Industry standard for compressors in live use?

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Mbira

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
2,422
Location
Austin, TX
Hey guys,
I'm curious-what do the big dogs do on the road? I think I heard that Neil Young uses 1176s exclusively in the studio...does that happen in live use as well? I'm sure those guys can afford to take that kind of stuff in the road and have it maintained, etc. Or is there a typical compressor that most folks use on the road?

Thanks,
Joel
 
In the not so modern world of the late '70s
and 1980s:

Allison gain brains and LA4s. Used the brains
on vocals and LA4s on bass guitar and
for general compression. LA5s for main
mix compression riding gain to drive the amp racks.

Guess I'm a bit old school :green:

GARY
 
dbx 160, 166, 1066 are popular live. Some big acts will use one or two boutique compressors on the star vocals - Summit Audio TLA-50 is a very nice compressor for that.

Many acts have gone digital, and use what's in the console channel processing. Digidesign Venue system allows Windows plugins, too.
 
The bigger FoH racks look like studio racks. You find LA2As, LA3A, 1176, Distressors, Drawmer Gates, SPL TD, Summit, Drawmer 196X, dbx160,....

On lower budgets BSS, Drawmer, Klark are very much liked.

EQs are Klark, BSS, TC

In the lowend region digital FoH is very hip because everybody can afford it, less space and weight and rental companies can convince promoters that digital is better (do you guys remember what they told us about digital in recording - ADAT.....)
Touring acts very often have the expensive digital desks (PM5D, Innovason, Digico) plus some goodies - mostly better FX
Older FoH guys prefer Midas analog desks (me included) :grin:
 
The botique stuff that I've seen go out are made by Valvotronics. Specifically the gainryder 3 and 3d. Also the Smart research C2 and the summits and avalons. The standards seem to be the dbx stuff, the drawmers tend to sit on the shelf. The bss stuff seems to be used more for specialty use, like for de-essing or multi-band compression. As far as the digital stuff, guys don't seem to like the onboard clocks on the yamahas and are taking big bens or antelopes. But some of those setups are taking some outboard too.
 
[quote author="mattnj"]As far as the digital stuff, guys don't seem to like the onboard clocks on the yamahas and are taking big bens or antelopes. But some of those setups are taking some outboard too.[/quote]

:shock:
 
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