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[tom eaton]

You could do a lot worse than an Aphex rack with dbx 903s and Aphex 9651s.  If you don't like them stock, Jim Williams has mods for both.

Used they're in the $150-200/channel range.

[Fletcher]

For toms, the SPL "transient designer" is probably one of the best tools ever made -- as far as the FMR stuff messing with the bass on sounds, I wouldn't know, I never used the RNC or RNLA on things like bass or instruments with a large bass content -- but I have used them on things like guitars, vocals [etc.] and found them to be far from "B Grade" - often bordering on "wow this is cool" -- "prime choice Grade A".

As always, YMMV.

Peace.

[Wireline]

RNC states in the owners manual that if set incorrectly, it will suck on bass.  They recommend some settings specifically for bass, and following those settings can make the instrument come alive and slap ya upside the head.  (a hand for manuals...)

For toms and such, I really like the Ashly CL52s...(bought from the esteemed Hud Hudson here years ago)...they just get it done, and are in no way (IMO) B grade anything for lower voiced instruments.


Just an afterthought - Have you considered putting a touch of compression on a kick and snare, then bus compressing the entire drum kit?  One, it saves on option anxiety things like this, and two, I think in more cases than not provides a MUCH more punching and easy to mix drum set in the context of an overall song.


Just opinions.

[breathe]

Yeah, I've done that.  The API 527's sound great compressing a whole kit, and I love how much control over the settings that unit gives you.  However I was troubled (for my sake, not anyone else's) by a post on my minimal drum miking thread about how there are a lot of great drummers who keep really great time, but are not consistent in how hard they hit each of the elements of the drumset, so this got me thinking I should start miking everything and compressing every drum track a little.  I love how easy it is to gel the whole drum sound just miking OH, snare, and kick, and the Coles 4040 is fucking awesome on OH to achieve this, but sometimes I'd like to be able to hear everything super clear.

Best,
Nicholas

Wireline wrote on Fri, 26 November 2010 06:14

Just an afterthought - Have you considered putting a touch of compression on a kick and snare, then bus compressing the entire drum kit?  One, it saves on option anxiety things like this, and two, I think in more cases than not provides a MUCH more punching and easy to mix drum set in the context of an overall song.

[grantis]

breathe wrote on Wed, 24 November 2010 20:14

Well, Mr. Esteemed Wittman, if a sound is going to be put low in the mix, compression will be even more important to keep said sound audible, though the importance of audio quality will be less since the volume of said sound is turned down.  Basically this whole thread is about finding good compression for recordings of tom drums. Nicholas wwittman wrote on Wed, 24 November 2010 18:05 What's a "low priority sound" and why do you need to compress it?

I almost always compress my toms using the Dynamics 3 in PT.  It sounds good, and it's 'free'.

[mell]

i'll tell you a little secret,

you can buy a behringer MDX2400 for about $45 on ebay, take off the cover, replace the caps with elna's or whatever, replace the 4 X  behringer chips with 2 X dual OPA2134 surfacemount with adapters from browndog on a new socket , they are plug and play, replace the crappy noisy 15v 7815 regulators with 18V superregulators (i found a few on ebay that fit prefectly) and you'll have 4 very very good feedforward compressor limiters, for about $200 if thats cheap enough for you

you'll need the germany build MDX2400 , they are 1:1 copy's of DBX with the DBX1252 VCA and DBX1253 detector in it (they are known to be good) , i cant remember what type they copied exactly , i think i read somewhere it was the 160XT.

peace

[Haolemon]

I'll second the recommendation for the Aphex 651.  It is really cheap on the used market and pretty transparent.  No doubt the Jim Williams mod would improve the unit.  He certainly works wonders on AKG C460s.

BTW, I would avoid the 652, which is the successor model with the "tubessence" addition.

[tom eaton]

661 was the tubessence version... never heard one in person.

I somehow take all this tom compression personally.

Tom

[jetbase]

[breathe]

Was the Aphex 651 the "Expressor"?  That thing sounded like ass to me when I owned it.  It was worse than the FMR RNC bass-wise, and it just seemed to violently and ruthlessly remove all groovyness/mojo from a sound.

Nicholas

P.S. The Aphex Compellor on the other hand rocks imo, though that too is bass-lite.  I used the stereo Compellor as a 2-mix compressor on an album I did a few years ago and that record turned out popalicious!  Sample available on request.

Haolemon wrote on Sun, 28 November 2010 15:36

I'll second the recommendation for the Aphex 651.  It is really cheap on the used market and pretty transparent.  No doubt the Jim Williams mod would improve the unit.  He certainly works wonders on AKG C460s. BTW, I would avoid the 652, which is the successor model with the "tubessence" addition.

[seedyunderbelly.com]

B-grade (i.e. cheaper) dynamic producers

[tom eaton]

breathe wrote on Mon, 29 November 2010 00:32

Was the Aphex 651 the "Expressor"?  That thing sounded like ass to me when I owned it.  It was worse than the FMR RNC bass-wise, and it just seemed to violently and ruthlessly remove all groovyness/mojo from a sound.

Yep, the 651 is the expressor.  maybe it has too many controls for you?  i use those (i have 6), distressors, 1176, and spl dynamaxx all equally... for actual "important" things!

t

[bob ebeling]

I used to have a Calrec console that had 8 of their Lundahl transformered board comps on it.  They worked well in the B and A categories, and they come up on E-bay pretty cheap once in a while.  DL-1656 (?) I think.  I have a PSU wired up to connectors available should anyone ever find a pair.    

VK racks them, as well as many others.  

In the not cheap anymore category: ADR Compex.  Drum heaven.

And yeah, I've seen a few expensive rooms with a wall of DBX 160a, xt, or x's.  I think the mix engineer of the facility was using them much in the way you describe Nicholas.

Used an FMA one time and never again.  Seemed totally useless to me.  That was the first one out in 1998...?

[Seb Riou]

Bob, you should give the FMR another go, it's really worth it !

It lacks the (only?) great feature on the distressor : big knobs.

But if you "zen" yourself to dial the lighty pots, there are marvels in there. But no bass, that's for sure ! (who cares there are other machines to deal with that)

[bob ebeling]

I should then Seb.  I was test driving the first round of RNC's.  That thing, if I got any compression going, I could hear the output only worsening.  

Which one should I look out for?  Distressor built cheap huh? (this is a misquote, I know).