Since the poll is an hour away from closing I might as well post this now.
Results:
Bass 1:
1176 D: 4:1 ratio, 12 o 'clock attack
Distressor: 4:1 ratio
Bass 2:
1176 D: 8:1 Slowest attack
Distressor: Opto
Bass 3:
1176 D: 4:1 Ratio, 12 o'clock attack
1176 D (plugin): 4:1 Ratio, fastest attack and release
Bass 4:
Distressor: 4:1 3 Attack 0 Release
Bass 1 was the setting I mixed the bass with up until that point. The rest were interchanged after.
Bass 2 was intended to be a somewhat 'radio-rock' approach. Using the 1176 in heavy 8:1 mode, followed by the Distressor emulating an optical compressor. Millennia of course also has an opto comp, so it's kinda like LA-3-1176-LA-3.
Bass 3 was intended to just be a single 1176, but I experimented putting the plug-in 1176 after it as a limiter and bounced by accident. This is a pseudo 'Randy' setting. Seems most of you guys like this.. .and Chris, I can't say I'm surprised you picked this one
Bass 4 this is just the Distressor doing the heavy lifting alone. Odds are I will roll with this for the final as it's less messy down there than the 1176.
Now I dig that some of you guys are liking the way the tone is going. The bass guitar is pretty but.... it's kinda shit too. I realized just before that I wasn't being anywhere near brutal enough with the EQ to get it in the ballpark for a proper bass tone. I needed to do over 30dB of subtraction at 170hz in order to clear it up enough. The raw tone on this thing is just way off the mark, and takes a monolithic amount of work in order to groove properly. This is partially why I kept saying that newbies should stay away from it.
Anyway this is how the bass is sounding, closer to finish:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/Forum/Bass 3-5.mp3
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/285689/Forum/Bass 4-2.mp3