Fearless Gear Review: Alctron 500 Series Compressor
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 ส.ค. 2024
- Fearless Gear Reviews returns with an unsponsored look at the cheapest analog compressor I could find: The Alctron 500 series compressor! Is it any good? Is it worth $150? It is garbage?
Get it on through my amazon afiliate link:
amzn.to/30yPczB
Most of the mix was done with the PSP infinistrip... which is freakin' AMAZING.
Get it at www.pspaudiowar...
Use the code INFINI4GLENN and take 20% off the price
...and take 10% off any of the other plugins with the code
GLENNRULEZ
What else is in the rack:
Midas 522 Compressor (cheap and awesome) imp.i114863.ne...
Lindell FET Compressor: imp.i114863.ne...
Lindell Passive EQ: imp.i114863.ne...
Cranborne 500 Rack: imp.i114863.ne...
Music Performed by Jackson Ward & Erik Arko
This video is Patron funded: / smg
These people made sure I could review this amp without any "manufacturer influence"
David Velez, Brenden, Jefferson Hunt ,Nathan Rice, Andrew, Paul Bacher, Samuel Evert,David Locklin, Pavel Semenov, Nathaniel Naranjo ,Jason Howder ,Shawn Milochik, Michael Mooney ,Randy Clower ,N-SOMNIA, David Bradshaw, James Loan, Tony Morgan, Dale Block, Jordan Jones, Shaun Matthews, Lee Daffern, CAMERON R KASPER, Dean Harkness Larry Tooley Merlish Eric Lnrd, Justin Estocado, Thaddaeus Davidson, Monte Ough, Mark Steinemann, Xander ten Boden, christiaan lommen, Mikkel Sørensen, T.j. Smith, Manny Dylan Music, Richard Poodles, Kev Bowker, Steven Wynn, Aidan Chapel, Darren Oxbury, Ka Nyne ,Jean-Francois, Matt Hem, Josh Taylor ,Susan Barclay Nichols, Steve Ford, Knut Helge Gran Hanssen, Tim Eades, Adam Whitinig, Tony Morgan, Mortiz Branstatter, Alex Harper, Tommy Pedersen, Moder, and many, MANY more. You guys rock!
Love the show? Click the JOIN button, become a Channel Member! Get exclusive live streams, and special emojis and badges! www.youtube.com...
Join the SMG Discord! Share mixes, get feedback, make better records!
/ discord
My Go-To Recording Gear:
Rme Fireface: bit.ly/38pTh9T
Oktava Mc012: bit.ly/2TGjOKH
Distressor: bit.ly/3czeAJu
Revv 100P bit.ly/2It0Xxj
Synergy Amps: bit.ly/2Tskggw
Api 512c: bit.ly/3cyKhCq
Lewitt Mics: bit.ly/2TH8k9J
Triad Orbit: bit.ly/3apFOQG
Engl Amps: bit.ly/2PR4vhc
Hosa cables: bit.ly/39tlv4N
Great River MP2NV: bit.ly/2vKFwFt
Check out my free recording tutorials!
Greatest Guitar Recording Trick I Ever Learned!: • The Greatest METAL GUI...
How to Record Heavy Guitar: • How to Record Heavy Gu...
Best Free Amp Sim: • The best free amp sim ...
How to Mix Amp Sim Guitars: • How to Mix Amp Sim gui...
How to Record Heavy Drums: • How to Record Heavy Dr...
How to MIX heavy Drums: • How to Mix Heavy Drums...
How to Mix Heavy Drums with Stock Plugins: • How to Mix Metal Drums...
How to use a Compressor: • Audio Basics: How to ...
Sidechain Compression explained: • AUDIO BASICS: Sidecha...
The best of Glenn's Rants!
• The best of Glenn's Ra...
The Intro & Outro song - "The Eagle Has Landed"
• The Fiddlin' Bens & He...
Reaper skin is "Fusion Beta"
Subscribe to SpectreSoundStudios and help the channel grow!
More subs=more of the most honest music gear reviews on TH-cam! bit.ly/1SfU1m4
About Spectre Sound Studios:
I'm Glenn Fricker, engineer here at Spectre Sound Studios. I love making records, and after doing it for sixteen years, I want to pass on what I've learned. On my channel you can find tutorials on how to record guitar, bass, real drums and vocals. There's reviews and demos of tube amps, amp sims, drums, mics, preamps, outboard gear, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, and plugin effects.
We've covered Moon on the Water, played Bias FX, given you the absolute best in Stupid Musician Texts, ranted & raved about bass guitar, and this channel is where The Eagle has Landed.
