Gates & comps at the lower end

[Mike McNany]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

-1



My M300 was dead after about 2 years. It would power on but the knobs had no effect on the audio. Always racked, never dropped.

I generally love the performance of TCE gear. BUT....



I get the feeling that they've put out some less than durable equipment. They dropped the C300 and the TripleC for whatever reasons. But the TripleC is not at all robust and the C300 seems to have garnered a reputation for failures. Both are (were) great pieces. Too bad about the ''early death syndrome''.

Great luck with my two C300s. BOTH bought used, both reside in a plastic non-shock rack left in a trailer year round. Had them for ~3 years or so.



Mike McNany

 

[John Chiara]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

The old Behringer Autoquads are pretty direct copies of the Drawmers...and work better than any other cheap gate...IMO....I bought a box of 4 last year for $100.



John

 

[AdRock]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

Personally, for the money on a good used unit I've had very good luck and been happy with the Presonous ACP88. If I need 8 comps I got it, 8 gates I go it. Combination, got it. The gates aren't the greatest but I've never had problems with hearing them work. Even on straight board recordings I've done you can't hear them working. I've been using a used one I got for $500 for 3 year now with no issues at all.



It might be a little overkill for your needs but the flexibility in a 2 rack space unit is nice to have when needed.

 

[Dick Rees]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

Personally, for the money on a good used unit I've had very good luck and been happy with the Presonous ACP88. If I need 8 comps I got it, 8 gates I go it. Combination, got it. The gates aren't the greatest but I've never had problems with hearing them work. Even on straight board recordings I've done you can't hear them working. I've been using a used one I got for $500 for 3 year now with no issues at all.



It might be a little overkill for your needs but the flexibility in a 2 rack space unit is nice to have when needed.

I'd much rather have 2 channels of good gating than 8 channels of average.

 

[AdRock]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

Personally, for the money on a good used unit I've had very good luck and been happy with the Presonous ACP88. If I need 8 comps I got it, 8 gates I go it. Combination, got it. The gates aren't the greatest but I've never had problems with hearing them work. Even on straight board recordings I've done you can't hear them working. I've been using a used one I got for $500 for 3 year now with no issues at all.



It might be a little overkill for your needs but the flexibility in a 2 rack space unit is nice to have when needed.

I'd much rather have 2 channels of good gating than 8 channels of average.

Well yea, but in the situations I'm usually in with different acts all the time the ACP88 helps a lot without having to carry an even bigger FOH, or 2 for that matter. If I was doing some big pro gig that would be different. I can't hear the gates or comps working, it's more silent than I thought it would be, and for the versatility it's a decent unit.



I mean, the OP is asking about low budget stuff. I feel that for the versatility it gives it's a low budget unit. Not the best, but not the worst by far.

 

[Bennett Prescott]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

Personally, for the money on a good used unit I've had very good luck and been happy with the Presonous ACP88. If I need 8 comps I got it, 8 gates I go it. Combination, got it. The gates aren't the greatest but I've never had problems with hearing them work. Even on straight board recordings I've done you can't hear them working. I've been using a used one I got for $500 for 3 year now with no issues at all.

Eugh. I'd rather have no dynamics than that fucking thing. I agree with Dick, for the same money I could get some good dynamics, just half as many, in the same density.

 

[Dick Rees]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

Personally, for the money on a good used unit I've had very good luck and been happy with the Presonous ACP88. If I need 8 comps I got it, 8 gates I go it. Combination, got it. The gates aren't the greatest but I've never had problems with hearing them work. Even on straight board recordings I've done you can't hear them working. I've been using a used one I got for $500 for 3 year now with no issues at all.

Eugh. I'd rather have no dynamics than that fucking thing. I agree with Dick, for the same money I could get some good dynamics, just half as many, in the same density.

I didn't want to put it that way, but now that it's been said....

 

[AdRock]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

Every body has their opinions, that's fine. That's also what the OP asked for so I posted mine up. And explained why I posted it. The fact that you don't agree is fine by me.



And I'll say I rather have the Presonous than the shitty behringer and samson crap mentioned earlier in this thread.



It's all relative man.

 

[Dick Rees]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

I would interpret the OP's ''lower end'' stipulation as price, not quality. Gating is probably the one area where anything short of full functionality is just not acceptable. The suggestion of the Drawmer DS201 is really right on. For instance:



Attack time is 10 micro-seconds, compared to a milli-second in most of the other units mentioned. For percussion this is the real deal as far as suitable response time.



Tunable via L/H shelving filters.



Attack, HOLD, and release controls. The hold function is really something to be desired.



At $99 used this is really a good deal. And it fulfills the lower end of the price spectrum while offering high end performance.

 

[AdRock]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

I would interpret the OP's ''lower end'' stipulation as price, not quality. Gating is probably the one area where anything short of full functionality is just not acceptable. The suggestion of the Drawmer DS201 is really right on. For instance:



Attack time is 10 micro-seconds, compared to a milli-second in most of the other units mentioned. For percussion this is the real deal as far as suitable response time.



Tunable via L/H shelving filters.



Attack, HOLD, and release controls. The hold function is really something to be desired.



At $99 used this is really a good deal. And it fulfills the lower end of the price spectrum while offering high end performance.

I guess I must have completely missed that post. I agree. Scrolling too quickly is not a good thing.

