(11-04-2016, 02:18 AM)e20100 Wrote: Leveler = LA-2A ?
Compressor = DBX 160x in overeasy mode ?
Limiter = 1176 ?
I would agree with those, in general. In particular, the leveller is
very close to a real LA-2A in sound, in my opinion and recollection (I had a UREI LA-2A once... it broke, but I still got over $1,000 for it). It's been too long since I got rid of my 1176 to be able to say, but the Mixbus limiter, especially the master bus final limiter, is very good. I don't remember how the Fairchild 660 (mono, not the 670) sounded well enough to be able to comment on how close the limiter is to it, but I'm not a fan of the 660/670 sound anyway (yeah, at one point in time I had hands on all three of these three.... the 660 wasn't worth very much when I got rid of it, and I wish I had kept it, as they are worth a
lot of money now.
Now the 660/670 has a very pleasing and distinctive sound when it's being driven for vinyl cutting, which is a completely different application to general-purpose limiting. The one I had was being used for the final legal-limit limiter for an AM transmitter, and it did that job fantastically well, although the Orban Optimod 9100A sounded better. That airchain had three possible paths: either the board connected to the LA-2A which connected to either of the 1176 or the 660 or the Dorrough DAP-310 three-band compressor fed the 660 for final limit (with the 310's limiter disabled). The 9100A both sounded better (in my opinion) and gave far higher average modulation (which for AM translates directly to a greater usable signal at all listening distances), so it replaced the others. I have the DAP-310 still, somewhere, but got rid of the other stuff a long time ago.
I don't use the straight compressor enough to comment accurately. I use the leveller on almost everything I do; works absolute wonders on spoken dialog. And the final limiter is of course used on everything, but I very infrequently use the channel limiters.
I always have liked the very analog sound of AM radio with a real tube transmitter with a fresh set of modulator tubes and a properly tuned PA... ah, the RCA BTA-5T with a fresh matched pair of Eimac 3CX3000F1's, good 4-125's in the pre, a new 8762 and a properly peaked 3rd harmonic resonator......... and Mixbus32C (and non-32C Mixbus; I use both) does give that kind of warmth....
