Hardware compressors around £400

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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by Aled Hughes »

desmond wrote:
Ramirez wrote:We also have a H3000 here, and a Lexicon PCM91, but I haven't really paid much attention to them. There's an EMT140 in bits in the workshop too...

You could go to the effort to make impulse responses of some of the settings of those items, and it can be fun and a learning experience, but others have probably already done it (google for impulse responses) - and of course you can get plugins which reproduce those things in detail with *all* the settings, so if you like the sounds those things make, grabbing the plugins would probably get you 95+% of the way there a lot quicker...

True. To be honest I don't feel I'm missing too much when I load the Eventide 2016 or Arturia plate plugins instead of using the hardware reverbs.

I do want to get the plate up and running though (though there might be an issue with asbestos in the case...).
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by CS70 »

I found a great resource a few years back - someone who had made IRs of the Lexicon 480L .. I've used them quite a bit over the years and they sound good, even if lately I use more the Lexicon native.

Let me see.. yes it seems still around, here: https://www.housecallfm.com/download-gn ... xicon-480l
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by Hugh Robjohns »

CS70 wrote:Apparently the one loudest female singer in the world can do 121dB so I stand corrected - you need a compressor if you have a piece of music with her starting with a whisper and ending with her loudest note! :lol:

Not really. She can reach 121dB SPL at the loudest, but what's a whisper? 40dB SPL? The noise floor in my room is around 30dB SPL during the day, and a whisper must be louder than that or it wouldn't be inaudible...

So you're talking about a recorded dynamic range from whisper to ouch of around 80dB, maybe 90dB if we're feeling generous...

You could capture that perfectly well on a 16bit DAT machine if you set your levels carefully, and it wouldn't be even slightly difficult on a 24 bit format. So still no absolute need to use a compressor for the recording.
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by Aled Hughes »

CS70 wrote:I found a great resource a few years back - someone who had made IRs of the Lexicon 480L .. I've used them quite a bit over the years and they sound good, even if lately I use more the Lexicon native.

Let me see.. yes it seems still around, here: https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2014/0 ... responses/

That's cool, thanks!

Would anyone be interested if I did some IRs of a few of the RMX16's presets?
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by CS70 »

Hugh Robjohns wrote:
CS70 wrote:Apparently the one loudest female singer in the world can do 121dB so I stand corrected - you need a compressor if you have a piece of music with her starting with a whisper and ending with her loudest note! :lol:

Not really. She can reach 121dB SPL at the loudest, but what's a whisper? 40dB SPL? The noise floor in my room is around 30dB SPL during the day, and a whisper must be louder than that or it wouldn't be inaudible...

So you're talking about a recorded dynamic range from whisper to ouch of around 80dB, maybe 90dB if we're feeling generous...

You could capture that perfectly well on a 16bit DAT machine if you set your levels carefully, and it wouldn't be even slightly difficult on a 24 bit format. So still no absolute need to use a compressor for the recording.

Yes ;-).. I was merely trying to be a little bit accommodating... :D
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by CS70 »

And on a side note: 121dB!! Probably short bursts, but holy cow!
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by muzines »

Ramirez wrote:Would anyone be interested if I did some IRs of a few of the RMX16's presets?

Sure, go for it!

For a few dollars, this one looks pretty good:
https://inhalt.bigcartel.com/product/townhouse-rmx-ams-rmx-16-impulse-responses
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by Hugh Robjohns »

CS70 wrote:And on a side note: 121dB!! Probably short bursts, but holy cow!

I imagine that was measured within a metre... but yes, professional singers can certainly belt it out!
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by Drew Stephenson »

CS70 wrote:And on a side note: 121dB!! Probably short bursts, but holy cow!

I think there's generally someone like this at most gigs...
;)
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by CS70 »

blinddrew wrote:
CS70 wrote:And on a side note: 121dB!! Probably short bursts, but holy cow!

I think there's generally someone like this at most gigs...
;)


Remember that not all of us have your screaming fans... :lol:
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by Drew Stephenson »

CS70 wrote:
blinddrew wrote:
CS70 wrote:And on a side note: 121dB!! Probably short bursts, but holy cow!

I think there's generally someone like this at most gigs...
;)


Remember that not all of us have your screaming fans... :lol:

I think you know that's not what I meant! ;)
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by twotoedsloth »

Have you considered the Aphex Easy Rider?

Not too many knobs to mess with, but it really makes some material pop, which I guess is what you're usually trying to avoid if you're using a compressor. That being said, you get four compressors that sound great for not a lot of money.

Best of luck!
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by The Elf »

Ramirez wrote:Would anyone be interested if I did some IRs of a few of the RMX16's presets?

Definitely!!!!! :thumbup:
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by Arpangel »

Hugh Robjohns wrote:
CS70 wrote:And on a side note: 121dB!! Probably short bursts, but holy cow!

I imagine that was measured within a metre... but yes, professional singers can certainly belt it out!

My partner was a trained opera singer, but now a shadow of her former self owing to health issues, I’ve tried to record her many times, it’s OK, but not great in a smallish living room, even with her voice as it is now, I find I have to use compression, or ride the faders, and a score is essential to anticipate the loud bits.
I can’t get her far enough away from the mic's, like you can in a large hall, where it evens out the levels a bit, and yes, 16 bit is fine, I’ve been on opera sessions where we used DAT, and provided it’s a decent sized hall or rehearsal room there were never any issues, and we never used compression.
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Re: Hardware compressors around £400

Post by CS70 »

Arpangel wrote:
Hugh Robjohns wrote:
CS70 wrote:And on a side note: 121dB!! Probably short bursts, but holy cow!

I imagine that was measured within a metre... but yes, professional singers can certainly belt it out!

My partner was a trained opera singer, but now a shadow of her former self owing to health issues, I’ve tried to record her many times, it’s OK, but not great in a smallish living room, even with her voice as it is now, I find I have to use compression, or ride the faders, and a score is essential to anticipate the loud bits.
I can’t get her far enough away from the mic's, like you can in a large hall, where it evens out the levels a bit, and yes, 16 bit is fine, I’ve been on opera sessions where we used DAT, and provided it’s a decent sized hall or rehearsal room there were never any issues, and we never used compression.

We've been there before, it's always operator mistake. We're all been there, if it's any consolation. Unless she's shouting directly into the microphone like a rockstar, you just need a few cm of distance - enough for a pop filter and a bit of space behind..

If you record into 24 bits, your gain is just set too high. If you record into 16 bits, it's still set too high, but it's the sweet spot band where you have enough gain and keep far from the noise floor is narrower, so it's a little harder to keep the super quiet parts.. super quiet. But in a living room I bet my house vs. a beer that the ambient noise is far higher than the noise floor.

In short: lower the gain, no need of compressor, done. If your preamp has a set minimum gain, change preamp.

(there's other good reasons to use a compressor but when recording digitally, of course, I do it all the time, but controlling dynamics just ain't one)
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