Vocal Compression

Vocals Compression
Waves API2500- Very aggressive sounding. Really slams the peaks. Adds a dark color to the sound which I don't like. I bought a bright sounding preamp to contrast the dark sounding mic, I'd rather not add more darkness to the sound.

RComp- Sounds like it's attacking the lows before the highs, because it's very bright. Almost thin sounding. Can't really hear the compressor working, but can tell the track has been compressed. That just sounds backwards. Does that make any sense? You can't hear the pumping or breathing but can tell there's not much dynamic range left in the track. Not an improvement in my opinion to the dry track.

Sonalksis- Super transparent. Has the brightness I like without sounding unbalanced or scooping out too many of the lows. Does a really nice job handling the peaks without degrading any of the other bands or sounding unnatural like the other 2. Didn't add any unwanted color.

Vocal Results
Hey, the Sonalksis finally won one! It was the real clear choice for me once I heard it in action. I did go back and compare it with the other 2, but that just confirmed my hunch.

Electric Guitar EQ's

EQ
Waves API550A- Cleans the track up fairly well. Sounds balanced. A little fatiguing in the upper mids, but nothing really noticeable. "Does no harm" really jumped to mind.

Waves API550B- I can't believe this was my go-to EQ. Sounds unbalanced and unnatural. Sculpted, not very discrete. Handles the high mids okay, but not much of an improvement from the original track.

URS Fulltec (Pultec clone)- Very meaty. Definite improvement to the sound. Very clean sounding, can't really hear that it's an EQ. Took the honk out of the guitar. Great rhythm EQ, though would like to hear more in the highs.

URS N Series (Neve clone)- A weird surprise, in a good way. Has a lot of balls to it. Brought out the character of the guitar, though still harsh sounding. Not sure if it's worth the trade-off.

URS A Series (API clone)- Much cleaner sounding EQ. Has a lot more high end than the others without accenting the harshness of the distortion. Does a nice job with the low mids. Huge improvement to the sound, noticeable difference in a good way. More defined than the 550A, sound like what the 550B should have been.

Guitar Results
The EQ was a toss up between the URS A Series and the Fulltec, but I ended up deciding the A Series really did the most good to the guitar track.

Electric Guitar Compressors

Same comps as before, except for the SSL. It's kind of a waste of time, as it's really not designed to go on individual tracks.

Electric Guitar Compression

Waves API2500- Lots of body, very clean. Big sound overall, handles the transients very well. Brought in a little high end without the added harshness of the distortion.

Waves RComp- Brighter sounding. Emphasizes the harshness unfortunately, got fatiguing fairly quickly. Mids sound pretty good. Touches the meat of the sound, but not as much as the 2500 or Sonalksis. Enhanced the crunch of the distortion. Not sure if it's that much of an improvement to the track or not. Definitely changes the sound.

Sonalksis SV-350MkII- Brought out a lot of grit and meat to the track. Expanded the image in a very pleasing way. A little muffled in the mids, but still natural sounding. Most discrete of the compressors, can't really hear it working.


Guitar Results
The compressor again that did the best job in my opinion was the API2500, though it was another toss up between that and the Sonalksis. After A/Bing the two, I was drawn more toward the sound of the 2500, although I easily could have lived with the Sonalksis.

Bass EQ's

EQ's

The URS and Waves are having a hard time getting along. Nuendo crashed like 7 times if I don't load them in a certain order. It became so much of a hassle, I ended up not even testing the URS Fulltec EQ for this shootout.

URS A Series (API clone)- Damn! Lot of balls. Deep. Has a lot of growl. Really defined high-mids without much click.

URS N Series (Neve clone)- Too much low end, and not in the good spots. Muddies up the sound and distracts from the high end. Clean sounding in that you can't really hear that the EQ is processing the track. I know that sounds weird. It sounds like the bass player just turned up the bass knob and turned down the treble knob.

Waves API550A- Not much low end. Has a lot of grit to it. Highs are definitely more emphasized. Has a sort of natural distortion sound. Brought out a little honk in the bass. Doesn't really improve on the track.

Waves API550B- Woh. Huge low end. Almost the polar opposite of the 550A. Way too much bottom end, lacks brightness. Low end is undefined, not very clear. More muddy really than bassy. Retains some of the grit that the 550A had, but does something weird to the highs. Not a very clean or transparent sounding EQ in this context.

Results

URS A Series for the EQ. Hands down.

Bass Compressors

Bass Compressors

Waves API2500- Very aggressive, meaty. Brought out the thwack in the upper bass region. Also did a wonderful job bringing out the growl in the sound. Not a very transparent compressor, though. Could hear it working.

Sonalksis SV-315MKII- Not much meat in the track. Really brought out the attack and the extreme lows. Handled the transients nicely, couldn't really hear the compressor working. Overall balance was okay, not perfect but nothing really stood out. Did have more lows than highs.

