It holds it in place really well without being intrusive. I am old enough to remember that they were the standard compressor used in analogue outboard racks. To my ears, the plugin version is an exact copy of the original, plus some extra features like the mix facility.
I love to use it on bass guitars as it shapes the sound with warmth and depth and lets me position the bass perfectly in the mix, adding great color and character. Its ability to blend in the mix enables you to use and abuse! It's true of all dbx units that they dull the highs when compressing heavily, but I'd say the older one does that much less than the new one. But before you go rushing out to buy an old , remember that these units are often noisy; they used opamps that were not as good as what's available today, and the components have deteriorated with age.
The I have is somewhat noisy, especially on one of the channels, yet the A and XL are noiseless. Personally I don't think so, unless you can get the for very cheap, or if you already have one. For this reason, I recommend the model A as the one to buy.
Potentially better sound than the XL, and potentially lower noise than the old I have to say "potentially" because there are so many variables that can affect these results, and as I mentioned before, there are some settings where these units all sound pretty much the same.
All three models have been made both in the USA and in China. With the original old 's, believe it or not, the Chinese ones are more ruggedly-built and heavier. With the later A and XL models, the only way to tell the difference is by looking at the words printed on the back panel. For all three, this is a one-space-high rackmount unit, with two channels that can be run in stereo or separately as dual-mono.
It also has extra features such as gating, expansion, and peak limiting. I suggest everyone read the top portion where we give a quick overview of all you need to know about compressors before jumping down to our reviews. What we'll do is separate them into price categories and show you the best of the best in each budget range.
We've had the good fortune to be able to try and hear all of these. If it's on the list, it's more than good enough in that budget range! If you truly know the deal with these miracle machines, then feel free to skim through it and get to our suggestions below. But if you're unsure or need guidance about which type of compressor you need, take the time to read this section so you can make an informed and confident decision.
All audio is an electrical or digital signal. Studio recording and mixing boils down to how we capture this audio and then how process the signal in order to promote a pleasant, clear listening experience. A compressor is a key component in balancing the varying amplitudes to remove some dynamics.
What this means is that a compressor is designed to lower the volume of the loudest parts of your recording so that they more closely match the quieter parts so that everything can be heard more comfortably. The nuances are essentially raised in volume in this way so all of the details can be heard. Beyond this basic yet all-important task, it can also be used to sculpt the signal to promote or hide specific details in your signal, such as making sure the initial smack of a snare can be heard or hiding the ear-piercing sounds of sibilance and plosives.
Compressors can also function as noise gates and limiters as well They are one and the same. There are three different labels based on what the compressor is set up to do, but in the end they are all compressors.
The differences have to do with how you set up the threshold and ratio, mainly. With a limiter, you'd set the threshold at a high amplitude with the highest ratio possible. This essentially blocks the signal from rising above that threshold, limiting the maximum volume allowed. A noise gate is kind of the opposite. Unless your signal rises above the threshold, then no other sounds can get through. So with a gate you'd set your threshold just above the noise floor.
So when only static and ambient noises can be heard without the desired signal like the singer's voice, it simply mutes everything. Sidechaining a compressor refers to the compression of your main signal based on what's happening in a second signal. So when the second signal crosses a specific threshold, it applies compression to the main signal. Here's a couple examples and a diagram:.
In TV, radio, and theater productions where the main attraction is the voice of the speaker or singer, you can automatically "ride the fader" of all of the background music and sounds with a sidechain compressor. This is called ducking.
You're ducking turning down the volume the background sounds out of the way of the lead vocals whenever the vocals are playing. A very common mixing practice when dealing with bass and kick drums is to duck the bass whenever the kick fires off. This is an easy way to make sure the kick can be heard clearly since they both exist in the same frequency range most of the time.
Equalization can only get you so far, but ducking the bass out of the way of the kick's attack can help the listener's brain latch on to the kick.
This is another advanced mixing technique that requires a compressor. There are lots of genres of music where varying dynamics are necessary to maintain the emotional breathing of the performance. The game becomes keeping these dynamics while also making sure the details can be heard clearly. This is where parallel compression comes in sometimes called New York Compression :. What a mixing engineer will do is split the signal into two and lightly compress or not compress at all one version of the signal.
Then he or she will aggressively compress a second version. They will then bring the two signals back together and balance the volumes so that the quietest but important details can be heard while allowing the original take to vary in volume. This is a summary of which an entire short book could be written. Please check out our full exploration of compressors if you want to dig deep. The threshold is the line you draw in the sand in terms of volume.
If the signal crosses above the threshold, compression is applied. Ratio: This determines how much compression is applied. It may range from no compression up to limiting. As an example, let's say you're choosing a ratio for vocals. This means that for every 5 dB that the signal goes over the threshold, only 1 dB will be allowed through. If the signal goes 10 dB over, then it is reduced to 2 dB based on this same ratio.
Attack: The attack is how fast the compressor reacts to the signal jumping over the threshold. It may range from 0. The fastest setting means "immediate" while you may choose a slower attack so the initial transient of the instrument can come through before compression clamps down on the rest.
