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Post by Johnkenn on Jul 1, 2023 9:08:14 GMT -6
Never tried one. Really Nice Compressor
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Post by seawell on Jul 1, 2023 9:13:33 GMT -6
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Post by Johnkenn on Jul 1, 2023 9:27:23 GMT -6
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Post by Darren Boling on Jul 1, 2023 9:30:51 GMT -6
John, I'm curious what you're looking for in a vocal compressor? If you want to get away from heavy color but want crazy control see if you can find an Atomic Squeezebox (or one of the Aphex mods I hear about but haven't tried). For what it's worth I sold my ASB and Sta around the same time and started tracking vocals with no compressor, the Anamod 660, reissue LA2A with vintage iron around it (very boring and overpriced otherwise) or the black or blue Hairball 1176s. I have 2 RNC's and one RNLA... they've been on long term loan to a buddy's studio for about a decade now.
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Post by Johnkenn on Jul 1, 2023 9:34:49 GMT -6
I'm just running around with a little money in my pocket. Going on vacation tomorrow and feeling a little impulsive. I don't have to have a comp anytime soon, just wondered if that was a good deal for a decent piece.
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Post by thehightenor on Jul 1, 2023 9:36:34 GMT -6
JK I know you loved the STA Level (I only discovered it thanks to you raving about it :-)
So I think a cleaner alternative is the Buzz Essence - I think that compressor has a fantastic action and a lovely clean tone
if that's your current tracking taste.
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Post by Darren Boling on Jul 1, 2023 9:36:56 GMT -6
I'm just running around with a little money in my pocket. Going on vacation tomorrow and feeling a little impulsive. I don't have to have a comp anytime soon, just wondered if that was a good deal for a decent piece. A fun and dangerous predicament! |
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Post by ragan on Jul 1, 2023 9:57:38 GMT -6
Johnkenn I still really dig RNCs. Had a couple many years ago, sold them off, misdeed them, grabbed another a year ago. It’s not gonna do the big warm hug of stuff like STA or LA2a or whatever, but it’s a nice functional comp. I like them most on drums.
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Post by lowlou on Jul 1, 2023 10:28:54 GMT -6
well... What about the incredible Electric&company EC5B that just got a KMR demo ? So musical...
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Post by lowlou on Jul 1, 2023 11:12:27 GMT -6
Ok it might not be in the price range you were initially looking for, sorry about this ^^. Killer comp nonetheless. cheers.
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Post by plinker on Jul 1, 2023 11:13:31 GMT -6
For $100 more you could get one of these -- the next time it comes up for sale: reverb.com/item/8821633-safe-sound-audio-model-p1-microphone-preamp-compresser-designed-by-neve-s-robert-campbellI've got two of them. It's a complex, multi-staged side chain circuit that is cleaner than the cleanest plugin I've found, using top-o-the-line THAT VCAs. The only reason I bring it up is that Andy Hong compared the Safe Sound to the RNC: "The compressor really shines on vocals. Even with ratios greater than 4:1, I was able to smooth out some fairly dynamic vocal tracks without any hint of overcompression or unnatural "pinching" in the upper mids. In comparison, I've never been a fan of the FMR Audio RNC, mostly because everything I send to it sounds smaller, even when it's supposedly compressing "transparently." On the other hand, the P1 seems to fulfill on its promise of transparent compression. Whether I sent it syllables sung staccato or layered oohs and ahhs, post-compression levels were solid, and the vocals sounded up front even when the compressor was clamping down to -15 dB. Also, any initial transients in the vocal that made it past slower attack settings didn't sound overly sibilant-another reason why the P1 sounds so transparent."tapeop.com/reviews/gear/53/p1-audio-processor/ |
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Post by theshea on Jul 1, 2023 12:12:46 GMT -6
i would say no. had the RNC and the RNLA a decade ago and while i used the RNC once in a while to destroy a drumbus i die not have much use for the RNLA. after a while i sold both because i could/get better and more out of cheaper plugins.
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Post by Chad on Jul 1, 2023 12:22:07 GMT -6
Go spend some time here: www.zenproaudio.com/clipalatorYes, you'll get sick of those vocalists, but hey... It's helpful for learning speed and emphasis of frequencies as they pass through the units, the amount of transparency or color being added to the signal, the general push and pull of the attack/release, and how it "feels" on a track. |
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Post by tkaitkai on Jul 1, 2023 12:56:16 GMT -6
The RNC is great. It's not the most amazing compressor known to man, but it's cheap as chips, versatile, and sounds good. Basically a flavorless 1176. I say go for it.
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Post by RealNoob on Jul 1, 2023 13:48:06 GMT -6
I like the PBC-6A from FMR better
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2023 15:12:58 GMT -6
I like the PBC-6A from FMR better this. Also if you get an rnc, get the 500 series one for higher voltage rails and balanced i/o |
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ericn
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Post by ericn on Jul 1, 2023 18:26:56 GMT -6
For the $ give me a used single space DBX 160.
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Post by reddirt on Jul 1, 2023 19:02:08 GMT -6
Don't spend it John; you'll question it constantly IMO.
Cheers, Ross
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Post by ragan on Jul 1, 2023 21:28:10 GMT -6
For the $ give me a used single space DBX 160. Hard pass on that from me. I found those things unusable. Most awkward treatment of transients I’ve ever heard in a comp. RNC kills those things in my view. |
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Post by ericn on Jul 1, 2023 21:35:55 GMT -6
For the $ give me a used single space DBX 160. Hard pass on that from me. I found those things unusable. Most awkward treatment of transients I’ve ever heard in a comp. RNC kills those things in my view. They both do their thing, some like the RNC, wanted to love it ( cheap and in the 4 rack spaces the 4 DBX’s took I could fit 12). I just didn’t fall in love. Maybe the 160 is just musical muscle memory, but in talking to guys doing large one offs and big studios everybody still had 160’s nobody had RNC’s. |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jul 1, 2023 21:44:22 GMT -6
I like the 160 and the RNC.
