Glad you got your hands on one of these... even though I'm sorry to hear about that hire company.

The local dude I bought my S950 from had a bunch of 70s DBX in his hip hop-focused studio... like more than 6. That got me curious, started diving in, researching... but I've forgotten most of what I learned by now. What is THE vintage DBX to have for drums? The "big" 160 with the meters, the 160A? I'm so out of the loop.

@pkennethk its sitting across thcraymer's kick drum in parallel today in overeasy mode with the ratio at -1:1 where it almost limits everything that's over threshold and then compresses the below threshold stuff less and less but also raises the overall vca output for those hits. The new ones can do that but it actually does a better job of it which sounds less musical then how the X does it.

The X produces a really 90s sound on drums for exampleand sounds like indy rock and hardcore punk on everything else. With an aggressive expander gate like a dynamite of aphex 610 out front it has that SSL 4k dynamics sound since those dynamics are dbx can VCAs and the fast mode time constants are the same as the 160x in overeasy. So the 90s hip hop sound is very 160x to my ears. The 160vu and 161 have a different grab that'sless level dependent, no overeasy (soft knee) mode. Peak only. Very 70s/80s to my ear with a really distinct pop at the beginning of percussive sounds like drums, bass guitar and anything plucked or struck. The 162 stereo unit is somewhere inbetween, it's meant to be a stereo 160 but it has it's own vibe that sounds more like an X and it doesn't require a kit to rack... but the 160x is the first one with overeasy. Its also predrilled for a jensen output transformer if you want balanced outs. A lot of guys swear by those 3 VU equipped models but I like the soft knee overeasy mode because I use dbx units more for transient shaping than heavy gain control. For level control the humble RNC kills it. The 163 is also cool. Its overeasy only and has instrument level ins and outs for use as a live effect or as a DI solution.

All the above mentioned are good. No other dbx sounds legitimately good on any source to me. The 1066 stereo is tolerable and can be good. Otherwise get an alesis. The 3630 and 3632 are basically the same as the 166 and 266 stereo units. The dbx versions are more consistent unit to unit than the 3630. The 3632 is about the same. On all 4 if those you need to ship the awful gate out if circuit, even when the gate is bypassed its detector circuit eats tone.

@pkennethk sorry for all that. I just got typing. In VCA compressors from the golden age of hip hop I also highly recommend the valley stuff. The 410 mono unit is good, the 610 stereo is amazing and the dynamite is a swiss army knife that can do smash and grab compressing and limiting, super fast gating and ducking with a handy attenuation control not to mention the best expansion ever that can really put a point on stick and beater attacks, great for electronic drums that lack that snap. The symetrix compressors with metal power switches and blue faced ashly stuff are also killer, cheap and plentiful. Symetrix stuff uses valley VCAs and ashly uses old dbx blackmer cans. Both styles of vca have a sound and when you get one going correctly itll transport you back to that era. Early automation systems and 80s consoles with dynamics were loaded with these VCAs. You're really used to hearing them allover hiphop that was mixed on SSLs, MCIs and harrisons...

@jimmarchi1 thanks for the 411. What I'm hearing is: "there are a few older models that have some merit, the rest are budget-focused trash, but as with all compressors, there is no single model that is great on everything". As for me personally, I still need a few more years of practice with dynamics processing before I could justify some vintage-item purchases. I'm currently at the "when would an LA2A be better than an 1176?" stage of dynamics-processing infancy.

@pkennethk that's easy. An 1176 has very fast time constants and 5 ratios if you count 'all buttons in'. It has a lot if heft from the transformers and a lit if headroom input abs output due to high voltage discrete transistor support circuitry but the fet that does the actual gain control can become gritty. If you want fast compression or a gritty snappy medium speed reduction fir percussion it's a good choice if you want to crush something without sucking the low end out of it then its good at that. The output electronics add a nice sheen to vocals when turned up. There are a lot if bad wsts to set it up for a given source and getting it to cooperate with only desirable artifacts takes listening. I hear the 1176 and emulations abused more than i hear it applied with subtlety and care these days.

An LA2A uses what is essentially a primitive proprietary vactrol for gain reduction and is otherwise tube based. It's really glossy but the classic T4b optical circuit is really sluggish. The ratio and time constants are program dependent and governed by the lightbulb and photo receptor in the T4b. It's a classic for crooning vocals or anything legato in nature that just needs a little evening out rather than quick peak control or adjustable envelope shaping to poke through on the beat. It does what it does and that's it but one of the things it does is add richness to everything it touches. In a busy mix its typically more of a tone compressor because it's a blunt instrument that shapes sounds one way and one way only. Its utterly worthless as a peak limiter, huge transients pass right through before the gain control catches up. If I bought another clone it would be an Acme opticom which has a 3 speed version of the T4b opto-attenuator switchable from the front panel making it exponentially more useful than a stock la2a. A stock la2a is mostly goid for vocals, sometimes daisy chained in front if an la2a. It's useful for mono bowed strings too actually too. When it works it really works. Its seldom the first thing I reach for.

Thanks for the full technical lowdown, Jim. That's been my impression thus far: 1176 is the prototypical FET compressor, meaning as snappy as analog electronics can provide. More broadly useful than an LA2A, which seems to really only be used for sweetening/coloration these days, especially on vocals. That said, I don't have a good sense, yet, of "oh, this is a situation in which an LA2A might improve things".