Your opinion on the best Compressor (Klanghelm DC8C, Pro-C, Ozone8, H-Comp) ?

[FapFilter]

I always hated the sound of the 1176 when i was still on UAD. Has been the MKI though. I always preferred the LA-3A when that came out later on.
Have been avoiding 1176 clones ever since, so maybe there are some i'd actually like.

My favorite character compressor has been MJUC for a while now and DC8C for clean, though i have no qualms using ReaComp for this application aswell which i do fairly regularly.

[s28]

Sonimus TuCo, great compressor that uses barely any cpu.

[Vertion]

I am getting my husband Klanghelm MJUC for Father’s Day. It sounds really good!

Great job

I already got him a moog sub37 for Valentine’s Day and I will be getting him the Klanghelm DC8C for his upcoming birthday. I hope he likes it!

[digitalboytn]

I heard Cast Iron from Harbor Freight is pretty good and is only $175

https://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools ... 61454.html

[Halonmusic]

I heard Cast Iron from Harbor Freight is pretty good and is only $175

https://www.harborfreight.com/air-tools ... 61454.html

Can i use it on my master ?

[subterfuge]

DC8C and any Fairchild emulation. Also LA2A are naked but sound good. Anyone make a more tweakable LA2A?

Check out the DMG TrackComp. It has SPICE simulated 2A (LA2A), as well as 76D (1176), E-channel (SSL E-Series), G-Bus (SSL G-Series) and one of DMGs own compressor models. With the simulated compressors you'll get to adjust the Attack and Release beyond the known hardware limits and have additional features like Response and Brightness in the case of the 2A.

[chk071]

The only one i have from the ones mentioned in the OP is H-Comp. So, i'd say that one is the best. I never used it though. Lol!

[3ee]

Check out the DMG TrackComp. It has SPICE simulated 2A (LA2A), as well as 76D (1176), E-channel (SSL E-Series), G-Bus (SSL G-Series) and one of DMGs own compressor models. With the simulated compressors you'll get to adjust the Attack and Release beyond the known hardware limits and have additional features like Response and Brightness in the case of the 2A.

DMG Trackcomp is truly great! (I also have and use other comps but this one is special in it's own way) ... and once you get used to having the extra attack/release ranges you don't really want to use any other emulations, it's very useful to have! .. I mean, who didn't wish they have just a tiny bit faster release on an G-Bus or LA-2A emu for example?

[superscan]

The best compressor is the one that works on the track your making/mixing/producing.

[Thavma]

Hey , have you guys tried DDMF's MagicDeathEye? https://ddmf.eu/magicdeatheye/

Seems like very intelligent and smooth. Also the spikes when you hit play do not excist it behaves like a good analog. First time I spot this in a vst compressor

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Hey , have you guys tried DDMF's MagicDeathEye? https://ddmf.eu/magicdeatheye/

Seems like very intelligent and smooth. Also the spikes when you hit play do not excist it behaves like a good analog. First time I spot this in a vst compressor

MagicDeathEye is amazing. That said, my LA-2A clone definitely will spike in the first transient of a vocal when you catch the release at the wrong time. That's not a digital thing. Analog does it too. There's a reason why people will frequently run an 1176 to catch the peaks on a vocal before an LA-2A in the analog domain. Also why some gear got "Hold" controls added (thinking Abbey Road). Allowed you to momentarily hold the GR so there wouldn't be a loud pump at the end of a section, or pop as a vocal came back in.

[Thavma]

MagicDeathEye is amazing. That said, my LA-2A clone definitely will spike in the first transient of a vocal when you catch the release at the wrong time. That's not a digital thing. Analog does it too. There's a reason why people will frequently run an 1176 to catch the peaks on a vocal before an LA-2A in the analog domain. Also why some gear got "Hold" controls added (thinking Abbey Road). Allowed you to momentarily hold the GR so there wouldn't be a loud pump at the end of a section, or pop as a vocal came back in.

hmmm!! good to know! my ssl 4000 clone doesn't makes that so I though it would be the same everywhere.

[The Main Event]

Having discussed the topic about the "sound" already a lot here, i also chose mine from how user-friendly and flexible they are. Its all about knowing your stuff. Get a few good compressor and really LEARN how to use them. Having said that, these are my favourite go-to compressor i use regularly (no particular order):
FF ProC2, MJUC, SuperchargerGT, Waves SSL Channelstrip, CLA76, Waves RVox, The Glue, JST Bus Glue Bundle

[simon.a.billington]

I can't give you opinion as I have not use all of these, but I can give you a tip on H-Comp...

The Analog dial IS NOT a Noise control. It selects different compressor types/pseudo emulations.

Nope, as far as I know / can tell, it only selects four different sort of idealized/pseudo transformer emulations which gets added at the output stage i.e. the compression itself is completely unaffected by it.

As far as I’m aware, the characteristics of transformers are only very subtle. Whereas the Analog control has a huge influence on the tone and the harmonic character. Analog 3 shares the same harmonic footprint of the V-Comp, while Analog 1 is very much like the API. That much I know.

However, given that the Punch and envelop characteristics seem to be pretty consistent with whatever mode you select, I say that you are right on some level.

It’s a hybrid compressor, that’s the concept. So I guess it proposes to take the best of both the analogue and digital worlds and combine them together to create something more flexible. Well that’s how I interpret it.

If we're going to speculate then we might as well measure. I just had a play with Plugin Doctor and found that there's plenty of nonlinearity with ratio=1, threshold=0 and even mix=0%! So this is clearly happening at an input or output stage quite separate from the main compression behaviour. It's a bit late in the evening to edit them together but here are some highlights:

The first is the transfer function with a slow sweep for Analog mode 1; this seems to be the noisiest mode, with a noise floor over -75 dBFS.
R1-A2.png

Next is the frequency spectrum for Analog mode 3, which has a pretty drastic high scoop. It would be worth verifying with a long noise sample if that's real or some artifact of measuring an impulse, but at mix=0% it's remarkable either way.
R1-A3-spec.png

Finally the transfer function of Analog mode 4, which has an interesting dip and is insensitive to the compressor timing controls. Would this give a "fuzzy" distortion? It does seem to be accompanied by a pretty dense set of harmonics (but at a low level).

R1-A4.png

For what it's worth I like H-comp a lot as a squishy swingy buss thing, but while I like the idea of the nonlinearity features I don't find them that useful. Perhaps this will help! I was surprised to see that they are engaged on the "dry" signal and insensitive to the threshold knob. There could be other effects on the compressor timing that are harder to analyze, but at this stage I see no reason to actively believe that they exist.

This is good to know.

However, I wasn't speculating as I got my information from Waves literature when it first came out. The only trouble is, I can't seem to find it again, otherwise I would have posted the link.

Most compressor harmonics are at low levels until the signal starts approaching the threshold or you begin compression.

[imrae]

As my testing shows, H-comp throws out lots of saturation independently of the compression. Pushing a test tone into compression by increasing the ratio does *not* add any more harmonics so there cannot be a simple saturator in the GR element either.

I haven't found any claim by Waves that things are more complicated than this. We have no test data suggesting that there is anything more going on. We should apply Occam's razor; it's more likely that Waves used a simple algorithm than that they used a complicated one with a subtle result and then told us nothing about it.