Best compressor on a budget

[Corey Shay]

The two I am looking at now are the FMR RNC and the PreSonus ACP22. Forums and reviews seem to regard both very highly and favor them in comparison to units over $1000. I can't seem to decide from literature which one would be better. Whichever unit I get, its most used application will most likely be vocals, where acoustic guitar and clean guitars also secondary. I don't have enough imputs or mics to do drums, so that won't be much of an application.

I'm set up at home with ProTools but use it primarily to mix projects I've recorded at larger studios, so I'm no beginner to the world of high end compressors. Arguably my favorite vocal compressor is the 1176, so I'll use that as a reference. How do these other low budget compressors compare? Should I not even bother and opt to continue using only plugins like Rennaissance and Bombfactory for vocal compression?

I've been eying the Avalon 737 for a while but it's just too expensive right now. Any ideas or first-hand accounts?

[Haigbabe]

Hi Corey,

I haven't done too many A/Bs with this lot other than to say that I bought the FMR RNC because it was VERY good and very affordable. We have some classy Avalons at work but the RNC holds its own (to my ears)for the home studio stuff I do (and I do output commercial recordings).

Regards,

Haigbabe

[coaster]

i have to chime in on the acp22; its a great comp. good sound, meters too.

the gates are tricky- best suited for live sound, but the comps are awesome.

you could always just use rtas gates with the presonus.

i use it on vox a lot, as well as kick- snare, sax, guitar. it doesnt suck on anything, except maybe for banjo, which i have yet to try

[Ask Otis]

The FMR costs $180 direct from the manufacturer. It is a stereo only unit, so only one set of controls for both L and R but it sounds really clean. Buy 3, mount them in a rack shelf (they have the tapped holes for it) and for $540 you can have 3 different compressors, either stereo or mono in one rack space. This is what many pro engineers have done.

Having said that, the ACP22 is a reall good sounding unit, at an affordable price. But the FMR is an unbeatable value per dollar.

[Corey Shay]

Thank you all for all the help. One more thing though, I'd like to know which one of these units tends to sound better for most vocal applications cost aside?

[s.d. finley]

thats right jeronimo, its either mono, or stereo, no dual mono. I have an RNC, it sounds great, but.....it has a blasted wallwart!!! and unbalanced I/O's, thats not such a big deal, but i REALLY dislike the wallwart. I only use the RNC on the input of a track, i do not route my signal in and out
after its recorded, except for verbs and delay ect...its a really nice unit for the price.

sdf

[AEW]

Have a real good look at the dbx 1066. It is a great all round compressor.

Nick

[Irene]

Currently recording female vocals thru the Drawmer 1960 it's about half the price of an Avalon and quad the price of a RNC..
I like it. So does William Orbit apparently..

Irene

[jeronimo]

Humm, sorry about the newbie question I'll make now... but, when you say the FMR is a stereo only unit, it means that you cannot use two different signals into it?! For example a guitar and a snare at the same time with different settings...

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Think Diferente!

[search-one]

i have a dbx its good for every thing. if your just gonna use it for vocals look into presonus vxp its a mic pre,comp,de-esser,eq and limiter . im about a week away from getting me one. 600$