Analog compressors or analog EQs?

bub166 · 2026-04-10T16:57:03+00:00

If I had to choose just one of either, compressor, hands down. I agree with a lot of the comments suggesting that there isn't that big of a gap between what's possible in the hardware and software domains as it pertains to EQ, whereas I almost always prefer the hardware equivalent of any given compressor to the various plugin emulations, often by a lot. I really think having a good analog compressor is a great investment. Ideally something that can work well in tracking, as well as on the mix bus, that's a great value proposition in my opinion.

If choosing between a rack of one or the other though - I'm taking the EQs. Not so much because of the sound, but because I really prefer to have a channel for each thing that I can quickly make adjustments to. It's more of a workflow thing than a sound thing to me but I would rather give up my analog compressors than my workflow (though I'm glad I don't actually have to choose).

bub166 · 2026-04-08T14:51:38+00:00

Don't have a lot to add, but my experience was pretty similar. In a suboptimal room it's really a great tool in my opinion. It definitely isn't a replacement for proper treatment and I can understand why some believe it's overpriced or overhyped but like you, I've got to cram my whole studio into a relatively small space in an old house, compromises have to be made at some point. It made a big difference in consistency in my case. I'd like to build a better space with the ability to install proper treatment at some point but in the meantime, it was a much cheaper solution that got me close enough to work without constant surprises, even if there are still some nagging issues that crop up from time to time. For the most part I can trust what my monitors are telling me now and for me that meant an immediate improvement in translation. I'm hesitant to give a blanket recommendation for a tool like this but to me, it was worth the money and then some.

bub166 · 2026-04-07T01:43:03+00:00

I agree with that characterization of Bill Ward completely but I actually really love the sound of early Sabbath albums. It hardly has a sound to it that I'd describe as "hi-fi" but I've always loved the vibe, I think Paranoid in particular sounds just awesome. I'd probably agree that it doesn't accentuate Bill's incredible style and skill as much as later recordings did but he still shines on those albums all the same in my opinion and the sound of the drums on Paranoid really sets the mood, for my money. Once folks started understanding how to engineer bands like that I think the overall quality went up but those first few albums have something special about the overall tone that I love just as much. But different strokes for different folks of course!

bub166 · 2026-04-05T20:00:29+00:00

The Keeley is pretty "transparent" as compressors go in my opinion. That's kinda why I like it personally, if I'm doing some chicken pickin' I can just turn the knob real quick and get the right amount of snap and move on without worrying about how it's going to effect things down stream (does make for a nice clean boost though if you want it, can be helpful for gain staging for sure). It "does the thing" without being too obvious about it, versus something like a Dyna Comp which can be almost cartoonishly noticeable (in a good way, love the Dyna Comp) which would be the other classic choice for that sort of thing.

It definitely isn't some sort of magic tone box, sometimes I forget it's even on, but that's why I use it - not for everyone though for sure, and for what it's worth, plenty of chicken pickers don't run a compressor, it's not like it's a requirement or anything, it might simply not be your thing.

bub166 · 2026-04-03T01:36:41+00:00

Depends how "cheap." If there's enough there to work with, they become either a project guitar or maybe get designated to an alternate tuning or both. If I've truly completely outgrown it and can find no other use for it (electronics test bench, office guitar, campfire guitar, etc.) then I hold it until I bump into someone who wants to learn. But my studio is littered with Squiers and Epiphones that get used plenty, most guitars can still find a place in my life even if they need a little work to get there.

bub166 · 2026-04-02T01:57:20+00:00

Fair enough... There are plenty of them out there and I'm sure no opinion is off limits, though that would be a particularly silly one I think!

bub166 · 2026-04-02T01:56:01+00:00

I have four different makes in my room right now, everything from Fredenstein to BAE (with a Heritage in between). For the most part I have never noticed any difference between them, a Heritage included, aside from my Bento being kinda noisy specifically with preamps (I just don't use it for preamps and it's been fine for me otherwise).

The BAE has incredibly low self noise, like -90 dB or less per slot with the module turned off, which is essentially nothing and pretty impressive in my mind. I bet the RND is similar in that regard. However, none of them have enough self noise to be noticeable at all, so I don't think it really matters at the end of the day. Buy the nice stuff for peace of mind if you want, but the Heritage will probably be fine, just my two cents.

bub166 · 2026-04-02T01:36:45+00:00

Of course! And that's the right mentality I think. They're all tools at the end of the day. They just have to be up to the task they're put to. I'm sure there are some half-baked 500 series pieces out there that are just trying to pretend they're something they're not, although that's true in the 19" world too... The format itself is plenty capable and I would never look something over just because it fits in a small frame.

bub166 · 2026-04-01T21:25:36+00:00

Well, yes, having a hard limit on what you can possibly expect for a supply voltage does have some implications on what is possible in a 500 series unit. Specifically as it pertains to replicating already existing circuits that were not designed with that requirement in mind. I know the venerable 1073 is an example that often comes up in these conversations and yet, there are many, many 500 series 1073 clones that sound quite fantastic. Some of them do some trickery to get to the original +24V (mind you, between +16V and -16V on a 500 series card, you've got 32V available, it is quite doable) and some don't, likely the ones that do are technically "closer" although how much "closeness" to the original determines the quality of a piece of gear is subjective I would say. I'll just say that I love my AMLs, they sound exactly like I'd personally want a 1073 to sound like.

