DBX

[Jaymz]

Interested in one of these:

http://www.dbxpro.com/166XL/166XL.php

Anybody had any sort of experience with one of these? Seems to do the job!

Thought I should get some opinions before I flash the cash.

Thankssss

 

[Melb_shredder]

While I haven't personally used the 166xl, I do own the 266xl and it works brilliantly, actually I'm pretty sure anything DBX is a safe buy
The 166xl has a Limiter in which the 266xl doesn't

 

[Jaymz]

Yeah, I know Mark Morton uses the 266XL in his live rig, ive been scouring for a cheapish limiter/compressor and this has a gate too which is a tasty bonus =) Btw thanks for the comment dude!

 

[Student]

I personally like the 160a over the 166, but if you like it, go for it, but try the 160a if you can.

 

[IronApe]

I personally like the 160a over the 166, but if you like it, go for it, but try the 160a if you can.

+1

160a is a really good peace of gear...

 

[ElektricEyez]

I own one, and use it, it's not bad for kicks, vocals and acoustic guitars. I think the Limiter sucks the life out of the source, and I only use it for light compression to tame the transients so I don't clip the signal when recording. I know that it's not known for the best compresor, and I would suggest that you also look into the FMR RNC, which I think is much better. But the 166XL isn't bad at all! Rumor has it, that it is better for live rigs. Just be careful that you do not over compress, it does start to sound thin when you do. I also think that the gate sucks for vocals, because it goes from silence to sound rather abruptly. My .02

 

[Kazrog]

DBX stuff is great for live usage primarily. In the studio I'd use something more expensive, or nothing at all and use a plug-in to do the compression and gating, though.

Their compression is a little bit gimmicky sounding but it is great for taming the unpredictability of vocal mics on stage.

 

[TheDude]

I own the 1066 which is about twice as expensive, and I don't really like it that much. The truth is that it just sits there in my rack unused. I personally wouldn't buy it, but that's MHO.

 

[Jaymz]

I was hoping I wasnt gonna end up spending a lot lol

I would just use it for taming the peaks for vocals and bass really, gate can come in handy and the compressor can tighten up guitars nicely I heard?

 

[Jaymz]

Wow that RNC dosent look how I expected! Is that a better bit of kit all round?

 

[colonel kurtz]

DBX stuff is great for live usage primarily. In the studio I'd use something more expensive, or nothing at all and use a plug-in to do the compression and gating, though.

i wouldn't go so far as to say that all the DBX stuff sucks in the studio

sure, their cheaper shit sort of blows, but the 160-series shit is killer...i would love to have 1 of the old 165A's(i think that's dual-channel with the VU's?) sitting in my rack

 

[colonel kurtz]

also, the RNC is a good compressor, but beware that a)it doesn't add a lot of character...this could be good or bad, depending on what you want from it, b)the connections are unbalanced, and c)it's a true stereo compressor...while there's 2 channels of compression, the controls affect each simultaneously.

 

[Jaymz]

I see, is there any other compressors around the RNC money mark which you could reccommend?

Cheers!

 

[ElektricEyez]

Honesty that RNC is a great compressor. The I read that the DBX 160 is a really compressor. Lot's of people like the Art Pro VLA as well. I've never tried the DBX 160 or the Ar Pro VLA, but they both get a lot of rave reviews. For vocals, I am blown away by what this RNC can do. True, it has no "character" of it's own, it just squashes the peaks, but it's very transparent, but it's truely a nice compressor. It has this mode called Really Nice Mode, which uses 3 compressors simultaneously for a nice gentle compression on vocals, but it's not really that great on Bass. The 166XL It's not bad for bass, at least I don't think so, I think it's pretty good, and I use it quite frequently on bass.