Everything you've wanted to learn about recording Hard Rock & Heavy Metal can be found right here on this channel!
I also respond to your comments & questions: The best make it into the SMG Viewer's Comments series of videos. Loads of fun, lots of laughs.
Thanks for checking out my channel & please subscribe!
![อยู่คนเดียวกับเขา - ส้ม มารี (Zom Marie) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/gq1cWAIQDLg/mqdefault.jpg)
A day with a fearless gear review is always a good day
More on the way! It's finally fully funded!
Hey Glenn, love the channel, you've helped me become exponentially better as a producer. Thanks dude, you are awesome. Cheers from India
Happy to help!
Yeah, same here. ¡Thanks Glenn!
Agreed! Beauty way to go, eh hoser? 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
See this is why programmed drums are better. They're already compressed. No need for all of this.
(I'm joking please don't murder me)
Lol
*Loads shotgun with religious intent*
Fractured Method kicks ass !,,,,
@@gilbertspader7974 I believe that's the first time anyone has said that to me hahaha. Thanks!
@@14thgate I think Wake the Dark is epic .
I never understood compression and eq until I started using them myself. That might be a good lesson for me to just try it yourself.
If I'm not mistaken, the Alctron version of these modules were meant to be used with their corresponding preamps, hence the phantom power. The newer N-Sonic ones I think we're revised to be more universal but I could be wrong.
This is a mic preamp with a compressor, hence the phantom power, polarity inverse, and highpass in the signal path. It's clipping because you're feeding it line-level signal into an input expecting line level. Alctron market this as a mic compressor rather than a line-level insert compressor.
Hi glen I’m huge fan of the channel I’ve been watch it for years now. I absolutely love your fearless gear reviews they my absolute favourite it nice to see an actual honest review for once . if it wasn’t for you I’d of never actually started recording at home even though I’ve always wanted to. Thank so much for the work you do for the channel we need you to get one million subs you deserve it.
Thanks so much! Just pulled the trigger on a Klark Teknik Pultec. Expect that soon!
Rofl the project he is demoing the compressor on is titled "Rush type song". Gotta say it's a pretty accurate title.
Well, duh! What did you want me to call it? The “Nickleback song?”
Headroom is a lovely thing isn't it Glenn. Great fearless review as always!
Yep, the 500 Adat is ridiculously useful!
I have 3 of your units. Love them
OMG Glenn, when you unmuted the vocals at around 14:30, wow what a great song! And the vocal distortion is amazing!! Great mix, must be super energic live!
It's anime based and is an anime based around black metal. The lyrics are R18.
Regarding the Phantom Power, that's intended for use with active DIs, in line active mic preamps like cloud lifters, etc so you can use it during recording.
Might be worth doing a part 2 trying it with a bass and an active DI to see if it's actually worth using it in this configuration.
Who's playing bass on this? Great playing and sound!
Erik Arko
Probably the guitar player
@Jerome Lenovo Great going when you can't clearly discern it's an actual bass player...
I've been really curious about this compressor since the unboxing of this and the preamp. Thank you for this video!
This one, paired with an Art Studio V3 valve pre (y'all probably have better but trust, it's damn useful for some stuff!), produces some very unique and gritty character in a heavy mix. It can get a pretty vicious snarl out of my jazz.
The track really trminds me of the Orient Express by Rush!!!!!
;ore like a shit version of la villa strangiato
Idk about the snare, but that ride sound. From the very beginning, man, it's so awesome, I'm in love with it!
Looking forward to listening to this song once the mixing is done!
That Reainsert thing is super awesome. Never seen anything like that before.
Glenn....Your gear reviews are the fucking best. Appreciate the no bullshit approach (to all your videos)
Don't think this'd be my first pick for an analog comp, but for 150 bucks it works very nicely with some aplications, although not very versatile.
On another note, seeing the cranborne unit makes me think if it'd be possible to do something similar with a floor pedalboard using "500 series" guitar/bass pedals slotted in them
Honestly, if you want a budget compressor its really hard to go past the RNC compressor. That thing has never let me down.
Sure its no Distressor , but nothing else really is innit? But the RNC really has a character of its own, and it just works, especially with basses (And I'm told its pretty great with drums too, but I havent had a chance to try that.)