Release: This refers to how long the compression is sustained after the signal drops back below the threshold. You can set it to be immediate in terms of milliseconds or hang on for several full seconds. Too fast and you may hear a weird pumping sensation. Too slow and you'll create end up creating constant fade-outs.
Of course you also have options like Gain, which is a volume control for your final signal leaving the compressor, and Invert, which can flip the phase of the signal for you which can help in stereo recording.
The gain is important to make-up the overall volume you've reduced to maintain your proper gain staging.
We're not going to talk about software plugins, which attempt to emulate hardware compressors. Each of the hardware types perform their job in different ways, such as optical compressors that convert the electrical signal to light and manage the intensity of the light, and pure electronic ones. I wouldn't worry too much about all of that since most are electronic anyways.
The thing to worry about is the form factor as mentioned above. Without beating this horse again since we've done it in so many articles before, the entire point is that you need to decide the shape you want your compressor to come in. If you intend on only ever buying a single compressor and not a lot of other gear, you may be happy with a single channel desktop box that sits right on your desk.
Otherwise, if your'e going to acquire a lot of various studio gear, you should consider the standard 19" rackmount form. It screws into a cabinet along with the rest of your preamps, equalizers, etc. There is also the Series that screws into a tiny rack called a lunchbox.
A lunchbox can either be portable or itself can mount into a larger rack. Rackmount compressors will generally feature one or two channels, while Series feature one channel, requiring you to buy two of the same model if you want to capture and compress a stereo signal. And finally there are compressors that are inside of channel strips. Channel strips are typically come in the rackmount shape but are taller and may require two or three units of your rack space.
They include a preamplifier, a compressor, and an equalizer in serial form so you can clean up and mix a single signal live before pushing it into the computer or P. For instance, the Avalon VTsp features not only one of the best compressors but also one of the best mic preamps available. There are a lot of very common and specific questions about using a compressor live or in the studio. It's likely that most of you reading this might have one or a few of these questions yourself.
Let's smash through them real fast. If you have a standalone preamplifier, then you'll output your signal from the preamp to the compressor with a TRS cable and then on to an equalizer, converter, or interface. If your using a recording interface that features a preamp that feeds straight to the converters, then you'll want to check and see if your interface has an insert. This will allow you to insert the compressor using a TRS cable between the preamp and converters.
While not all interfaces have inserts a cheap audio interface won't for sure , you can usually route directly from an output into a compressor and then back into the next line-in input to get around this scenario.
I typically do, however lots of people tell you not to as well. The reason not to is that once you apply compression before the signal hits the computer, you can't undo it. The reason to go ahead is that you can dial in better gain staging, especially if you don't have a lot of headroom.
What I do is apply a light amount of compression, especially on vocals, to make sure there won't be any surprise clipping and distortion that ruins an otherwise perfect take. I then will apply more compression later. Is it? At this point, technology is advanced enough that both do their job perfectly. The problem with relying only on software plugins is that you can't apply compression to your signal before it's already passed the converters, which means you can't safeguard against clipping.
Otherwise, for mixing they do just fine albeit it's less fun than mixing through hardware. The benefit is that one license of a plugin supplies you with as many as you need. You can compress as many tracks at once with several instances of the same plugin. With hardware, you need a separate compressor for every channel, which can get expensive. I don't care who you are though, I suggest having at least one hardware compressor for vocals for the reasons I mentioned above regarding clipping.
This compressor can give some really cool punch. I personally tend to use this one more on bass guitar, funky guitar, sometimes bass drum.
This ART compressor is a great deal for the price. You get 2 channels, so you can run 2 instruments through this one. This dbx compressor is great to learn the ropes as it is very affordable, and it does a good job. It also has 2 channels. Frequency range low is 35 Hz, therefore the downfall of this compressor it isn't good for bass instruments.
Check Amazon Price. Like the dbx XS, this one has a great price point but is slightly more expensive. The frequency range is 20 Hz to 20kHz making is great for bass instruments too. I have not personally used this Golden Age Project compressor to give my take on it, but it is reviewed well for use on vocals. When you do purchase your first compressor, give it a try on several different instruments to see what you find has the best sound to your ears.
This will help you decide when to use it. For example, I am a big fan of the LA-2A sound on bass guitar and bass drum, but I do not tend to use it on guitar as I feel it gives too funky of a sound for my rock genre tastes. Having the best audio compressor for your needs will add to your recording tricks that will make your mixes better.
Also keep in mind your budget. There are some great compression plugins out there that will give a cheaper alternative. For more on plugins, check out our article here. However, I will say that I like to use the hardware compressor when recording, then add the compressor plugin when I am mixing. If you do these both and don't over-compress, you can have a great outcome! It is important to understand what the different knobs of a compressor to do so you know how to use the best audio compressor to your advantage in the studio.
Let's take a look at the different knobs on a compressor:. If you have a quicker release time and lower ratio, the signal will appear to be louder.
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