Suggestions for a great compressor to use on the drum bus?
I uploaded a drum clip: recordings much appreciated.
API 2500. Sick on drum buss. Can be very cool on 2buss as well.
Chandler, distressors, SSL/Smart, Neve... all of them different, all of them nice on drums. What kind of sound you looking for ?
What kind of sound you looking for ?
Not to act as a limiter, but something to give it a tad of growl without losing clarity.
That would be nice if you might process my file through your gear.
NTP 179-470 Dual Limiter. Thats the sound of High-end, folks.
The ubk Fatso would be a great reach, and has many character options and is just soooo easy to dial in.
I've got a ton of compressors on a mono drum buss in my Clipalator gear test page on the site. The ubk Fatso brings great control and high average levels without getting all pumpy.
Your drum clip sounds nice. API 2500 or API 527 pair. I have both and they are very nice on drums.
Elysia mpressor would be my first choice. SSL also killer. API 2500 is too slow for me.
It's not exactly hi-end but I did dig the xpressor 500 on drum bus. What really stood out to me was the GRL knob - the gain reduction limiter which can let you limit how much it compresses. I liked it because I could dial in some good compression on the drums but then start twisting that knob to limit the amount of compression and then the snare started clearing up again and poking through the compression. It made it easy to find a compressed drum sound with an un-compressed sounding, punchy snare.
The warm button added a nice thump to the low end and the sidechain filter stopped the comp from sucking all the low end out of it.
Have not heard too much about it lately, but the Chandler Zener really excelled on drum buss.
...That would be nice if you might process my file through your gear..
This is my favourite tube compressor, QES Labs Variable Gm.
I would suggest two compressors, one for parallel processing followed by one for the whole drumgroup. in parallel stuff like the TG1 or Zener rock for an explosive ambience sound - the same can be gotten way cheaper with a A&D F600 as well. for the drumgroup I like my 160sl a lot, ssl is classic for this As well, vertigo vsc2, endless possibilities. drumsubgroups also really benefit from saturating the peaks away with stuff like fatsos or a 747 with cranked up input dial and output at minus 20dB. with the 747 you can actually compress, eq and saturate the drumbuss, plus there are two bands of sidechain eq built in as well. the bang for buck combo would be an F600 clone plus a used 747 (dirt cheap cause underrated, just like the 160sl).
Any Elysia compressor. Also, the RockRuepel Comp One is a big evil drum punch beast of sorts.
See the files below for some samples of Portico compression at work on the drum bus. The ratio is just a little right of 2:1 and also used are quick attack and release times, and both clips feature exactly the same ratio, attack and release settings. The FF version is in 'Feed Forward' mode which gives you a fast modern type of compression. If it's a modern sound you're after though I've heard that nothing grabs as fast as an Alan Smart or SSL bus compressor though the Portico also does a fine job. The FB version is in 'Feed Back' mode which gives the unit a slower attack time similar to old Neve compressors I'm told. I prefer FF mode but these are the two but you get both flavors with the Portico.
One of my personal favorites is the Summit DCL200----I've used this box for years, HUGE tone. There's many other suggestions to consider, but that's one of my favorites.
I do love the meat in the low end the c1 has to offer, has some hair on it.
smart c2 - I have one for sale.
No suggestions for a pair of 1176s? I'm confused.
but many more to choose from (and very good as well), demo everything if you can, if you can't and want to go safe, get the 2500.
Blackface Valley People Dynamite Every now and then the Dynamite wipes the floor when things are too polite ..
I would be very tempted to go Soft and get a Steve Slate FG-X. Very punchy compressor / limited that really pushes the transients in the drums. Is designed for mastering but very cool on drum buses. Unfortunately uses about 2GB RAM by itself so if running on a normal size setup might require printing before you carry on.
That drum sounded huge! A big rock drum sound.
The clean (3) file was nice too.
Your raw drum tracks sounds great. Mind sharing the details? I particularly like the kick!
Once I have finished mixing for the day i will send your clip through the quad comp on our SSL 4000.
mixing from a firepod into a high end bus compressor ?
Drum bus compressor: Yes. Guitar/Vocal/Keyboard/Bass bus compressor: ???