Mannnnn I’m really loving that snare sound!! Not sure what snare it is but I’d love to know! Keep it up man 🤘🏻
I remember that mixer I burnt up running phantom powered mic's with regular ones...If I'd only read the instruction's ever.. lmao! I did it and gave it away to someone taking electrical engineering. Good practice. :)
The reason it's clipping a lot for you is that for some reason (don't know if it's a design quirk or intentional) the unit adds about 10db of gain to the signal at the input stage. You need to back off on the signal you are sending to it by 10db and you won't have any issues. I don't know why it does this as I haven't seen any other compressor do that before but in some way it's not a bad thing because the 10db of gain it adds on the way in is clean gain, which may be useful when paired with lower gain preamps. Once you adjust the gain staging on the way in you'll find it behaves really well and a bit differently to what you had here with the distortion etc. Can't really be used on drum buss unless you were sending it a mono signal? Maybe that's why you had issues with that.
Never clicked so fast
isn't dbx 266 XS cheaper? 118 euro at thomann right now - around 140 usd, i guess? and you get two channels for the price!
Not in the us
I've got to admit, I'm surprised. I expected this to sound pretty awful, but that isn't bad at all. For the price, it's fabulous. Most cheapo stuff I've found nowadays (assuming it isn't god awful) tends to be banal or uninspired or weak. This has some real bite.
I think it punches way above it's price point. However, the Midas sitting next to it is WAY better. ..and the LIndell stuff is fucking unreal.
@@SpectreSoundStudios True dat. As an old git in his fifties, I'm LOVING the current climate for audio gear -- I've been buying synths more than ever, and it just gets better and better. So nice that people can get decent equipment just when they're starting out and having bugger all budget. Keep up with honest reviews, my good man.
Just a thought... maybe the "Gain" is input gain and not Makeup gain?? Seems to me to be how it is behaving.
Possible, I guess
If I'm not mistaken they are made in the same factory as golden age gear 🤘🏻 they make some nice pre 73s and rack neve clone comps, oh and they make ua710 clones,
Interesting! I didn't know that...
With the older 710's they are actually using the same parts and chassis, they might have been commissioned to make the ua710 back in the day. One of the raddest studio gear secrets I knew but didn't tell anyone. Nice honest review and fuck you 🤘🏻
SpectreSoundStudios one guy at Gearsutz opened his UA710 clone and found better parts inside to the original.
by the way if it's to spikey on kik it would make a nice inside kik mic compressor?
Yes, Alctron is one of the biggest OEM provider in the world. Most UA hardwares are made by Alctron.
I thought for $150 it was domed for the hammer of destruction but I was wrong. For people to start on say like me not bad in fact worth it. That was a great review as usual.
I'm gonna have to watch this twice, because I got totally distracted by the fucking awesome song! Damn, guys!
Great video, Glenn! Really dig this track too, keep expecting Geddy to start wailing 😊
The drum bus phase might be because of the phase switch on the comp, unless the 0 and 180 setting means something else. Either way, I enjoyed the midas 522 quite a bit more, this one seems a bit hit or miss. Great vid Glenn!
As to the Alctron, the price is right and it appears to be useful. Most of the outboard gear in my studio are old-school full rack or half rack mount signal processors. My reservation with 500 series experimentation is the cost of the chassis.
Are there any others besides the Cranbourne chassis that you can recommend? I realize it offers 8 slots, but $1,500 is a lot of money just to power & interface 500 series gear, gear that I’m not even sure about using yet.
Perhaps a future shootout edition of your Fearless Gear Review feature might examine economical 500 series chassises?
As an aside, I like that “Ode to Rush” track. Bits of reminded me of Fly By Night & La Villa Strangiato.
"$1,500 is a lot of money just to power & interface 500 series gear, gear that I’m not even sure about using yet."
Not sure if you realise that the 500ADAT has all the A/D and D/A conversion built-in? If you get a 500 series rack that is just a PSU and slots, you need all the cabling, an ADAT expander or larger interface for all the extra 8-in/8-out to get in/out of your DAW. And to match the reference-quality conversion of a 500R8 or 500ADAT, you would need to spend >$1500 just for these extra conversion channels. 500R8 and 500ADAT is a pretty screaming deal for $1500.
leskarppool Still, my question persists. What, if any, better deals might be out there? As I continue to research this question, one of several information sources that I pursue is reaching out to subject matter experts like Glenn.
Experience is a superior teacher, especially when the experience of another is helpful in navigating through potentially expensive mistakes. I’m reasonably confident that there are enough of us, present & future, with these same kind of 500 series related concerns to make a Fearless Gear Review 500 Series Chassis Shootout worth Glenn’s efforts.
Hey Glenn I'm a Christian Catholic and those who complain about you disagreeing with the religion probably cup the mic
Super similar to a dbx 560a in controls, even looks like the top three LEDs are mimicking the dbxs overeasy feature.
Wouldn't surprise me if it's a ripoff...
It's a really, really, really good rip on it. Almost identical. I actually think it has a nice flavor.
