Hey, I am looking at purchasing a couple of plugins. I don’t have the money for the big pack, so I was wondering what your favorites are and go to. The Desser is on my list, and so is Echo, but I would also like to get a compressor, but not sure which one.
It’s not as sexy as a boutique compressor, but I would start with a multiband EQ and compressor. They are going to be the most useful plugins IMHO. In fact, the deesser is basically a multiband EQ and you can certainly duplicate the functionality of the deesser with the multiband EQ. Honestly I would recommend that you purchase the multiband EQ and forego the deesser plugin completely because the multiband EQ is more flexible and can function well as a deesser (in addition to it’s other uses). Of course the multiband EQs and Compressors use up 1 of the 8 FX slots for each instance, so they are more limiting than the compressor models that can be used on every input/buss.
That being said, for compressors I would go with the PeakLimiter 76 follow quickly by the OptTronik (or vice versa depending on the day 
). The Buss Compressor would be my third choice, but definitely behind the first two.
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Thank you so much. How’s the PeakLimiter on Vocals vs the OptTronik, the stuff I’ve been reading and looking into the OptTronik would be better.
So at my church we have electric drums (I know not my favorite or my choice) so not really doing any compression there as some is done in the processing on the drums. one Acoustic guitar, a bass, and some vocals. so that can give you an idea of where I need to go with a compressor.
I tend to use both compressors on vocals (which is why it is hard for me to pick only one). The first stage is the PeakLimiter. It is a fast acting/release FET style compressor that is great for taking the peaks off a vocal. The OptTronik is an optical style compressor that is much slower. I use it for general vocal compression.
The PeakLimiter is great on just about anything else too. I use it on a variety of other instruments like guitars, etc.
All that being said, if I could only pick one, I would probably pick the PeakLimiter because I use it on more inputs than I use the OptTronik compressor on. So “bang for the buck” I would get more out of the PeakLimiter.
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