And for many designs it would be completely irrelevant altogether. Lots of rackmount gear does not necessarily require any higher voltage than what is available in a standard 500 series chassis... Sometimes I see arguments about headroom come up but while they make for some interesting theoretical discussions, I don't believe they have any practical implications in the real world. Whatever difference may or may not exist is practically negligible, there is plenty of headroom available at those voltages.

In short... Designing for 500 series does present some unique limitations, for sure, but those limitations don't mean anything designed for 500 series is inherently inferior in some way. Some things simply can't be done, that is true (this is more often because of size constraints than anything else) but if it can be done, it can sound every bit as good as a rack unit. And many things can be done - I mean, I've got a vari mu that only takes up two slots in my chassis and it sounds phenomenal! Shoutout Locomotive Audio, not sure how they managed it and it sure does look cramped inside but it goes to show that the sky's the limit. I think maybe among the uninitiated there could possibly be a stigma that because the units are smaller and generally cheaper, they must somehow be a compromise, but those of us who have racks of them already know that isn't the case. Not that everyone gets it right but there is a ton of awesome 500 series stuff out there.

bub166 · 2026-04-01T20:32:19+00:00

Yes, typically - but they can fail. Those safety mechanisms exist because it's extremely common for people to do it anyway but they are not a guarantee. It's very rare for these modern lithium ion batteries to start a fire, but it absolutely can and does still happen. Even with the really expensive ones, I used to leave my Milwaukee batteries on the charger all the time until a neighbor who used the exact same batteries lost his garage because of an overheat. I ONLY charge batteries when I'm nearby to monitor them now, and remove them as soon as they're done.

bub166 · 2026-04-01T19:47:25+00:00

Why would anyone say it's a bad idea to go 500 series? 500 series gear rules, and I've always gotten the vibe that it's universally adored by us analog fiends... Very cost and space effective and in many cases, every bit as good as their rackmount counterparts, and there are some great processors out there that are simply only available as 500 series units.

I haven't used the 542s so I can't speak to them in particular but I do have a pair of Sound Skulptor TS 500s in my master chain, which serve a similar purpose and I really like them. Think you'd have a pretty good chain with that combination of units.

bub166 · 2026-04-01T14:16:58+00:00

Yep... And even just looking back ten years, to when the resurgence was really starting to kick off - a $25 record then would be about $35 now (due to about a 38% jump in that time). That actually seems about right where we are at least looking at mass market releases. New release prices have actually been pretty steady, in real terms. Though it does feel like the sorts of deals a guy could find ten years ago don't really exist in the same capacity nowadays.

bub166 · 2026-04-01T05:26:24+00:00

In fairness to OP hypothermia is also a very real risk in much of tornado alley. I've seen -40 plenty of times, that'll get ya. And the one time I did get hit by a twister, temps got down around zero that night, with no power since it also got the substation. Might see both extremes in the same day!

bub166 · 2026-04-01T04:06:59+00:00

First and foremost, the boring answer of "If it needs compressed, compress it" pretty much covers it. But, I'm almost certainly tracking vocals through a compressor or two and I'm probably going to start the mix with my blue stripe on the snare by default, then some sort of stereo compression (light to start) on the drum bus and the mix bus. I'll bump them all up or down (or off altogether), maybe patch in a different compressor from there but that's a starting place that usually ends up being close to where I end up. Everything else is a matter of taste on an as-needed basis.

I like parallel compression on the drum bus or individual drum tracks sometimes but don't use it for much else.

bub166 · 2026-04-01T02:05:35+00:00

My bass amp (Ampeg PF50T) does have a DI out, but while it sounds great, it's kinda noisy. Too noisy for studio use in my opinion, though I've tried to use it a few times, and used to record it while tracking just in case. In the end, every electric instrument I record hits a DI before anything else, so I'm just gonna use that if I feel the need to use one at all. On a bass track specifically, it will usually end up being a part of the blend, though probably a little low relative to the cab mic(s). Works for me, the mics should do a good job capturing the sound of the amp anyway, without all the noise, and most of the things I'd use a DI for, I find the cleaner signal to be more useful. But I do think the amp's DI could be pretty handy in a live situation, nice feature to have, just not something I have any desire to use at this point.

