New Dynamics Processor Day!

I'm still learning how to squash. I tried on my last "fest" entry but it sounded terrible. compwnd.
 
That's kind of the point of the 163x. It has one slider that simultaneously controls threshold, ratio and makeup gain, then there is a trim pot for gain reduction. Apparently it doesn't sound like gold on everything, but it's really impossibly to screw it up with wonky attack and release settings, for example.
 
Cheese Grits said:
That's kind of the point of the 163x. It has one slider that simultaneously controls threshold, ratio and makeup gain, then there is a trim pot for gain reduction. Apparently it doesn't sound like gold on everything, but it's really impossibly to screw it up with wonky attack and release settings, for example.
Click to expand...

Wow, simplicity would be a huge benefit.
 
DBX7829_1.jpg
 
Cheese Grits said:
That's kind of the point of the 163x. It has one slider that simultaneously controls threshold, ratio and makeup gain, then there is a trim pot for gain reduction. Apparently it doesn't sound like gold on everything, but it's really impossibly to screw it up with wonky attack and release settings, for example.
Click to expand...

Sounds like Waves Ultramaximizer. It's got two sliders. One that is the threshhold and one that is the gain. You can set the threshold to about -15 and the gain to -.1 and end up with a modern rock single style 'everything as loud as possible with no dynamics at all' if you want it, and it still doesn't have a bunch of pumping or anything going on.

I usually don't use it to quite that effect, but I'll use it to kill the spikes above -5 db sometimes and even than really brings the volume up a lot.
 
UPS tracking info says my compressors are going to arrive tomorrow! Holy Moses, that's some fast service for a purchase off of a message board buy/sell post. :embarrassed:

I'll be squeezing the life out of a couple of acoustic tracks for you fellas this weekend it seems. :)
 
Compressors just arrived. Now I have to go to a stoopid work-related barbeque. Indiscriminate smashing will commence ASAP.
 
OK, so I wanted to do a real quick and dirty test of the new compressor, and this is the early results. I used a single LDC into my firepod, and I ran one of the DBX 163xs in the effects loop, i.e., after the preamp but before the AD converter. The first take is with no compression. The second take is with 1/4 of the available compression. The third take is with 1/2 of the available compression. The fourth take is with 100% of the available compression.

Take 1: http://www.beauhoward.com/audio/compressor-01.wav
Take 2: http://www.beauhoward.com/audio/compressor-02.wav
Take 3: http://www.beauhoward.com/audio/compressor-03.wav
Take 4: http://www.beauhoward.com/audio/compressor-04.wav

No eq or processing was done to these clips before I rendered them. Obviously the tracks with more compression will sound louder. Also, the song is just some part of some old tune I wrote as a 19-year-old; I'm not particularly fond of it, but it just happened to be on my mind when I pulled out the gear. :shrug:
 
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Cool! I'll have to give it a listen tomorrow, though...its bedtime right now in the Wein household :embarrassed:
 
Sounds nice.

I think my favorite is the one with 1/2 of the compression.

The full compression one sounds great too, but due to the high compression, the noise is a bit higher. I think the 1/2 compression one is compressed plenty without making the noise floor so high. :thu:
 
Last night, I really thought 25% sounded best, but I was just listening through headphones. Now that I have had the opportunity to listen through my monitors, I might be in the 50% camp too.

I really should have normalized all these to the same peak volume before posting them so that the differences in dynamics would have been more noticeable.
 
I'm in the 50% camp on this one....I think that I started off liking the 25% first but after listening a second time through everything I think I would have split the different between 25% and 50%.

I'm a 37.5% guy :embarrassed:
 
Regardless of personal preferrence, the fact that it sounds that good with so few controls and having the compression cranked all the way says that you've got yourself a very useful tool.

It's a very transparent compression. I didn't listen through headphones, but through my monitors, I didn't really notice it pumping or adding any unwanted artifacts or distortion. Yeah, it raised the noise floor somewhat, but that will happen with any compressor.

It'd be nice to have a few of those in a PA rack for live vocal, bass, and drum compression, IMO.
 
Oh, and I bet you'd find that the peak is pretty close to the same on all the tracks. I didn't check it, but you'd be amazed at how much louder things sound with a bunch of compression on them. If you squash it enough, you can get stuff with a peak of -5 db or more sounding louder than something that peaks at 0.
 
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