If I were going to get a new hardware compressor, I’d get this…
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I’d be interested if a real analog brings more to the table than the shadow hills. On the 2bus this thing is a beast.
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You have tested a real analog and compared to the shadow hill ?
Yeah the shadow hill is a beast, I hope a real analog can be even better and warmer.
The thing I miss the most is real knobs.
I had a tegeler creme at home and tested that. That’s the only one, and I didn’t have the feeling it brought more to the table. But it’s very different to shadow hills. To me shadow hills blows it away for what I want it for.
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Interesting. I have the creme and no vst plug i own touches it. Some like MJUC come close but the signal has a bit more heft and life when pushed harder through the hardware.
Shadow hills looks mighty tho.
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I use 2 of these in my rack for House & Techno you don’t need to spend €900 - €1500 on any of those you mention IMO they’re not expensive either.
The DBX 166xs also has side chain inputs 
Just a thought 
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I didn’t have a bunch of time with as it had to go back within the return time. And I didn’t have the same experience as I do today. Maybe would be different now, that was my impression back then.
I can only suggest trying shadow hills and slapping it on the 2bus. What it does to the transients on the low end is amazing imo.
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About which Shadow Hill comp you are talking? There is the one from UAD. But there are also 2 versions from Brainworx / Plugin Alliance.
The newer red version from PA is one of my fave plugins. I often don’t even use it as a compressor, I just like to stick it on my mix bus for a bit of flavour and heft.
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I might preorder an Atomic Flux. It’s not a dedicated compressor, but will include analog emulations of the Fairchild 660/670 compressor and the Omnipressor. I’ve been a bit hesitant because they took so long to answer my email question about the weight (answer: 4lbs) and the circuit (answer: no actual tubes, solid-state emulation of tubes like in the QES amps). I do have a QES amp, so I know they’re not a fly-by-night operation.
I’m talking about the plugin alliance one
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oki, yep I know what you mean. I tested the red led version from PA too. For me it sounds a bit more open compared to UAD SSL bus comp. I also used soundtoys Decapitator as 2nd insert on my 2bus. It sounds nice using it gently. Ofcourse you can over do it with the Decapitator very easily.
I tested this against the oto Boum. If you are using both setups gently, there are not so much difference between the both plugins and the hardware. But if you are pushing the boum and going over 2 db gain reduction and addition some saturation / distortion … the boum wins every time.
I found that compressing more then 1 db on a software 2bus compressor mostly sounds meeeh to me, at least I can say this for the UAD SSL for sure. I tested this many many times, only to find out it sounds best, to just let the needle barely move. On the Boum, total another story. You can compress 2 db without actually hearing it. You may just have to set the release to 100ms or 300ms to flatten the release response to get more of a calm feeling. And this is the same when listening to some other hardware compressor like the Heritage Audio Succesor - compressing 2 db or more? Still sounds punchy and good.
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For me the biggest question is still, if you send you music to mastering, will you still hear a difference on the final mastered version? Or it is just like, if you are doing more to the signal with a Boum for example, will the mastering dude just push the signal less?
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You shouldn’t have to run a line out from an interface into a preamp. A preamp is used to bring a signal up to line level. Which audio interface is it? I imagine that a line out from most audio interfaces should be enough to hit it sufficiently.
The Threshold dial on a Bus Comp like that adjusts at what level the compressor is activated, or how hard your signal is hitting it. The Makeup Gain dial makes up gain after the compressor, and you could also use that as output gain to hit something harder after the compressor.
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I’ve found you have to hit the WA bus comp pretty hard to get the transformers coloring your sound, but the compression sounds beautiful even at comparatively low levels.