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Looking to buy a compressor/limiter

Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 2:21 am
by anton
I'm looking to buy a portable compressor/limiter. My goals are

1) to dampen those ear-busting trumpet blares that are so common in 30s/40s recordings
2) to improve the chance to actually hear the music when playing in venues with crappy sound system, crappy acoustics and a noisy crowd.

I guess that for 1) I should ideally go for a multi-band compressor, where I can limit only those ear-busting frequencies. But those tend to be very very expensive...

I've had my eyes on the Really Nice Compressor (RNC 1773) for a while - the specs look good but I've never heard it in action.
http://www.fmraudio.com/rnc.htm

Does anybody here have any experience with it? Or do you have other buying suggestions?

Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:42 am
by SoundInMotionDJ
A "PA Manager" is going to be a better buy. You can get a full digital system with a compressor, limiter, parametric EQ, crossover, and much more for around $300.

I have/use/like the Behringer DCX-2496. This has everything I described and more. Behringer had a bad reputation....but this is a really solid bit of gear. All the connection are balanced xrl.

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:53 pm
by invisibleagent
I am not sure if you are using a laptop and if you are, what software, but I use these in the master channel of software:

BBE Sonic Maximizer VST - I have only subtle settings - but this helps with playing 160K and VBR mp3s. Adds a little bass response and some midrange expansion

Compressor VST - I use a variety of these. The ableton compressor is okay, reacomp in Reaper. There are other free ones here:
http://www.wavosaur.com/vst/compressor-plugins.php

I have an outboard Focusrite compressor, but this is only for studio use. It's a bit overkill to be lugging around.

Warren

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 5:36 pm
by Killa Dilla
Ableton Live contains a full range of EQ features built-in for DJ's.

Dependant on your persuasion, a cracked copy will be the cheapest
option.

Also, to compensate for bad PA systems, address the output of your laptop by installing an Audiophile soundcard.

Eg: http://www.hboutlet.com.au/catalog/asus ... medium=cpc

And importantly, don't play anything less than 320 or FLAC bitrate.