Long-time lurker, first time poster… Basically as the title says. I’m one of those lucky people that has a modular channel and love it for all the reasons that typically come up - it really is a fantastic sounding, creatively inspiring piece of kit! However, I’m currently downsizing big-time, as I’m looking to go travelling/live abroad for something like 6-9 months and as such don’t want to be taking big, heavy, expensive rack stuff with me on the road (before anyone gets excited, I’m not selling it. It’ll be going into storage or more likely to a friend on loan).
My set up will be something like Ableton/Bitwig on a macbook, MOTU M4, Genelec 8020s (so portable!) and an Octatrack. I use the Overstayer on loads of stuff as a hardware send from Ableton and is kind of the only hardware that I use on absolutely everything - individual sounds, drum buss, sometimes the whole mix. I suspect I can probably get close with plug-ins (Saturn/Decapitator being the usual suspects) and am definitely not averse to doing this, however, I feel that there is something about analog saturation that is subtly different to digital models…
So, if anyone has any recommendations for a small form-factor stereo compressor/saturator (these are by far the two elements I use the most and what I’m looking for) that leans on the subtler end of the spectrum, I’m all ears! Budget is around €500 (I’m certainly not averse to going 2nd hand) and from reading around here and elsewhere, I’ve found a few options:
OTO Boum (mixed reviews; apparently rather limited in sound?)
EHX Platform (digital but seems to sound pretty nice)
EHX Operation Overlord (no compression)
Elektron Analog Heat (a bit larger than I’d like to carry)
Elysia Xpressor (also digital and apparently very clean?)
Elysia Karacter (no compression but seems underrated online?)
FMR RNC/RNLA (the latter could be an option?)
Strymon Deco (digital but seems to be quite popular)
Sherman Filterbank Compact (sexy but only mono, right?)
Suonobuono nABC+ (seems to be only sidechain pumping?)
Cwejman VC-SC (I’d need something like a 4ms pod in addition)
Jomox T Resonator (weird choice but could work?)
Another thought… I have an H9 that I was looking to sell, as I never got on with it (despite the love it seems to get everywhere!) but perhaps I could re-purpose it for this?
Anyway, I’m keen to hear what peoples thoughts/opinions are… Including those that say, “this is just GAS, stick with plugins!”