So yeah, as the title says, what is your favourite compressor to use for Parallel Compression to get those dirty drums?

Atm my favourite one to use is the UBK-1 Kush compressor, but I have been messing a lot with some lesser known compressors trying to get some unique sounds.

so what about you guys?

To get the "dirty" sound for drums, You would use some sort of overdrive effect or saturation effect. A compressor will effect the dynamic range of the drum sounds.

Sure but I'm sure you know a compressor can destroy the sound which can make it sound dirty. Thats what he is saying.
My favorites are the chandler limiter, ubk-1, and an 1176 comp,uad or slate.
Hardware- distressor, dbx160,wa76.

Yeah like e-are said, compressors can be used to dirty up the drums, specially with parallel compression where you compress stuff A LOT.

Thats quite interesting, I've never heard of the chandler limiter, I might check it out.

Typically, I use some sort of 1176 plugin that's fairly cranked. In parallel, this tends to bring out some "grit" and "hair" to drums while also making them much more aggressive.

Another great plugin I just started using (though not in parallel yet) is called Oxidizer from UA.

Even on a simple, boring sounding electronic drum kit, whatever that thing is doing is pretty ridiculous. If you can demo it on your UA system, check it out sometime.

Also, in general, while this is not necessarily a parallel trick, putting SoundToys Decapitator on anything can add grit and character if you need it. I love plugins that can do this because, lets face it, some of the best music in the world has always had a bit of distortion on it—think Motown and the Beetles (who mostly copied the Motown sound and the Beachboys).

PA Opticom is great for that.

I love IK Opto Compressor when doing parallel

Indispensable for adding some additional grit to a drum or bass parallel channel.

Uad chandler Zener or soundtoys devil loc.

90% of the time I use an 1176 style compressor. 10% of the time I go balls out through an amp simulator with the gain cranked for a tube saturation compression style thing.

+1 for Decapitator

I usually start off with the correct drum samples that have the characteristics I'm looking for. Parallel ITB, using two tracks, never quite sounds right to me. Plus there are so many great "right out of the box" drum sample sets around.

edit: If it's a mix and the drums need fixin' up, Soundtoys Decapitator smashed. Use the Cut and Tone knobs to dial in exactly what I want. Mix knob to taste (usually around 8-10 o'clock). Slate Monster is another option.

Fairchild 670 emulation The Puigchild is pretty good on parallel.

Elysia MPressor, Al.So Dynax, ADR Compex, POM Boiler 2. These days I'm using a lot more dedicated saturation boxes though for that crunchy "breakbeat" sound.
The Black Box HG-2 and the LTL Silver Bullet.

CAMELCRUSHER!!!!! nothing gets you the fatness as quickly or as efficiently.

Wow. I haven't used that thing in forever. But it is super fun and great for dirty drums.

In my studio I've been using an Overstayer FET compressor on parallel drum submix. Having that wet/dry mix knob is very handy.
@ Paul_G - Are you using the Silver Bullet and HG-2 in parallel for drums? Or just as an insert? I've actually never even considered trying the Silver Bullet in parallel. I might have to give that a shot....

Brad

I would usually try both methods Brad depending on phase coherence or the sound I have in my head. It also depends what I'm doing with the Kick and the snare.

Normally though I would process kick and snare separately and then treat the rest of the kit, percussion and possibly bass directly as a group through the processors, maybe blending a bit of parallel kick and snare if it feels good.

They sound so good though and they're so variable they don't really need a blend function for my needs in the way that old compressors do.

If I did use them in parallel I would have probably already used them at least once tastefully first and then the parallel would be for super fuzz.....

1176 Rev H.

I've been a fan of the CLA 76, but as my arsenal was more limited I actually used the Logic Pro built-in compressor and had some good results.

CamelPhat is great too.

Anything with a Mix knob

H-Comp gets a bit of use there because it emulates several types of compressors. So if I don't have a specific idea of what sound I'm after I can just switch through the emulations to find something that works.

Then there is the Lindell 254, Acme Opticom or the mPressor.

This is if I want a quick and dirty parallel which works for alot of things. But if I need more control, then I'll just split the signal and use just about anything really. It has a lot to do with the production concept I have for the mix.

H Comp is dope especially on vocals! i don't use it for parallel stuff though.

Any other hardware heads?

The FATSO Jr./Sr. on the UAD platform has been a staple in my sessions for a while now.

I thought cytomic Glue sounded pretty decent ITB...though i have't used it a whole lot.

Have an outboard drum chain for my drum machines and pretty much use FMR PBC-6A for parallel comp. Use that super thick mode...it doesnt get "clicky" when doing stupid high gain reduction.

Then drums go through FMR RNLA...get some attack back. Then shave that off with Strymon Deco...and add some dirt. Really like that box.

I think Fabfilter Pro C2 and Waves CLA-76 are the best today. Pro C2 wins for its veraitlity and CLA-76 wins for its ease of use. But for drums Cytomic Glue all the way down. I think this list has it all.

Distressor and 1176 are very good at that. Distressor is particularly fast on release which helps and tend to be a little more punchy that 1176 but it's subtle; they come to almost the same result. I choose 1176 over distressor only if i want more character.

In plugin world arousor is good to replace the distressor. 1176 plugins tend to destroy transients and loose a lot of punch, which can be useful sometime.
Fabfilter C2 give good result too, it's a lot more clean and has a lot of parameters, i usually choose it more in mastering situation; because during mixing character is very welcome most of the time.

I still use HW dbx 160xt's and Distressors for parallel comp.


In SW, I still use the Avid comp that comes with pro tools, compressor bank and the focusrite comp.