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Church and H.O.W. – Forums for HOW Sound and AV - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Church and HOW Forums => Church Sound Archive => Topic started by: Zach Brady on October 24, 2004, 08:28:43 AM

Title: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: Zach Brady on October 24, 2004, 08:28:43 AM

Hello All,

I'm needing some advice here. I am working on a rather tight budget here. But i am needing about 6 channels of compression.
I am looking @ the dbx Project 1 266 i already have one but i thought about building a new rack with 3 or 4 of those. I looked @ the Presonus 8 channel compressors but 1200 little to pricy for my needs, so i am leaning towards the dbx.If anyone know of some good compressor models by a name we all trust i would greatly appreciate it. Does anyone know of any good compression packages available (4 channels units or something like that.)
Also good websites for purchase other than going throught the local audio contarctor. Not knocking Mark Gerrardi (www.RealWorldAudio.com)(Shameless Plug!) But if i could get some cheaper i would love it thanks to all!

In Christ,
Zach Brady

Title: Re: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: Tom Young on October 24, 2004, 05:08:45 PM

I would avoid the DBX 266. It does not sound that great at all.

You can get Presonus ACP88 for less than $1,000. (maybe less than $800. ?) if you shop around.

The DBX 1046 is a 4 channel compressor limiter that DOES sound very good and sells for less than $500.

Title: Re: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: B. Adams on October 25, 2004, 05:47:44 AM

Check out Northern Sound and Light for that kind of stuff. They carry DBX and Presonus, as well as a whole lot of other things. Call or e-mail them for a quote.

http://www.northernsound.net/Sales/salesframe.html

DBX is a good choice, except for the 266. The Presonus would probably do fine for you as well, and NSL sells it for around $700. They also have very good prices on DBX, and pretty much everything else they carry.

Title: Re: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: Tim Padrick on October 25, 2004, 11:38:11 PM

The 4 channel dbx are indeed very nice units.

The ACP88s aren't bad, and you can get all the clean used ones you want for no more than $600 each + shipping. I bought mine used and all have been fine. Here's a bunch:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2 3793&item=3756589965&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2 3793&item=3756596892&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2 3793&item=3756955774&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2 3793&item=3756959948&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2 3792&item=3757619002&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2 3793&item=3756614407&rd=1

Title: Re: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: Bryan Roberts on October 27, 2004, 03:39:38 AM

aphex auto comps are nice little 4 channel compressors that sound really good.
they are cheap too. IMO, stay away from presonus; they aren't very transparent sounding and the sound they do have isn't the most pleasant. As a BE, I would rather see 2 1066s then 1 presonus 8 channel.

just my opinion

bry

Title: Re: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: Bennett Prescott on November 01, 2004, 10:31:15 PM

The dbx 166 is a significant step up from the 266XL with a small price-tag increase... I can get 'em for about $200 apiece. I don't like the presonus option because of the difficult user interface.

Title: Re: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: Tim Padrick on November 01, 2004, 11:19:17 PM

Campus PA wrote on Mon, 01 November 2004 21:31

I don't like the presonus option because of the difficult user interface.

The ACP88, or the 2 channel? A lot of the reason I went from dbx to ACP88s was the layout/interface (and the fact that the gate does not make the compression readout nearly useless).

Title: Re: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: Erwin Mol on November 02, 2004, 11:05:10 AM

since your budget is pretty tight I would recommend you to by the Behringer MDX4600.

http://www.behringer.com/MDX4600/index.cfm?lang=ENG

I'm using it for years in our church, it's easy to use and not to expensive (just $160.-)

God Bless you,
Erwin

Title: Re: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: Stuie on November 06, 2004, 11:27:50 PM

definitely go for the dbx 1046 and definitely DONT go for the Acp88 as the gates on the unit tend to click at high volume it a major prob in the unit. The 1046 are a four channel unit and have nice soudning compression (ie doesnt alter the sound just squashs the volume).

The Acp88 doesnt allow the user to disable the gates and is nice for compression for vocal not really useful with kick drums and bass guitar.

Save up and get a dbx1046 dont make short cuts on quality OK maybe you cant afford drawmer but aim at a basic standard. Also think will this quality be able to raise the quality of the church to a new dimension.

Cheers
Stuie

Title: Re: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: Tim Padrick on November 07, 2004, 08:00:32 PM

Stuie wrote on Sat, 06 November 2004 22:27

The dbx is a very nice sounding unit, no disagreement there. Also look into the RNC for those channels that don't need any gating.

The ACP88 gates don't click if you back the attack off 1 or 2 clicks from the fastest, which works fine for most things.

Disable the gate? Just turn the threshold up.

I'll agree that the ACP88 is not impressive on bass or kick, but I've not had the opportunity to try anything else on those channels, so I don't know what works well on them.

Title: Re: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: impetus on November 08, 2004, 01:47:25 PM

I am amazed at how little had been mentioned about the behringer compressor products. I personally have been using them for years and so have many sound companys that I have had an oppertunity to work with. They sound great and they are very inexpensive. In my opinion if you don't have the money to spend on a drawmer or bss compressor, behringer is my choice. Behringer designs its products around more expensive designs and although the dbx stuff is good also, the behringer stuff is less expensive.

Title: Re: Compressors!( some help would be greatly appreiciated)
Post by: Bryan Roberts on November 09, 2004, 01:09:04 AM

Zack,
The reason for Behringer's bad name is a result of year's of use by audio pro's on this website. For professional jobs, they are a too noisy, not very reliable, and the sound they add when doing an assigned job can be unpleasant.

For tight budgets, I completely agree, it's better to have something then nothing.

bry