Maybe the phantom power circuit affects the sound or behavior of the compressor, but then again, they could have removed the controls to prevent accidents.
Glen!!!! 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
Morning!
Hey Glen I love the show and have learned tons of invaluable information from you. I would love to see a tutorial of how to play the eagle has landed because that riff is amazing, great work!
Splurging on that Cranborne chassis....jealous
You talked about the phasing with the drums, but you had the compressor set to 180 out of phase. It's the middle switch on the bottom right. Right below the Slow/Fast strip. Just wanted to point that out.
Nice stuff for it's price. But Glenn, is there any practical reason why we should use hardware compressors instead of a good plugins (FabFilter, Waves and so on)? What can they actually do that digital comps don't?
Not a joke or anything, I'm really interested to know!
yes. Just shot out analog vs digital comps... but had to come to LA... not sure if I can make that video work here...
Hey Glenn. I love your channel and really has helped to improve my knowledge on recording guitar. Are there any beginner tips for a first time like me to get ready for recording only guitars? P.S if this gets on VC please cover my name. Greetings from the East Coast of the US!
alctrons 500 series preamp is pretty good , the 500 eq and compressor are pretty bad . they are different to the alctron rack versions eq / comp which is a neve inductor eq and a neve diode bridge compressor clone and are pretty good . dont mistake the 500 series for those .
As an aside, this track sounds like classic old Rush! Very cool.
How's the latency with the Cranborne 500ADAT? Your plug-in compensates for latency, right? I like the Cranborne 500ADAT and nobody has done a nuts and bolt review so I'm hesitating to buy it.
It’s probably the most useful thing to come down the pipe in the last five years.
that is a killer song at 15 mins
It sounds good, but if I was going for an analog comp, it would be better to invest a little more on something a little more flexible and better sounding.
That is bad ass sounding on the vocal track!! I would be interested to see what Warren thinks about this compressor, you both do totally different style music. But for a metal producer this thing seems perfect! I actually even kinda like it on the kick.
If you looking for classic Rush bass sound check Arturia TridA-Pre.
GLENN! Here's a video idea (perhaps even a series idea if you could think of similar things). How would you go about recording drums in an untreated room? You could maybe even exaggerate this by using a room which sounds exceptionally unideal. Anyway, Keep the good shit flowing! :)
Hmm.. need to get an untreated room, first!
Nice review. I appreciate your videos. Forgive me if you have already covered this, but would you please share your bass signal chain? It's sounding killer here.
Glenn i try to to join your Discord server from the link on the video description but it says that the invitation is invalid.
Try this;
discord.gg/uZPaXk
Its Friday & no video what the fuck, got my coffee ready & everything!
It’s coming!
I was honestly not awaiting Detroit Metal City to appear in this review.
I laughed hard.
Not a fan of that compressor on bass, at all. May have sounded better if it was parallel processed, with the compressor on the low end only.
The bass and vocals sold me. I'm definitely getting this when I'll move in with my girlfriend.
This will probably be my first piece of analog gear
ok this comp sounds better than any software period.
I own one of those. Hi pass side chain produces some nasty distortion ‘pings’ when on - it’s unusable. Apart from that the compressor is great on snare. Phantom power idea is probably copied from some Radial devices and it’s not supposed to power anything , it’s just to smoothen compression, but I wouldn’t bet on it. For the price it’s ok, but in my opinion apart from snare, and maybe bass it’s rather unusable. Still, as a compressor that sits on a snare only, it’s great.
If it had better headroom, they'd remove that silly phantom switch and had separate switches for attack and release time, it would be really really good... it's a bit of a specialized piece of gear with all the limitations at the moment... hmm :/
sounds kinda awesome on kick if you into death metal type kick drums
Dude, looking really good! Keep it up. Let me know if you’re ever in LA during non-Covid times and I’d be happy to buy you dinner. Course I' have to find a keto place. You could come on our podcast 'Total Babble.' We could hang and talk Rock dude.That Rush sounding song... No shit! SO Hemispheres sounding! Best to you...
GLEEEEENNNNNN!!!!!!!
Whaaaatttt?
Thanks for the videos....
Best death metal producing you've heard?
Dio or Ozzy in Sabbath? ( Better sound?)
As always said .... F%#k you Glllleeeennnnn!!!!
As far as the phase issues, it looks like maybe there is a phase switch on this compressor and you had it in the 180 position? Maybe it should be removed like the phantom power.
Do a review on the Chameleon Labs 7603 xMod it's made in the US of FUCKING A! Accept for the made in the UK Carnhill mic and instrument input and output transformers, under a grand. Never owned a Neve but this thing is a Beast!