Waves RComp- Nothing jumps out at you. Very smooth. The bottom end is really well-defined. Not a very aggressive sound, doesn't add much character either. Very clean sounding compressor, punchy, but not immediately noticeable.

Waves SSL- Punchy. Attacks a lot more of the lows than the highs. Losses a lot of definition and can hear the compressor working. At the same settings compressed the bass a lot harder than the others.

Results

Well, the clear winner for me was the Waves RComp. I preferred the RComp over the API2500 basically because it really didn't add too many artifacts. The 2500 certainly had a lot of nuts to it, and I liked it. But I suppose I'm in a phase right now where I'm not exactly looking for color. This is the kind of result I was hoping for, as I hadn't ever used either when mixing bass.

Acoustic Guitar EQ's

Edit: I'll be updating this one as well!

I tested out the six EQ's next. This was a little harder to narrow down which was best. They all had something good to offer.

EQ's (all with the same settings)
URS A Series (API clone)- Slightly harsh sounding, not boomy at all, really clean with the acoustic picking. Very defined lows, though it does tend to get muddy in some areas. Cleaned the track up nicely. Livened up the sound, really natural sounding.

URS Fulltech (Pultech clone)-Lots of clear low end. Smooth high-mids. Very full sounding, though it tends to get boomy in some spots. Just big sounding. Would probably be nice on bass or voice overs. Initially this was my favorite, but after a lot of repeat listens, it's not the ideal EQ for an already boomy acoustic track. If it was an acoustic-only song, I'd probably turn to this.

URS N Series (Neve clone)- Not as many lows, but very balanced. Has a slight honk to it. Adds lots of character to the guitar. It's a bit brighter than the other EQ's. Everything seems to be handled very equally, very clean. Slightly thin sounding. Really shines when the guitar plays notes in the higher register, very clear.

Waves API550B- First impression was it's kind of nasally. Generates lots of overtones, which in this scenario is really unwanted. Pretty meaty low end, brings out the acoustic characteristics. Cleans the track up okay, but is a little harsh sounding. This came as kind of a disappointment. This was really my go-to EQ for almost everything. It's not that it sounds bad, it's just not as good as the others I had been neglecting.

Waves API550A- Wow! Bright, REALLY balanced, good defined bottom end. Has a sort of naturally compressed sound. Small honk to it, but handles mids otherwise nicely. Retains the dark sound without sounding dull. Very nice overall balance without one band being too overpowering. This was a real surprise. The difference between this and the 550B is the 550B is a 4 band EQ, while the 550A is a 3 band. I've almost exclusively avoided this EQ just because I liked having the 4th band with the 550B and could be a bit more surgical on tracks that needed it. In this scenario, the 550A is the clear winner to me.

Waves VEQ4 (a Neve clone?)- Disgusting. Harsh. Fatiguing. Muddy, unbalanced, undefined lows. I wouldn't use this if you paid me. I can't believe it's a sought after plug-in, part of Waves Vintage series. It seems any band it touches just falls apart like a Chinese moped.

Acoustic Results
The clear winner was the Waves API550A, with probably the URS A Series in a close second. By the way, it's worth mentioning that the URS A Series is a 4-band EQ. Not sure why it did so much better than the Waves Version. Oh well!

Acoustic Guitar Compressors

Edit: I will be adding to this list and updating it.

What I worked on most of the night was an acoustic guitar track. I tried out 4 different compressors and 6 different EQ's (all using the same settings) and took notes on each. Here's what I came up with:

Compressors
Waves RComp (Renaissance Compressor)- Slightly dull sounding, which was surprising since in another shootout it was one of the brightest sounding comps I had. Really brought out the picking sound in the guitar. Attacked a lot of the highs, which I didn't like. The guitar was a nice sounding Martin, but really dark. I had high hopes for the RComp to balance it out, but when pushed it just sounded even duller.

Waves API2500- Very clean. Compressed, but not squashed. Didn't get the pumping sound some of the other compressors gave with the same settings. Very balanced in what it attacked. Bright sounding. Another surprise, as the API's are typically known for their darker sound. Did a really nice job on the acoustic.

Sonalksis SV-315Mk2- Another weird surprise. On the master buss and on drums this was the brightest sounding compressor I had. Then again I suppose since it's compressing a dark sounding source, I shouldn't be surprised to get an even darker sound. Compressed the acoustic far more than the other two. Very full sounding, but as the acoustic already had a lot of body in it, might not be great in the mix.

Waves SSL Buss Compressor- Kind of a nightmare. I can't really blame it, it is a buss compressor and not exactly intended to be used on individual channels. The only reason I tried it out was because the acoustic track was made up of 3 separate mono channels, which could technically be viewed as a small mix buss. Although it was really punchy, especially in the picking part of the track, it was incredibly squashed. Not much room in the controls for precision compression.

Acoustic Results
In this situation, I ended up using the API2500. Seemed to be the most balanced, and I'm not one who likes to "hear" a compressor hard at work.