Best Analog Drum Bus Compressor? SSL Bus+, E-DYN, G Bus, Black Lion Audio Bluey & B172A 1176 / LA2A

[@stevelehto]

I love the music bed you're working with. I need a loop of that playing 24 hours a day in the background of my life.

[@domminney]

Yes it’s a beautiful piece. I’ll send you the song!

[@PaulAnnis]

Great video dude, I quite fancy a Bus+ unit.

[@domminney]

@@PaulAnnis it’s genuinely the best unit I’ve ever owned in terms of sound improvement per pound

[@shaft9000]

Whoa, nice sounds although this is kinda all over the place. You've got about 7 dB of gain reduction going on the Bus+, then about 3 dB in the 172A ....and then your pulling at least 20 dB of GR out of the Bluey (!!) possibly more because I don't know @what dB it pins the meter. You might wish to ATTENUATE before processing, especially when feeding a unit w/o a threshold control.... input is close to -infinity on Bluey yet the send signal is still smashing the input. i.e. say "bye-bye" to unity gain. Good gear and Good music can get away with a lot of wiggle room. So this still sounds okay. Keep at it CHEERS :)

[@domminney]

@@shaft9000I see your point and I should have explained myself better. I usually mix the kit on the desk, for the demo I didn’t. If I have drums set up on the desk and I want to run the blueys as a bus comp using the desk inserts the gain increase means I need to change my drum mix as I can’t attenuate the signal going in without going via another unit like the UV EQ. Even with the blueys at 0 input gain it is too much. This is why I saw them as unusable in that setting. Fed via an aux in parallel I can attenuate and I do use them in that setting, but as an insert, no.

[@deepofomin228]

Black Lioin - amazing heat sound

[@domminney]

@@deepofomin228 which ones? 17 or 2a? I love the 2As

[@deepofomin228]

@@domminney 2as)

[@deepofomin228]

and 17

[@deepofomin228]

@@domminney 1176 !!!!! love

[@domminney]

@@deepofomin228 to be honest that’s such a great unit. I’d have a studio full of b172as and bus+

[@saardean4481]

Nice stuff! Are the Leds on the Bus+ as bright as they seem to be in the video?

[@domminney]

@@saardean4481 they are bright enough, I would have to compare real life to the video to fully answer but it’s perfect

[@marksaxon_plays]

The Bus+ sounds the best to me. Love 1176s but given the song you were playing, they are bit too aggressive. I don't have any analog gear but I love using the Softube Bus Compressor which has that Bus+ vibe. You can dial in some saturation with Softube which your Bus+ is adding. Great stuff!

[@domminney]

The Bus+ is my overall favourite. I have never used the softtube stuff but I love their controllers from what I've seen. They integrate well with Cubase too

[@marksaxon_plays]

@@domminney Yeah if you tinker with their Bus Compressor, you'll get that same glue (at least to my ear at least). Cheers!

[@AtTheSourceStudios]

I like the blueys 1176 on bus best. I may be biased or used to the 76 sound there since I use the Lindell Audio 77x-500 so similar thing.

[@domminney]

I love them in parallel but not as a final drum bus comp. Too crunchy for me in that place, but in parallel they can crunch away!

[@AtTheSourceStudios]

@domminney yes totally agree 👍 👍 I always run the parallel mix as well. Usually anywhere from 30% to 70% depending ofc

[@AtTheSourceStudios]

@domminney I think the crunchiness is more of the "Bluey" thing specifically though. I think the black versions or like mine doesn't get like that too much but I know what you mean!

[@domminney]

Yeah the black 17s (1176 clones) sound much better as an overall drum bus than the blueys, but I love the blueys in parallel for the crunch!

[@scotthamill8131]

Love compression hate the general public 👌

[@AndyK22]

It's difficult to judge with the audio on my phone but Black Lion seemed to have the edge. Just my humble opinion 🙂

[@domminney]

@@AndyK22 on a phone it will be hard to hear the low end but I can still hear what the 2As do to the snare.

[@youtubevideos415]

There was not the slightest difference. All drums sounded exactly the same.

[@domminney]

@@youtubevideos415 what were you listening through?