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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2023 7:59:31 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. The distressor is all analog unlike fmr and better maker. It just has digital encoders controlling it except for the pots so it behaves better. It’s an analog fet compressor with intentional distortion. I have no idea what the McDSP box does. I suspect it has an analog vca with digital sidechain. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2023 9:06:37 GMT -6
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. The distressor is all analog unlike fmr and better maker. It just has digital encoders controlling it except for the pots so it behaves better. It’s an analog fet compressor with intentional distortion. I have no idea what the McDSP box does. I suspect it has an analog vca with digital sidechain. Distressor is a vca btw. Not fet. I'd skip the rnc personally. I'd take kotelnikov any day over that one. |
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Post by chessparov on Jul 2, 2023 11:21:35 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... Gee that's the second time lately, someone mentioned the Squeezebox. I'm trying to remember the other person here. My memory is getting limited.  Chris P.S.IMHO the RNC ought to be perfectly fine at least used moderately, in a "busier" Mix.  |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jul 2, 2023 12:23:49 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... Gee that's the second time lately, someone mentioned the Squeezebox. I'm trying to remember the other person here. My memory is getting limited. Chris P.S.IMHO the RNC ought to be perfectly fine at least used moderately, in a "busier" Mix. I'm not familiar with the Atomic Squeezebox. Looked it up based on all the recs and... are we talking about the same compressor that is one channel for $3,500? Guys, that's some serious purple site territory! Haha. "Hey, is this two channel kind of generic compressor worth $150?" "No, you should buy this one for $3,500 instead!" Haha... noted! |
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ericn
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Balance Engineer
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Post by ericn on Jul 2, 2023 13:10:08 GMT -6
Never tried one. Really Nice Compressor Are you just jonesing for something new in the rack and thinking budget fix? |
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Post by chessparov on Jul 2, 2023 13:18:23 GMT -6
graves, haven't checked lately. But IIRC they go for under $2K used. They don't come up very often, but worth being aware of. There's another cool "inspired by" idea IMHO BTW. (If Audioscape could make something similar ) Chris |
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Post by Darren Boling on Jul 2, 2023 14:18:21 GMT -6
Gee that's the second time lately, someone mentioned the Squeezebox. I'm trying to remember the other person here. My memory is getting limited. Chris P.S.IMHO the RNC ought to be perfectly fine at least used moderately, in a "busier" Mix. I'm not familiar with the Atomic Squeezebox. Looked it up based on all the recs and... are we talking about the same compressor that is one channel for $3,500? Guys, that's some serious purple site territory! Haha. "Hey, is this two channel kind of generic compressor worth $150?" "No, you should buy this one for $3,500 instead!" Haha... noted! I got my ASB for $1300 after watching it on Reverb for like 6 months, they don't carry the same allure as an 1176, LA2A, Sta, CL1b, etc. After following John's compressor journey it didn't seem like a stretch to recommend it. |
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Post by thehightenor on Jul 2, 2023 14:34:56 GMT -6
$1300 is a very, very good price for an ASB.
Lucky you - it's a great unit.
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jul 2, 2023 14:57:14 GMT -6
Did I say $3500? After a "price drop" of $235 they're positively giving this one away for just $3,265! File this one under the "inflation nation" thread? I'm sure it's a great box but, at least at that price, we're talking about over 20x the price of the RNC and, on a per channel basis, 40x the price. So it's not apples to apples. It's more like Apple to Asus. (See what I did there?) reverb.com/p/innertube-audio-atomic-squeezebox-single-channel-tube-compressor |
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Post by Johnkenn on Jul 2, 2023 15:12:02 GMT -6
Never tried one. Really Nice Compressor Are you just jonesing for something new in the rack and thinking budget fix? Just saw one on CL. Gonna pass |
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Post by gravesnumber9 on Jul 2, 2023 15:14:07 GMT -6
Are you just jonesing for something new in the rack and thinking budget fix? Just saw one on CL. Gonna pass All joking aside. Why not just try it? They're super easy to sell. Best case? You are one of those that's like "wow, I'd pay $500 for this." Worst case? You'll flip it and break even within a week. |
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Post by chessparov on Jul 2, 2023 16:31:56 GMT -6
I dunno about a flippant comment like that. They're pretty tough to break-evenly. Chris |
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Post by ab101 on Jul 2, 2023 17:28:48 GMT -6
At the time the RNC first came out it made a great impression. I remember how impressed Lynn Fuston was about it at the time as well.
I tried it and it was nice (like its name) but overall not something that did it for me.
I do think the Aphex 651 comps for about $150 each (mono) are fantastic.
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Post by geoff738 on Jul 2, 2023 18:20:50 GMT -6
I haven’t plugged in the RNC in ages. Drums in parallel was my favourite use for it. I’ll agree with the assessment posted above that it tends to make things sound smaller.
Cheers,
Geoff
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Post by chessparov on Jul 2, 2023 18:25:26 GMT -6
Honestly I did notice that a little on my vocals. But sometimes you may want that on even Lead Vocal(s). Hmmm... Now I'm thinking if/when I ever got a RNC again, it's primary use would be on Harmonies!* Chris *Like my conventional Dynamic mics now. |
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