Compressor for live work

[lonfire]

Hi,

I've currently got an alesis 3630 compressor and a behringer composer pro. I use them in a church situation, mainly on vocals. I want to rationalise some of my gear, sell some other bits of outboard I don't use and get 2/3 of the same compressor. Mainly so when I train my guys on the gear they only have to learn one compressor (I know once you learn the theory its easy to use other makes, but its nicer to have a rack with just one type of compressor in)..

 

So I've been recommended DBX 266xl, although reading reviews the behringer composer seems to be held in heigher regard, what about the 3630? I either sell my 3630 and composer and get some DBX 266xls, or a buy another 3630 and sell the composer. I'd kinda rulled out the composer, but actualy reading around its got some good reviews. I haven't used it for a while, might get it out and A/B it with the 3630 see what it sounds like.

 

Anybody got any advice? I know you get what you pay for, but I'm not in the market to be paying loads for gear. Maybe £300 max for 2x 2channel compressors.. if anybody is selling any gear I'd be interested in chatting..

 

Regards

Chris

[Wilflet]

The composer is well regarded, but usually including the phrase 'for the money cant be beaten' or similar.

They're not going to be the nicest most lovely comps in the world and many riders from touring engineers say no behringer gear.

However in a church touring riders arnt a big concern and there is no point in spending loads of money on a comp that sounds like the smoothest studio sound ever as it will likley be let down by other parts of the signal chain not being amazing (note this isnt me slagging off your gear, im sure its great and does the job- just from the comps you list I assume we're not talking midas desks, meyer/l'acoustics pa, general having ridiculous budget system).

In short I wouldnt rule out the composers, if you can find them at a decent price (and I'd sugest you might be able too, theres a lot of them out there). Id rather have as many channels as you could ever want of the behringer than too few channels of somthing that was a little more expensive because it didnt say behringer but isnt actually any better.

[lonfire]

hi,

yeah indeed.. soundcraft LX7 desk, <cough>peavey<cough> speakers.. I put in a budget for the next 4-5 years for gradual replacement of gear to l'accoustics 12xts and yamaha LS9 (at the very top end). Not gonna happen, run it till it dies is their approach, 11 year old PA, shame the guys look after all the gear so well.. The biggest let down are the speakers, the rest of the gear sound wise is good, all newish senheiser mics (855s/945s) and senheiser radios.. Replacing the speakers would make such an amazing difference.. shame people are happy spending 1-2k on home hi-fi/tvs/surround sound but see its unreasonable to spend 3-5k on a decent set of speakers for the church..

 

Anyway... will get my composer out the next few weeks and give it a proper play..

 

Regards

Chris

[philw44]

Hi there.

 

Composer sounds good on vocal comp - but the reliability of the unit is an issue.

 

DBX 266XL is very dark sounding and sounds better on drums+bass IMO.

 

DBX166xl is better than both to my ears.

 

And all three a step up from the 3630 :)

[Charlie Jeal]

Hi there.

 

Composer sounds good on vocal comp - but the reliability of the unit is an issue.

 

DBX 266XL is very dark sounding and sounds better on drums+bass IMO.

 

DBX166xl is better than both to my ears.

 

And all three a step up from the 3630 :)

 

Using nothing at all would be better than using a 3630 :) they're vile things even though they do use the same VCAs internally as some DBX offerings, used BSS Opal 422s can be had at a fairly reasonable price and would be worth the little bite extra (maybe £250-£270) for a pair failing that given the 3 mentioned go with the composer, I've seen far more broken 266XLs than composers. As another alternative try and find some of the orginal Behringer Composers, the ones that don't have the word pro anywhere on them as they're actually pretty good and if you can find some of the earlier versions they were made in Germany at one point.

 

Charlie

[ghance]

Another thumbs up for dbx 166xl.

 

266xl okay for small venues with limited funds

 

rather have the 266 over the composer, but at least the composer is still usable. And 2nd the older ones over the new ones.