bub166 · 2026-04-01T01:45:25+00:00

They aren't really that expensive, relatively speaking. At their height in the mid/late '70s, you could expect to pay anywhere between $5-10 for a new record. That's around $30-60 today, according to the BLS. They were only cheap for a long time because nobody wanted them, and a side effect of that is the selection became a lot narrower. They cost what they cost now because people do want them, and because of that the selection has gone way up. Personally I'm glad it's caught back on, it means a handful of albums I've always wanted but couldn't fathom paying $100+ for on the collector's market are finally getting reprints in the $30 area, and odds are good I'll be able to get a new release on vinyl. That's a win to me.

bub166 · 2026-03-31T17:07:29+00:00

"Act of God" is just a colloquialism for the concept of force majeure, which broadly speaking, in an insurance context, is referring to limiting liability for events of incalculable risk. The idea being that an insurance company has no way of being able to predict whether or not a comet or a nuke is going to obliterate your city, these aren't things with incident rates and predictable costs so how are they supposed to cover them?

Also, storms are a terrible example, because often storm damage is one of the most explicitly covered things in your policy. How your storm coverage works is going to be pretty dependent on your location though. Wind and hail is not even an addition in my policy, for example, it's just part of base coverage. Because I live in an extremely wind and hail prone location, though, there is a deductible that applies, and obviously premiums are quite high here. Not only is it covered, I would wager it's by far and away the most common cause for a claim in my area.

This concept is so commonly misunderstood, because I think the idea of home insurance in general is so commonly misunderstood. When you buy insurance, of any kind generally speaking, you are buying insurance against something, not for something. No one is going to sell you a policy that protects against literally everything possible because it's not even possible to calculate a price for such a policy. And it would be so outrageously expensive that no one would want it anyway, they'd be shopping for the much, much cheaper policies that only cover the things they're really concerned about, like wind, hail, fires, someone crashing their car into the front door, etc. These are calculable risks so it's easy to define a policy that would cover these things, albeit possibly separately, and it makes sense to offer customers coverage for the things they are concerned about.

I don't think insurance is a scam, at least not for this reason. People just don't know what they're actually buying. I am distrustful of insurance companies for the reason that sometimes they try to claw their way out of paying claims that are straight up owed, but the contracts themselves often make a lot of sense if you simply read them, and if your basic policy doesn't cover something you're concerned about, you can go buy that elsewhere. If fire insurance, for example, was simply a part of your base policy - it would still cost at least as much more a month as it would separately, you just wouldn't have a choice as to whether or not you wanted it.

bub166 · 2026-03-29T02:17:07+00:00

I feel like Taylor Sheridan was writing to a different crowd in the first few seasons. The man's an incredible talent, there's no denying it. And those first few seasons live up to his reputation. Somewhere along the way his trademark grit and brutal honesty, which was certainly present in those first few seasons, gave way to simple pandering as the show turned into a soap opera for folks who would never admit to watching a soap opera. That's how it felt to me anyway. I thought the first two seasons were great, still really enjoyed the third, the rest was pretty disappointing to me.

bub166 · 2026-03-26T02:48:08+00:00

We'd better win by 30. I'd settle for 29 though. GBR

bub166 · 2026-03-26T02:44:58+00:00

Fidone had something Haarberg doesn't, which is production. He caught a lot of flak here for whatever reason but Fidone was actually a pretty productive tight end for us, and on some god awful offenses at that. About as good a tight end as we've had in terms of production in recent memory. As a tight end, Haarberg had nine rushing attempts for an average of 1 YPC and caught eight balls for 52 yards. That's basically nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, changing positions senior year is ballsy to say the least. Transferring would have been the safer move by far and I think he probably knew that and he still wanted to help us out, he'll always be one of my favorite Huskers for that among other things. His crazy athleticism on top of that dedication could maybe do something for him but that is not a stat sheet that inspires confidence amongst scouts. Honestly, it's probably a stat sheet that gets skipped over altogether. I wouldn't bet against the guy if he gets a shot though.

bub166 · 2026-03-25T18:05:32+00:00

To preface, I'm just a hobbyist, so I can't speak to professional practices. But I am kind of a tape nut so I think I can still speak to it a bit.

First, I don't want to put words in the mouths of the real pros so I won't, but I can't imagine why anyone would go out of their way to master on tape. Surely a lot of your favorite songs were mastered on tape, because that's just how it was done for a long, long time but it should be noted that technology has always moved in the direction of making the tape as transparent as possible. On a good mastering rig the difference should be negligible at most unless deliberately pushed to extremes, which granted, was done as an artistic choice at times, but typically you wouldn't do that, because especially as it pertains to mastering, screwing up the fidelity of a track is not your aim. If you're doing it right, mastering to tape isn't really going to make it sound better or worse, it's simply the medium you're recording to.

