dbx 165a help

[Starship Krupa]

I already know the obvious answer: "wait for the next Eternal Madness and buy MTurboComp(LE)!"

Which I may do someday, but for now in my Meldaproduction dynamics collection I have the punches-a-mile-above-its-weight-class MCompressor (registered) and everyone's favorite go-to MModernCompressor at my disposal (along with the usual 375 compressors from other developers).

I've done respectable (for my purposes) jobs of doing LA/2A and 1176-like responses by researching their characteristics online and plugging that information into the appropriate locations in MCompressor and/or MModernCompressor and tweaking it. MCompressor has the edge on design-your-own curves, while MModern has that great selection of detector responses.

The dbx 165a, however, has eluded me. I can't find information on the knee shape or RMS length. I know the knee should be on the softer side, but no matter what I try, I just can't seem to nail it.

I'm not usually one for slavish attention to vintage mojo when it comes to compressors, if I even bother, I just give it a similar response, detector, RMS (if not peak), attack, hold, etc. and leave the transformer and valve emulation to other plug-ins. Close is fine.

Any ideas other than "just buy MTurboComp(LE)?" This is part of the fun for me. I'm not a pro engineer, I like to tinker, but I'm lacking information. My ear for compression isn't trained enough yet to reverse engineer it. Thanks in advance!

[sirmonkey]

I found this manual from the hardware unit: http://3e7777c294b9bcaa5486-bc95634e60 ... iginal.pdf
Page 3 is the index, and I think most of what would interest you is on page 4.

[jmg8]

You could download the demo of MTurboComp and copy some of the settings over (as many as possible) to MCompressor. It might get you some starting point to work with.

Also from the talks we have had in the past regarding your knowledge of compression, I would strongly advise you get MTurboComp NOT MTurboCompLE. The amount of control you get in the edit screen is unreal. You also get a dynamic EQ. Its loads of fun building your own compressors with it. You would never need another compressor again!

[Starship Krupa]

Thank you both sirmonkey and jmg8, I have followed both of your suggestions. The manual is a great resource, especially the schematic, as I can also look at that and get an idea of what it's doing.

Wow, that is one complicated preset in MTurbo Comp! The things that you can add, saturation, clipping, hiss, hum, good heavens. As I have said about Meldaproduction plug-ins before, and not in any derogatory sense, I could devote weeks just to learning how to use one of them!

If I just picked one from the Free Bundle and decided to become an expert at it, say MComb, but then what I would learn about the parameters would also translate to most of the other big-time plug-ins too.

[jmg8]

Hey, MTurboComp is half price!