 

3630? - just say no. Or no thankyou if you went to a nice school

[lonfire]

Hi,

just got my composer out.. its an MDX2200.. just trying it now.. So, so far we have:

 

Alesis - Get rid of

DBX266xl - Don't buy

Composer - Will do the job

DBX 166xl - best quality in value range

 

Just seen a 166xl on ebay £130 seems reasonable.. shame theres only one at that price..

 

I've also got a behringer utltra graph pro geq3102, which I was going to use for foldbacks to notch out any trouble frequencies, however we never get feedback so it never gets patched in! Also we used to have a behringer ultra curve pro patched over the main mix (was installed that way 11 years ago!), until I realised about 7 years ago it was making things sound worse rather than better, and we don't get feedback so the "feedback eliminators" were useless. The more gear I can sell the more money I have to buy some better gear..

 

regards

chris

[RitaReverb]

Hi,

 

You said you would like to hear from anyone selling gear.

 

Well we are currently selling 2 x Alesis 3630 and 2 x dbx 266XL

 

Contact me for more deatils if you are interested.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hi,

I've currently got an alesis 3630 compressor and a behringer composer pro. I use them in a church situation, mainly on vocals. I want to rationalise some of my gear, sell some other bits of outboard I don't use and get 2/3 of the same compressor. Mainly so when I train my guys on the gear they only have to learn one compressor (I know once you learn the theory its easy to use other makes, but its nicer to have a rack with just one type of compressor in)..

 

So I've been recommended DBX 266xl, although reading reviews the behringer composer seems to be held in heigher regard, what about the 3630? I either sell my 3630 and composer and get some DBX 266xls, or a buy another 3630 and sell the composer. I'd kinda rulled out the composer, but actualy reading around its got some good reviews. I haven't used it for a while, might get it out and A/B it with the 3630 see what it sounds like.

 

Anybody got any advice? I know you get what you pay for, but I'm not in the market to be paying loads for gear. Maybe £300 max for 2x 2channel compressors.. if anybody is selling any gear I'd be interested in chatting..

 

Regards

Chris

[lonfire]

Hi,

Thanks for the offer, but think we've come to this conclusion:

 

Alesis - Get rid of

DBX266xl - Don't buy

Composer - Will do the job

DBX 166xl - best quality in value range

 

Regards

Chris

[Shez]

I've got a pair of composers available - one MDX2100 (the older, better one without the 'pro') and one MDX2200. Also a 266 but doesn't look like you're going down that route. PM for more details.

[Solstace]

(Potentially) controversial point here - *any* of the models are capable of being useful for the job in hand. Learn how to use one well and you'll get more than it's financial value out of it. Use a better or more expensive one badly and you've bought an expensive hinderance!

[lonfire]

hi,

I totaly agree, however its good to start with something reasonable and I'm trying to rationalise what I've got.. Alot of my gear was bourght years ago when I didn't know better.. now I'm reviewing what I've got, selling some stuff, and buying some new stuff. I do training with young people in sound engineering/lighting/show control/fireworks..etc, and although with what I've got I can show the principles its nice to change things around now and then for my own interest and development.

 

regards

chris

[Solstace]

Cool-cool. Always good to experiment or ask around if time and resources allow.

 

FWIW, I've had some very workable results with the Alesis units mentioned earlier in the thread, so despite their flaws I wouldn't kick them out of a rig if encountered. I preferred them to the Composers, but mostly because I learnt on the Alesis units first of all so I knew them well. The Composer worked well enough and perhaps "sounded" better, but was a little more work *for me* to get there. For teaching people, I tend to teach the "principles" first and prefer to show how these operate across different bits of kit - that way the people I teach are perhaps a little better equipped for what they might encounter in their next theatre/church/gig.

 

FWIW 2, Guess I'd plump for the dbx units, of all of those mentioned if I were buying analogue outboard from scratch.

[dbuckley]

(Potentially) controversial point here - *any* of the models are capable of being useful for the job in hand.

Ideedy.

 

Although the Alesis 3630 wouldn't be at the top of my shopping list, they do what they say on the can.