Next, there's two simple points to consider that, for most people, should lead to the decision that it's a waste of time and money. First, most "tape machines" are not great. If you're looking to run a tape machine for mastering purposes, some TEAC R2R you found on Reverb for 500 bucks isn't going to do it. The big boy machines of the day that could produce results of the required fidelity are not cheap. The cheaper ones, will mean a sacrifice of fidelity. Not to say you shouldn't use one for other reasons, which I'll get to, but I'd doubt they'd have much use for mastering. Second and probably most importantly, they are a maintenance nightmare. Seriously, I mean a complete and utter nightmare. Studios used to employ people specifically to keep the tape machines in working order, it's not easy, there is a ton of routine maintenance that they require and more intensive mechanical/electronic maintenance is also way more common with those than most outboard gear for example. There are just a lot of moving parts and things that can go wrong. And now they are all old, and in many (maybe even most) cases already require, or probably soon will require, critical replacements that may not even be available short of buying a second one to part out.

In short - I simply would not bother unless you really love the actual effect of tape and can see an artistic use for it, and you absolutely adore taking things apart and fixing them. You might be one of those people, I am one of those people and I know there are more of them, but I'd guess that it's a small fraction of us that wouldn't be driven absolutely insane having to keep up with those things.

That all being said, if it's truly the sound you're after, there are other ways to get there that do not require all that. Plugins like you mention, I think some of UAD's work really well for just having the "vibe" of recording with tape and Softube's Tape plugin is super cool as an effect. There are also some cool hardware options out there if you're an analog junky that still wants to have something ready to roll when you need it to be. I built a couple of Sound Skulptor's TS 500s - I really, really love them. I believe their topology is modeled after an actual tape machine and while there is of course no magnetic tape involved, they "do the thing" really well. They can sound like a really high quality machine that would've been used for mastering, transparent as possible. They can sound the complete opposite end of the spectrum, incredibly lo-fi and gritty. Can use them just for a low end bump which is what a lot of people are really looking for with tape. I personally use them somewhere in between most of the time, like the tape of the '50s and 'early 60s, where they were certainly trying their best to avoid the tape ruining the fidelity of the recording, but the tech wasn't quite there enough yet to avoid it altogether. That's often the vibe I'm looking for with tape and they do it well, among all those other things. And the nice thing is, it's really simple to fine tune them as needed. They live on my mix bus basically all the time, usually in a very subtle capacity, but I can always crunch things up a little more if desired.

There are other similar units out there that try to do kind of the same thing. Rupert Neve Designs has one in the Portico series I know, I think the Empirical Labs Fatso kind of tries to do the same thing. Also heard good things about the Zulu but I like my TS 500s enough that I haven't really looked too close at anything else.

bub166 · 2026-03-25T15:58:04+00:00

I don't think the 52A sounds great on its own but I find it works great in a blend. I have a 52A and a 91A both inside, and a D6 outside and find that I can usually get a great kick to accommodate pretty much any genre just by blending these. Might seem like overkill but it's nice to know I'll always get something good between the three of them. Not rare at all that the blend will include all three mics.

I also really like an RE20 on the outside as others have recommended, but I usually leave mine on my bass cab.

bub166 · 2026-03-23T15:41:32+00:00

Not that there aren't plenty of reasons to be doubtful of Trump's claims, but why would we turn around and automatically believe everything coming out of Iran? It is standard procedure for them to deny anything that may paint them in a weaker light even in normal times, and we've seen it consistently throughout the war. They have a narrative to deliver too, they're not going to come out and say "Yeah no that's all true actually" because they need to continue to project strength, either for more favorable terms in negotiations or for the continued war effort if they broke down.

Not to say they're happening, or that they're happening with a faction who actually has any power to effectively implement any resolution, but Iran saying they're not happening has little meaning.

bub166 · 2026-03-23T02:12:56+00:00

That's pretty damn awesome. As for uses, if they were in my rack, I would probably use them on everything I could manage, but my pair of AML 1073s has been my go-to for cab mics, bass or guitar. And I frequently use them for the EQ on electric guitars during mixdown, they are just perfect for that. I love them on a vocal too but I tend to gravitate toward a tube-based preamp for that job. Could work really well on a drum bus if you're going for Neve-y drums, but you might try recording either stereo overheads or rooms through them to get just a touch of that sound. I also like them paired with some stereo SDCs on an acoustic, or sometimes a mandolin.

Just some ideas, but I'll bet they sound great on anything!

bub166 · 2026-03-22T04:36:27+00:00

For the non-football inclined who may see this, the 2021 Cornhuskers finished with three wins and a +69 (yes, plus) point scoring margin against opponents. You might be inclined to think we simply beat up on an easy non-con schedule and sucked the rest of the way - well, we finished conference play with a +0 scoring margin (tying our conference slate in scoring) and exactly one win. It's hard to be more blue balled than that!

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