 

[Kemper Watson]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

Personally, for the money on a good used unit I've had very good luck and been happy with the Presonous ACP88. If I need 8 comps I got it, 8 gates I go it. Combination, got it. The gates aren't the greatest but I've never had problems with hearing them work. Even on straight board recordings I've done you can't hear them working. I've been using a used one I got for $500 for 3 year now with no issues at all.

Eugh. I'd rather have no dynamics than that fucking thing. I agree with Dick, for the same money I could get some good dynamics, just half as many, in the same density.

I'm with Bennett on this. When I come across these I usually unplug them and only use them if they are the only comp and then if only absolutely necessary

 

[Bennett Prescott]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

To be fair, the reason they suck is half form factor. The twice as nice for twice the price KT Square One unit that does basically the same thing sucks just as hard. It's better than nothing, but boy does it make you fight for what you want.

 

[Brian Jones]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

I would interpret the OP's ''lower end'' stipulation as price, not quality. Gating is probably the one area where anything short of full functionality is just not acceptable. The suggestion of the Drawmer DS201 is really right on. For instance:



Attack time is 10 micro-seconds, compared to a milli-second in most of the other units mentioned. For percussion this is the real deal as far as suitable response time.



Tunable via L/H shelving filters.



Attack, HOLD, and release controls. The hold function is really something to be desired.



At $99 used this is really a good deal. And it fulfills the lower end of the price spectrum while offering high end performance.

From what I'm seeing on ebay and craigslist $99 per channel would be a great deal for the DS201. The lowest price I see is one on ebay for $200 bid/$300 BIN and average seems to be about half retail of $725.

 

[Jason Phair]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

For comps, I'd take an older Composer over a 166, 266, or ACP88 anyday o'theweek.





Then again, I've used them and not just read posts about people that didn't like them on the intertubes.

 

[Dick Rees]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

I would interpret the OP's ''lower end'' stipulation as price, not quality. Gating is probably the one area where anything short of full functionality is just not acceptable. The suggestion of the Drawmer DS201 is really right on. For instance:



Attack time is 10 micro-seconds, compared to a milli-second in most of the other units mentioned. For percussion this is the real deal as far as suitable response time.



Tunable via L/H shelving filters.



Attack, HOLD, and release controls. The hold function is really something to be desired.



At $99 used this is really a good deal. And it fulfills the lower end of the price spectrum while offering high end performance.

From what I'm seeing on ebay and craigslist $99 per channel would be a great deal for the DS201. The lowest price I see is one on ebay for $200 bid/$300 BIN and average seems to be about half retail of $725.

http://www.soundforums.net/index.php/m/506/?srch=Drawmer#msg_506



There. I did your work for you.

 

[Lee Douglas]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

To be fair, the reason they suck is half form factor.

I'd heard this in the past from a guy who said, ''I keep fat fingering the controls with my sausage fingers''.

His version of not liking the layout, I guess. Form factor aside, how do they perform? I've got gates that I like elsewhere, how about just as a comp?

 

[Rob Spence]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

I would interpret the OP's ''lower end'' stipulation as price, not quality. Gating is probably the one area where anything short of full functionality is just not acceptable. The suggestion of the Drawmer DS201 is really right on. For instance:



Attack time is 10 micro-seconds, compared to a milli-second in most of the other units mentioned. For percussion this is the real deal as far as suitable response time.



Tunable via L/H shelving filters.



Attack, HOLD, and release controls. The hold function is really something to be desired.



At $99 used this is really a good deal. And it fulfills the lower end of the price spectrum while offering high end performance.

From what I'm seeing on ebay and craigslist $99 per channel would be a great deal for the DS201. The lowest price I see is one on ebay for $200 bid/$300 BIN and average seems to be about half retail of $725.

http://www.soundforums.net/index.php/m/506/?srch=Drawmer#msg_506



There. I did your work for you.

Assuming they are still available. I am going to get one of the Drawmer units.



I see that there are DS201s and DS501s at the same price. What would be a good reason to choose one over the other?

 

[Dick Rees]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

I would interpret the OP's ''lower end'' stipulation as price, not quality. Gating is probably the one area where anything short of full functionality is just not acceptable. The suggestion of the Drawmer DS201 is really right on. For instance:



Attack time is 10 micro-seconds, compared to a milli-second in most of the other units mentioned. For percussion this is the real deal as far as suitable response time.



Tunable via L/H shelving filters.



Attack, HOLD, and release controls. The hold function is really something to be desired.



At $99 used this is really a good deal. And it fulfills the lower end of the price spectrum while offering high end performance.

From what I'm seeing on ebay and craigslist $99 per channel would be a great deal for the DS201. The lowest price I see is one on ebay for $200 bid/$300 BIN and average seems to be about half retail of $725.

http://www.soundforums.net/index.php/m/506/?srch=Drawmer#msg_506



There. I did your work for you.

Assuming they are still available. I am going to get one of the Drawmer units.



I see that there are DS201s and DS501s at the same price. What would be a good reason to choose one over the other?

They are both ''frequency conscious'' gates. The 201 selects the key opening frequency via sweepable high/low pass filters. The 501 uses a single sweepable key frequency. The two filter model is preferable for me as you can get a finer adjustment.

 

[Randy Gartner]

Re: Gates & comps at the lower end

As other have said,a used Drawmer 201 would be great. I also like the RaneG4. You can find those used too as more companies move into digital boards.You'll pay a little more for the Rane,but you get 4 channels and you can really dial them in.