Really Nice Compressor

[Pop]

Anyone use one of these? I'm trying to troubleshoot a problem with mine and was hoping to get a bit of friendly help!

Thank'ee!

[symbolique]

Yep. I have one (US). What's the prob?

[Pop]

Yep. I have one (US). What's the prob?

Hey there friend. I happened to checking in as you replied!

I'm running my digital keyboard into it, basic grand piano sound, and I'm getting a sort of stuttered, subtle tremolo-like release on my chords. I'm doing pretty extreme compression:

Threshold -6 to -10 or so
Ratio 10:1
Attack .2 (fastest attack time)
Release 3ms

When I play a chord or a single note, the compressor will stutter on the release like it's not sure whether or not to let go. It's not smooth at all. And you can see on the LED lights that it doesn't go straight down, it will start to go down (as in the lights will go out) and then jump back up to the previous one for a split-second, and so on. This happens in a matter of like half a second, but it will occur 3 or 4 times in that frame and produce the undesired tremolo-ish kinda decay.

It doesn't really do that on basic settings, but I like to do some extreme compression stuff, especially on a mono drum mix.

The attack is really nice on the piano; the note will jump out and then quickly duck under, but the release is sounding weird.

Have you had anything similar happen with yours? Or could you attempt to duplicate it if you have time?

Thanks!

[DRodriguez]

What is likely happening (can't confirm because i don't have said compressor) is a result of that very fast release on a high ratio. At a high ratio, you are approaching a limiting ratio; I generally call anything 20:1 and up a limiter, but 10:1 is definitely close to if not one. Combined with that near 0 attack time it's essentially compressing instantaneously and releasing near instantaneously. The release time at 3ms means the compressor is recalculating the compression every 3ms. But, due to the high ratio, you are maintaining a near constant volume on the output. The total result is a steady output of massive compression jumping to a new degree of massive compression every 3ms. You are essentially reducing the compression in 3 ms steps which to your ear sounds like a tremolo. A more natural release for a piano sound would be in the 200-800 ms range depending on what you were going for.

I'm bad at explaining the technical side of audio, so sorry if that is confusing. Feel free to ask anything about the above.

[Pop]

I'm not so hot on the technical side either but that's an excellent explanation. I'll play around with it more, including the "Super Nice" setting that I have never really tried.

I was just looking for something with a very quick and obvious attack... but I'm sure there's room to improve.

Will give it a shot this evening.

Thank you very much!

[DRodriguez]

The super nice mode, from what i can find, is likely a modified knee to vary the ratio as you compress more. This will make it sound very transparent, as in you don't notice the compression.

If you're looking for something with a very quick and obvious attack, or pumpy, you can probably use the same settings, but just lower the release to like 270 ish. It would probably help to raise the threshold too, you want to catch the attack, not necessarily the sustain

[sonidero]

The Really Nice Rules...

I always start from scratch and don't look at the knobs and just listen... The Really Nice mode is supposed to be three comps tuned to sound Nice...

I haven't found anything the RNC doesn't sound good on...

[DRodriguez]

The Really Nice mode is supposed to be three comps tuned to sound Nice...

Yeah, but I doubt it's actually 3 compressors, or they would make that a feature and sell it with 3 adjustable compressors. I believe it's a fancy way of saying that it has a very slow, three stage knee that sort of acts like multiple compressors, but isn't quite the same. Still will sound awesome, and I've heard nothing but good things about the RNC.

[Pop]

I axed the same question over on Gearslutz and one of the posters seems to think that the input buffer does not work with line input signals. Which may be the case. But anyway, he suggested I run it though an insert on a mixing board. I may try that with my TASCAM 424 mkII, which has the effects loops. Not sure if that's the same thing.

Likely I will try what you suggested, just experiment with lengthening the release time until it smooths out. I think I tried that before, but was also starting to feel like I may have had a faulty unit.

It's KILLER on a mono drum mix... love it. Just gotta work out the kinks with this piano track.

THANK YOU!

I've still not touched the Super Nice mode, and will see if I can get this down without resorting to that. Not that it would be a bad thing.

[amnesiac305]

An RNC is great to have around...endlessly useful

[tuj]

hmm, I have 2 RNC's and I have never had that problem. Is it only on the low end of the sound? The RNC can get weird about bass when you use very fast attack times and are NOT in super-nice mode.

[popvulture]

While we're on this topic, can anyone explain it to me nice and clearly how to make the RNC work with balanced gear? I've always been a total rube about this particular aspect of it, and have stuck to using it as an insert with my RNP, or just sticking to unbalanced applications. Would love to finally sort it out though and be able to use it with whatever.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

on page 1 of the manual it says the RNC doesn't work w/ balanced cables. do u mean using the TRS cable as an insert?

[popvulture]

I believe there's a custom cable you can have made, or something along these lines. There's a way to make it work, I know.

Shit, I live in Austin--should just call FMR. Lazy.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

the way it works is that the input can accept a TRS cable as an insert.
not as balanced audio TRS. which the cable looks the same but is doing something different.

you can use the input w/ an insert or Y-cable like this:
http://hosatech.com/product/stp-200/
and have your input (tip) and output (ring) on one cable,
i guess this is cool if you have insert points on a mixer. or have a Y cable but not two cables to do the normal 1 cable in, 1 cable out configuration.