To the original question, RNC worth $150? Absolutely. Worst case scenario you don’t like it and I’ll buy it from you for that price.
I use them like one knob board compression. Happy to have another. It’s just 100% usable vanilla compression with lots of adjustability and crappy metering. $75 per channel?
What’s not to love?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2023 22:01:04 GMT -6
For the $ give me a used single space DBX 160. Hard pass on that from me. I found those things unusable. Most awkward treatment of transients I’ve ever heard in a comp. RNC kills those things in my view. FMR makes sane compressors that aren't lofi like the DBX stuff. Most DBX stuff is grungy. The DBX 160 is some weirdo flexible thing that makes you use the 1176 or another limiter/clipper/tape/tape plug after the 160 because most 160 models expand for a bit when crossing threshold, then because it's an RMS compressor, the attack is slow and release fast at first then the attack speeds up and release slows down on most of them too as you dig in. Most RMS compressors without the ability to speed up the attack have crazy overshoots.
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Post by copperx on Jul 2, 2023 0:51:22 GMT -6
I like the 160 and the RNC. To the original question, RNC worth $150? Absolutely. Worst case scenario you don’t like it and I’ll buy it from you for that price. I use them like one knob board compression. Happy to have another. It’s just 100% usable vanilla compression with lots of adjustability and crappy metering. $75 per channel? What’s not to love? It's really hard to find RNC detractors on the web, so I'll do my best to be the devil's advocate here. Here are some pain points. * The compression algorithm it uses is reminiscent of plugins, although it has absolutely no aliasing because the algorithm controls a VCA. * In particular, the release is strange. I was never able to understand or predict its behavior with non-percussive elements. Super nice mode is even stranger, e.g., for controlling a vocal or the mix buss. Fast releases sound good, though. * This is just my speculation, but that weird behavior could be due to aliasing in the sidechain. * The algorithm works much better when there's little low-end in the signal; however, the compressor doesn't have a sidechain HPF, but in my opinion, it should have been added. It would have made the compressor much more useful. Sure, you can use the sidechain input if you can spare the I/O. A HPF is a few lines of code. After all, they added one to their PBC-6A. * There's a slight coloring from the VCA; it is very subtle, but it is there. What's wonderful about the RNC is that its transparency is unrivalled in its price class. What irks me a bit is that they could have updated the algorithm and added more models. After all, the Distressor works similarly. I just wish they had been more ambitious. We could have had a $200 Distressor sans the nasty distortion, or something like it with a lot of versatility. Ok, enough negativity. To be fair, even though I'm not that fond of it, I'm not going to get rid of it. It does a good job on the drum buss and it is great for controlling palm-muted guitars during tracking real amps. Worst case scenario, if I get tired of it, I'll use it to control the dynamics of action flicks in my home theater and get some semblance of sanity over the levels. |
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Post by drumsound on Jul 2, 2023 2:10:15 GMT -6
Johnkenn I still really dig RNCs. Had a couple many years ago, sold them off, misdeed them, grabbed another a year ago. It’s not gonna do the big warm hug of stuff like STA or LA2a or whatever, but it’s a nice functional comp. I like them most on drums. I used one as drum parallel comp for years. Lately I just use them for scratch vocals. They are still useful for other things, including some guitars, esp acoustic, and solos. |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jul 2, 2023 3:34:51 GMT -6
I like the 160 and the RNC. To the original question, RNC worth $150? Absolutely. Worst case scenario you don’t like it and I’ll buy it from you for that price. I use them like one knob board compression. Happy to have another. It’s just 100% usable vanilla compression with lots of adjustability and crappy metering. $75 per channel? What’s not to love? It's really hard to find RNC detractors on the web, so I'll do my best to be the devil's advocate here. Here are some pain points. * The compression algorithm it uses is reminiscent of plugins, although it has absolutely no aliasing because the algorithm controls a VCA. * In particular, the release is strange. I was never able to understand or predict its behavior with non-percussive elements. Super nice mode is even stranger, e.g., for controlling a vocal or the mix buss. Fast releases sound good, though. * This is just my speculation, but that weird behavior could be due to aliasing in the sidechain. * The algorithm works much better when there's little low-end in the signal; however, the compressor doesn't have a sidechain HPF, but in my opinion, it should have been added. It would have made the compressor much more useful. Sure, you can use the sidechain input if you can spare the I/O. A HPF is a few lines of code. After all, they added one to their PBC-6A. * There's a slight coloring from the VCA; it is very subtle, but it is there. What's wonderful about the RNC is that its transparency is unrivalled in its price class. What irks me a bit is that they could have updated the algorithm and added more models. After all, the Distressor works similarly. I just wish they had been more ambitious. We could have had a $200 Distressor sans the nasty distortion, or something like it with a lot of versatility. Ok, enough negativity. To be fair, even though I'm not that fond of it, I'm not going to get rid of it. It does a good job on the drum buss and it is great for controlling palm-muted guitars during tracking real amps. Worst case scenario, if I get tired of it, I'll use it to control the dynamics of action flicks in my home theater and get some semblance of sanity over the levels. I stay away from super nice mode for sure. But all the things you describe are, to me, like "yeah you're right, I agree." But I still love it for the reason you said at the end. Transparent and totally usable compression at $75/channel. There's not much competition. |
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