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mooseherman « Tube-tastic compressor! »
Published on 11/30/10 at 16:22This is a hardware outboard compressor made by Tube-Tech. It's one of the more popular outboard compressors out there, it's been in use for decades and has a stellar reputation. It's a tube-based compressor, so you know it'll fatten up the sound you're running through it. This has typical connections as far as compressors go, the one I used was already hooked up to the patch bay. This compressor is a single channel.
UTILIZATION
Using this compressor is pretty easy overall. I'd say that using it is pretty easy, though it does have a few more features than most compressors do. It has a knob for gain, threshold, attack and release, as well as a ratio knob (ratio goes from 2:1 to 10:1, which is a pretty decent range). There are also knobs which change the mode of operation (manual, fixed, and fixed/manual). Basically, if you know what you are doing with compression, this will work just fine. I haven't seen the manual for this piece of equipment so I don't know what it entails, I doubt there are many people who still have the manuals.
SOUND QUALITY
I like the sound of this compressor a lot. It really warms and fattens up tone quite a bit. It's great at bringing vocals out front and kicking them up a notch or two. It's also great on other instruments for the same reason, it's definitely a compressor that will slightly color the sound but I'd say that it's almost always in a good way. I probably wouldn't want to use this on a voice-over job since that usually tends to be cleaner and less warm. But I'd say that you can get everything from a light limiting compression to a full-on squashed tone and it will all sound good.
OVERALL OPINION
I like the warmth and tone of this compressor a lot, it really fattens up sounds nicely. It's pretty expensive, so save up! Definitely only for studio owners, there's plug-in versions of it available that would work fine for home studio owners.
UTILIZATION
Using this compressor is pretty easy overall. I'd say that using it is pretty easy, though it does have a few more features than most compressors do. It has a knob for gain, threshold, attack and release, as well as a ratio knob (ratio goes from 2:1 to 10:1, which is a pretty decent range). There are also knobs which change the mode of operation (manual, fixed, and fixed/manual). Basically, if you know what you are doing with compression, this will work just fine. I haven't seen the manual for this piece of equipment so I don't know what it entails, I doubt there are many people who still have the manuals.
SOUND QUALITY
I like the sound of this compressor a lot. It really warms and fattens up tone quite a bit. It's great at bringing vocals out front and kicking them up a notch or two. It's also great on other instruments for the same reason, it's definitely a compressor that will slightly color the sound but I'd say that it's almost always in a good way. I probably wouldn't want to use this on a voice-over job since that usually tends to be cleaner and less warm. But I'd say that you can get everything from a light limiting compression to a full-on squashed tone and it will all sound good.
OVERALL OPINION
I like the warmth and tone of this compressor a lot, it really fattens up sounds nicely. It's pretty expensive, so save up! Definitely only for studio owners, there's plug-in versions of it available that would work fine for home studio owners.