Turtlerock Forum

In the same vein as the Money channel pre's topic, If you could (or do) take your own comps to a gig, what compressors would they be for vocals? What's the best multi-channel (4-8) option?

i guess I've never really toured comps specifically. i mean - in the last thread i said that i have my little chain with the XL42 and BSS402.
my "go to's" are definitely 402 or dbx 160
but if i don't get them specifically i don't really care.

a lot of people say the avalon 737 is indispensable... but I've never really cared that much

what about you guys?

One of my favourites although i wouldn't call it a money chanel comp is the old DBX 163X. For the more impressive option I would love to try the Daking FET 11 comp and would like to hear from anyone who has used them. For what it's worth I regularly take my Avalon 747 for live mix duties over the stereo mix. Its very good for subtle eq shaping, eg adding or cutting the sub bass for diferent songs, tightening up the bottom end, adding fairy dust highs to cymbals and accoustic guitar during quiet sections etc, ect. It took me a while to get used to this box but now i have had it for ten years I don't think i could do without it as it's a real assett in many situations.

More possibilities for multi channels of comps;

DBX 900 rack with lots of 903's
or.. grab a lunchbox and fill it with comps of your choice.

cheers

i like a distressor for lead vocal,
and 160's preferably for bass and drums or otherwise some symetrix 501's?

I reckon the lunchbox options are great. Cool pres, cool comps, cool eqs. make your own channel strips to suit the music, use them on the stereo buss etc. If you want to see a truly impressive DIY built live system with 51x lunchboxes, 1073 and 1176 style kits check this link out. http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=43315.0

I remember a gig awhile back of a excellent local artist at the Prince bandroom. Really awful vocal sound so I wandered back to look over the FOH rig. The guy had a 'money' comp on the vocal and the snare which was a 2ru DBX stereo unit (maybe a 162 or 586?) and he was smashing the crap out of the vocal and the snare to the point where the vocal was completely blurred, the diction gone and the system regularly at the point of feedback. I just thought it was a waste. If he had used no compression the vocal would have sounded loads better but he looked like he needed the candy in his rack. Similar thing happened earlier this year when I saw the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Distressor across the vocals, distortion setting 2 and compressing the daylights out of the vocal. No tone, no diction, no dynamics and the vocal just disappeared anytime there was any volume on stage. Really disappointing.

granted having something special in the rack can be purely for your own ego
but i like a distressor of lead vocal purely for the flexibility of the detector, attack and release
3:1 or the like, just controlling, no distortion buttons in

but i guess if you are just going to smash stuff the options can just lead to mushing your singer!

I was at the Corner Hotel about ten years ago recording a legends of Sunbury show and one of the bands was using the bloke who had mixed them in the 70's who had been out of the game for quite a few years. They even had some of the original lighting guys from the ESP Lightshow mixing the colors for the liquid lighs in the toilets! ( bit of history for you young'ns: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_light_show)
The recording was up and running ok but i could hear there where problems with the FOH mix so i left the recording to my assistant and headed to the FOH desk. The poor fella was obviously sinking faster than he could swim and straight away I could see all the comps working way harder than they should, gain before feedback was down the drain and things where taking off through the FOH. As a rule I never interfere with a FOH mix but this time I made an exception as we had done some prelim work together during the day for the setup. I politely offered him a hand and with a look of great relief he gave me the nod. I gradually backed of the comp threshold and ratios, and we worked the faders back to around unity with some fiddling with the head amps. It was amazing to hear the PA open up and the band start to sound great. I backed off then as he was getting good sounds. As I went he looked up with a big grin saying thanks mate.

Thanks for the great replies so far folks.

I'm only looking at them as I've done a couple of gigs where I've had to beg the venue to find some comps , anything, so I had something to work with. Basically I don't want to rely on whatever the venue has, hoping it is in great working condition.

I'm looking at 4-6 comps, so carting around something like dbx 160's wouldn't be an option but for quality, neither would be!@#$%^&.

I've been thinking about the lunchbox vibe, but I'm concerned about the weight for interstate/ international gigs, and a sturdy road case would be essential. The ability to take it on as cabin luggage would be a plus also with the lunchbox. Then there's the choice of what to get in it...

I'll also seriously look at the other suggestions too.

Toddo wrote:
I've been thinking about the lunchbox vibe, but I'm concerned about the weight for interstate/ international gigs, and a sturdy road case would be essential. The ability to take it on as cabin luggage would be a plus also with the lunchbox. Then there's the choice of what to get in it...

I'll also seriously look at the other suggestions too.

You can find lunchbox road cases plus if you got a 10 space or the 51X 11 space you could rack them in a 3 unit short depth case. It would have weight but there could be up to 11 compressors in there. No need to fill it up straight away, just let it grow as you need. As far as which ones.... it's a lolly shop the 500 series thing. Too many to mention and depends what sources you ultimately want to compress. There are double width units like the newer Retro instruments or Buzz audio but most are single size. Neve recently released .... too many to mention. Don't forget Joe Malone's 500 compressors. Plus you can build your own (as myles mentioned) if you are handy with a soldering iron. Many kits available.
If you get the road case size right you should be fine on most trips.

sorry to be pushing the point... but lunchboxes also have switchable power if your going international as you suggested you do. sales pitch over.

That's an impressive live DIY setup Myles. Hmmm I will have to look into diy too, nothing like getting your hands dirty and working with something you made

Ben M wrote:More possibilities for multi channels of comps;

DBX 900 rack with lots of 903's
or.. grab a lunchbox and fill it with comps of your choice.

cheers

Thanks for the heads up on the switchable power. I wasn't aware of that.

I notice there's a DBX 900 rack with gear on eBay for $1150...very tempting, but not switchable power like the lunchbox
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/DBX-900-Rack-/230595865935

Some of the dbx 900 series racks have switchable power supplies and some dont. Not sure if there is a model difference or if you can only find out by looking at the rear. Some also have xlr i/o and some have screw terminals. All depends on the chassis.

At the end of the day, I'd rather have enough channels of average compression (dbx 166 kinda style), than only 2 or 3 channels of something nice. Personally I can't go past 160's. Be it the A or X or whatever, they sound great! And works for everything. If I can have one of those on my main vocal, I'm happy. And you can push 'em too.

I've used a 737 on M-vox a couple of times and it's been a real pleasure. It just does this weird thing where it sits the vocal in the mix so nicely. Knock a few dB and push that fader until it sounds right. Always goes down smooth...

I took my lunchbox in once. Didn't work at all and I unpatched it. Had a 512c pre into 525 comp and it just seemed to really bring out that high-mid bite too much. Took it out and just used the comp on the M7, sounded fine. Never bothered with it again after that. I know that only speaks for my personal experience with one particular chain, but that's my 2c.

Plus - it's not the pretty knobs on the fancy comps, it's the knob behind the desk.

I should put a vote in for the FMR RNC. It would have to win the award for bang for buck!

Well Chris you are in luck.
I like to take my Neve pre for vocals through Speck ASC EQ through my Daking Fet II comp for vocals.
I also use my FET II for live bass playing through DI to desk absolutely love it more descriptions later.

HA_DA_JA wrote:Well Chris you are in luck.
I like to take my Neve pre for vocals through Speck ASC EQ through my Daking Fet II comp for vocals.
I also use my FET II for live bass playing through DI to desk absolutely love it more descriptions later.

Great,looking forward to it.