Here’s a serious question from someone old who can work with tape but is not having much luck transitioning to computers. I have some of your lessons and I don’t know what’s going on . Is there anywhere you guys can recommend to learn computer???? I have PC computer and am trying Cakewalk and Reaper and it’s taken me 10 months to get anything in and out it . Before anyone asks I play bass .
is this better than software
Hi Glenn! Just finished first year of music production in Bristol! However so far it's been very basic and havent learnt much about rack gear or anything. I have a few of your shirts and hoodies I love them! Anyway, I was thinking about when you demo compressors and things, as you use ADAT out etc and demo in real time out of your DAW. I have a Behringer euphoria rack interface with 8 line outs. Could I do a similar thing by just using an output then into my rack compressor then back into my interface and into the daw? Or would that be wrong, shall I just get the sound at the source and compress on the way in? Sorry for this total noob question. love your videos man!
Hey Glenn
I think the phase issue comes because you had the compressors phase at 180°. But it sounded nice. Do you want to try the other compressors they have? they have a wide range on AliExpress. I'm always thinking buying one :D
is the bass player a rush fan by any chance ??
Would you have any info on the Alctron MP73EQV2 mic pre w/EQ. It's half the price of the Warm Audio version at only $399 vs $799 and seems to get really good reviews. I'd like to get one, but looking for input (no pun intended) from some trusted sources. Thanks.
Phil
NYC Area
I NEEEED a Cranborne in my LiF
We love seeing our babies out in the wild getting used and loved. You guys are us! It's an honour!
@@cranborneaudio I wouldn't say no to one showing up at my door 👍 😄 that 500 series rack system looks like pure awesome!
I have the R8 which is the full interface version, and it is Pretty Damn Good.
Hi! What Reaper theme are you using? Great video, cheers from long time fan!
Yeah Glenn what is the Best way to Record an Amp in your room?
Is the Alctron 500 series power supply rack good?
Hey Glenn,
Can you review the Mooer Radar Cab Sim?
Cheers!
I do electronic Music, but this sound very RUSH to me. like the review.
La Villa Strangiato, like that bass and the kick
So... How long before a "Cranborne is Lif" t-shirt is available?
What episode had the Rush style song?
Mammoth bass
Do you like it more than a RNC?
No. The RNC is great
Eurorack users: "Guitar and bass players just don't know the crap we have to go through to get our sound."
Guitar and Bass players: "Heh, heh.... You obviously never heard of 500 series gear."
When is the pod go review coming out
Whats that crush channel? Just hard parallel compression for the kit?
"Ever so slightly"? Where have I heard that before? But more importantly, this compressor needs to be compared to the RNC / RNLA; they are cheaper if you don't have a 500 rack yet.
Julian Ilett?
Hey glen, I’m trying to get into audio engineering but I have no idea where the fuck I should start.... Any advice?
What was that song with the Asian language?
Since you may come back on a project later, do you take notes about the rack modules settings in relation to said project?
You had better!
Back in the day I had paper templates I photocopied. Nowadays you can just grad some photos on your mobile.
Ay Glenn your discord link expired, can I get a new one? I wanna hate on bass players in a safe space too
Cheaper than a Behringer or an Alesis?!?
Great, now I'm gonna have to buy two of these 🙄
Can you tell me what Da Roach Doggs kid was holding?
@@Segrare a nife
Have to ask: what are your thoughts on Blast Beats and extremely fast double bass drumming? I have only seen a few videos of yours featuring this kind of drumming.
Do you find it difficult to record this style, trouble finding a drummer who plays it well, not your thing?
Cool video thanks.
We're gonna be doing a whole thing on how to record extreme metal without samples or triggers VERY soon with an out-of-this-world drummer. Search TH-cam for James Payne Hour of Penance. He is BONKERS!
still weirds me out that it brags"unbalanced I/O" but sounds better than i expected
Yo got a mac?
Me watching this, no idea wtf is going on "hmm yes indeed"
Made the kick sound like a bouncing baseball
Or sing through a 40.00 ds-1
Why does this give me a Dbx 160 vibe? my wife is about too kill me when I get this....
Too bad you didin't throw a subkick through that instead of the kick mic.
More like ,266
Ian Kendell maybe, had some kind of 90’s thing
Can u do one on the 73 Pre?
Yes!
@@SpectreSoundStudios Did you ever make the review on the N Sonic N73? I've been looking all over your social media for it.
Rush is still alive 🎵🎶🎵😎
What's the deal with the copy-cat songs?
Think you should consider buying one ASAP IF you really want to get a Wonderfully fucked up kick drum sound
You don't look a day over 49! (Belated happy b day)