G1176 with Limiter and Gate?

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Rweiss

Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2004
Messages
6
Location
South Jersey
Has anyone ever attempted to put together this compressor with a nice limiter and gate in the same package? Would be a cool project for someone to attempt if you've got the resources. I'm new and would like to knock all 3 out in one package, before I start building the 1176 itself.

Anyways, just an idea.
Cheers.
 
It is a limiter...

typically "limiting" is 20:1 (or greater) compression...

we sorta need a diy gate, dont we? QE had a completely discrete gate that would be worth looking at in the future.

dave
 
maybe someone can put a scope on a "limiter" and compare to a compressor with a high ratio/fast attack to see what the difference is sonically?
 
In the dim depth of memory I seem to recall that a limiter has a sharp knee and a compressor has a soft knee. Thus the term difference makes sense to me as a limiter gives a more abrupt boundry.
 
Sharp/soft knee refers to how a device works in term of the ratio 'kicking in', I wouldn't say it has anything to do with the comp/limit thing. On a standard (harman) DBX compressor, there is the hard mode or the soft knee mode. The difference is that once the signal has reached the threshold, in the hard mode it will be reduced strictly by the ratio, whereas in the soft mode, it will have a certain transition region before the ratio actually kicks in...as in it comes in gradually rather than abruptly. I don't have a link to anything, but this is easy to look at graphically. Any good ole recording handbook should have pix of this type of stuff, and also comps with limiters that kick in at a higher ratio.

I really don't think there is any point in being too strict about the limiter/compressor definition. I'm sure PRR could chime in with lots of history, but remember that we are dealing with devices that evolved over a long period of time. A limiter like the LA2A is not fast by today's standards, and many of the old comps that we all lust after have variable ratios anyway, depending on how far over threshold you push them. As far as sound goes, you can't really say something sounds like a limiter or a compressor, it's all a bit blurry!

Bjorn

...although as Thomas says, yes you certainly would expect a modern limiter to kick in with a hard ratio very quickly to make sure nothing is let through past whatever point you've set.
 

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