next one on the gate, is the ratio. This tells the gate how much of the signal to let through. When it's set to 1:1, there is no reduction. When it's set to 1:2, Then the incoming signal must raise 2 dB, in order to let out 1 dB.
So, 1:1 is no compression. And 4:1 is on the heavier side. Now this is only on the gate side of things.
On the compressor side, you start off with the same first two knobs. And they do the same exact thing for the comp. But, now the threshold tells the comp when to start compressing. So when signal reaches "Blank" start to compress.
And the same with the ratio. Only allow this many dB out, when signal reaches this level.
The Attack, tells the comp to wait for "X" period of time when the signal reaches the threshold. You use the attack to set the frequencies that you want to pass. No attack time means that all frequencies will be compressed. Now the higher the attack time, the more low end is allowed to pass before the comp kicks in.
Release is how long it will hold on to the compressed signal. Which will effect high end.
So, attack for low end, Release for high.
I hope that output is self explainable.
There really is not any preset for compressors. It all depends on what you are putting it on. And how you want it to sound. The only thing similar to a preset, would be to start vocals around 3:1 on the ratio of the comp.
Other then that, you just have to play around with each singers comp till your ears tell you that's it right.
Apr 22, 2009 05:08 pm Okay, finally got around to testing the Sennheiser IEMs connected to the Line out in the back of the Ampeg SVT-3 Pro head with mixed results at best. When stage volume was at a reasonable level, the setup worked well. But, once everyone got rolling the stage volume was so loud he could barely hear himself. The buds were the original stock pair which came with the receiver. I'm guessing that if he had custom molded buds they would perform better.
Apr 22, 2009 09:36 pm This is why I was saying that you need to feed them from an Aux send from the board.
The line out is fixed to +4. Even with a volume pot on the back, the most you can get out of it is +4.
The line out of the board can go as high as +26 dB. Which will give him lots of head room.
