Looks good as well; but twice the size. I’m looking to make a portable flightcase so will have to check the space first.
Yeah I think I prefer 19" rackable stuff over a bunch of pedals now. I think the wa comp and vermona action filter would be a good combo for end of chain. The WA unit needs balanced cables, but iirc the OT outs are balanced.
There’s even a 19” mount for a 2x RNC / RNLA combo
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Might be able to fit them in my case; but they prolly needs air as well? Can’t put them in foam.
Reading up on the RNC and RNLA now. Wondering:
RNC allows for Sidechain Compression. Would it be possible to sent the KICK in the Digitakt to the Headphone out and the rest into the OT with the main outs? Don’t think so according to the manual but how cool would that be.
No
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You wont have better quality / price ratio than using vst plugins.
Before spend 500 - 1000 or more in hardware studio, maybe think again to be sure you want remove the computer from your process.
At the end of the chain, you will certainly record on your computer,
are you sure it not worth keep your cash for something else and add your glue compressor at this time using stock plugins or why not an emulation of 10k hardware for a fraction of the price ?
If you really dislike your mouse, maybe try to bind your compressor parameters on a midi controller.
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Agreed, still thinking about this as well. Yesterday i was jamming near the PC and when i unplugged the Compressor i was a bit salty that the sound deflated so much.
I am going to give the OT compressor another try first as well.
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You should not have a huge loss of punch and quality without a compressor.
The mastering should be subtle.
Double check the volume is matching, and maybe work on your mix to have more clarity and punch.
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I use a combo of OT compressor on master channel (p-lock it is you want a side chain pump sound)
and Analog Heat.
Ended my quest for other solutions. I run all sorts of things into this chain now too.
Syntakt sounds particularly good.
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How much would you attribute to the heat?
I’ll try with the OT comp first. Will have to sacrifice the filter or delay, but i use filters on individual tracks as well anyways.
I built a GSSL a few years ago and whether it’s one of those or a real SSL or a good non-GSSL clone you probably won’t be disappointed. I’m not using exotic old DBX VCAs in mine, I don’t have input and output transformers, I still havn’t even added a sidechain input and I didn’t really pay much attention to the quality of the components I used and is still sounds amazing and get sused more than jsut about any other piece of gear I own.
If you go the GSSL route (DIY, builtto-order or used) make sure you go for one with the “turbo” mod installed, though - or make plans to add it (can be done for about $30-$40 and isn’t much harder than building a fuzz pedal, so it’s way more accessible DIY than buiding the whole compressor). I don’t even remember the last time I turned that off on mine.
EDIT: the Alesis Microlimiter costs about twice as much now as they did a couple years ago, but you can still find them under $100 pretty easily and depending on what kind of glue compression you’re after they can be really good. Defnitely not a high end studio compressor, but they can sound really good. I keep one around as a sort of “cassette tape compression in a box” tool.
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+1 for gssl style clone. i also have a non-transformer non sidechain build and it sounds sweet (4:1 slow attack fast release ftw)
fmr rnc is not bad but not the most groovy compressor. plugins are so good these days, its almost not worth to go hardware sub 1k imho.
edit: forgot about it but this one is also an awesome price/quality vca comp (much more flexible compared to a gssl) : Stereo Mastering Compressor TM222
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4:1, 3ms attack and auto release here, but I was doing 2:1 with a slower attack for a long time. Unlike most compressors, I don’t find myself needing to change much except for fine tuning the threshold and makeup (and I hardly even need to do that since I calibrated my monitor levels for the new place finally).
i always found it hard to get the attack just right with fast speeds, so i tend use it more as color/movement box with a bit of that high sheen.
A good bit thanks to the envelope follower and enhancement / clean boost circuits. As gluey as it gets. Got my MK1 for $500
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I’ve had a few hardware compressors at the end of the chain, but lately it’s the FMR RNC, and I think that’s my favorite so far. So, another vote for the RNC! It was really cheap too, I actually bought it used off a fellow Elektronaut
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+1 one for this. I spent a lot of time researching this and ended up selling my OT and switching back to Ableton (for live looping and mastering)
I now use a tweaked version of the instant master chain from this template. Everything I make with the elektron boxes sounds so much better so can’t live (or play live) without it.
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Rather good advice here.
A small laptop like an old 11” MBAir, with a low latency audio interface (MOTU M2, M4), and Ableton Glue Comp can get you in and out at under 6ms, including lookahead. Lots of great low latency free/cheap saturation plugins out there too from Analog Obsession and Brainworx.
Compressors are usually set and forget anyway, so as a solution it’s more than logical.
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