"The holy trinity of grease merchants" that is a sentence I have never heard before!!

@carlroberge7535

Жыл бұрын

We love our 80’s grease! I laughed so hard when I heard this as well because it’s so on point 👌

@ssserotonin1373

Жыл бұрын

Lmaoo took me back too

Such a good compressor! Especially for that plastic 80’s clean. Pushes the mids forward and removes high end shimmer which you can add back with an SSL EQ style and obviously… some good ol’ Micropitch and Trichorus

Great video, Leon. Happy owner of a 160X in my guitar rack, I really like seeing the settings other people use as everyone seems to have something that just *works* for them and it's always great to learn.

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it!

Light compression with a low-med gain tone is my happy place. You get the liquid feel without all the wild amounts distortion.

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

It's absolutely the best of both worlds hey

He finally did it! THE 80s compressor. I was wondering when this video was going to drop.

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

Hope it was worth the wait!

I just bought one one month ago. I love it on some guitars too, especially on clean sounds. On bass it's also fantastic, more versatile. Excellent also with parallel compression when pushed hard. Over 10db of compression, attack time reaction is shortened with overeasy mode. Fat sound in parallel

I have the 160A and it is simply awesome. Think Richard Marx, Chicago, Kenny Loggins or any other album Landau or Huff played on. Oh the good old days. Peace

I have used a 166 since like 1993. Love that compressor on guitar.

I have been eye balling one of these since my buddy got one back in the late 80s. He had one in his stage rack (while I was all pedals) and I always wondered IF this pedal was necessary. Thank you for taking the time to demo this properly. I finally get it now. I may need to try one out. Cheers.

I have one of these reamp’d into an 80s peavy. Love the versatility! Maxing the gain and adding amp saturation can get some wild fuzz which is pretty fun as well.

Love this compressor! I have the 160X. Great for ultimate control and punch.

Thank you thank you thank you for what is effectively Guitar Compression settings 101. Just having a baseline on which to start my own compression settings journey make this video better then gold.

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

Glad to help!

Find yourself a Boss CL-50. It's a half rack version of a 160. Boss licensed the design and chipset from DBX. If you open one up, you'll see the DBX marked chip. I find the Boss a bit more organic and quieter...shhhh, don't tell anyone, okay?

Thank you LT!

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

My pleasure!

Those twenty seconds of 80's heaven at 6:25 and 8:35 ♥♥♥♥♥

Appreciate the dry signal comparison first up.

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

No problem!

Killer demo! I would love to see you try the Alesis Nano Compressor and shoot it out with the dbx. Until it was stolen, the Alesis was my go-to and I don’t many using it these days. It was so simple to use and sounded great on almost anything. Take care! 🤘🤘

Nice! I own the 160XT. Performed the Jensen transformer upgrade on mine.

Excellent review, thanks. I learned some things about using my DBX 160X. Peace ! P.S. Excellent playing too !

A great compressor for just about anything!@! two favorite compressor pedals are the Xotic SP and Vertex Nyle compressor.

Love my 160x

6:25 😮😮😮😮😮👍👍👍👍👍👍👍💗💗💗

If ya'll wanna get this vibe in a pedal, the Keeley Limiting Amplifier GC-2 does it well. It uses the Voltage Control Amp from the THAT corporation, which are the former DBX engineering team who developed the original DBX VCA. Keeley compressor Pro and Bassist has it as well. Fyi, the Keeley compressor+ does not.

Bought one about a month ago for my '80's Clean Stereo Guitar Rig. It certainly does the thing. A good pedal equivalent is the Maxon CP9 Pro+.

It makes me surprised that I haven't really seen units like 160 around where the design is so simple and clear to use. The controls and the visual meter. Honestly the led meter itself is the best idea I've seen. I'd want 160 even if the sound wasn't that good just to have that meter.

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

My thoughts exactly! Genius metering

I liked the crunch better than the cleans, but that's probably because I'm a distortion junkie. But that fattening effect was really nice.

Honestly, great comp but I absolutely hate what it does to guitar. I can’t imagine a use for that tone. Thank you for taking the time to do it though I reckon

I'm using a behringer Multicom Pro-XL. Helps a lot to take out those nasty spikes and to fatten up the tone. On distorted sounds I love that I can use it as a noise gate. Yes, you could use pedals instead or compressors on multi effects units, but it's so much easier to get a good sound out of this rack unit. Compressors do have a sound of their own wich I often dislike, because they change the character of the instrument.

I thoroughly enjoy your 80s tones - You've really helped me get that plastic tone! I'm using plugins - Suhr PT100 Preamp only, then a bunch of Ableton effects, (plus a Valhalla Space Mod for the detune sound). Thank again Leon! Can you recommend a good plugin compressor for this kind of tone?

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

UA Distressor or fab filter pro c are my go to software comps

i have this unit in my rack. gotta find a looper to pull it out when i run distortion

I've recorded and mixed so many tracks using this compressor. It's so simple, works and sounds great on anything. The Drybell Unit67's compressor captures something very similar in pedal form. The Empirical Labs distressor can also capture a very similar sound with the right settings.

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

I hear consistently good things about the drybell!

@BobGuido

Жыл бұрын

@@LeonTodd It made it to my pedalboard a few times, on a few songs which is a testament to how good it is considering that I have a CL-1B, a Urei 1176 and a distressor here among other great compressors. It's one of the few pedal compressors that didn't make me long for something better.

Where is the compressor in the signal chain? Before or after the Power amp?

Do you run the comp before your pedal board? Reverb delays? Ods ?

The common wisdom to use compressor is to have it first in signal chain, but rack units requires balanced level, how different is it to use compressor in the loop vs before overdrive/preamp?

I love my 160X, but I use it mostly on snare.

Hi Leon, might have missed it, but what was the signal path? My BIL found a whole ex-school PA rack at a garage sale that amongst other things had a pristine 160a in it. I found it best post pre/in a loop. That where the "Holy Trinity of Grease" used theirs's IIRC.

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

This is end of chain. I'll have to try post pre, pre/power amp!

Leon what do you call that chord at 6:07? That's a diabolic stretch but sounds enchanting.

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

The notes are C# G# A B E so there's a few ways to name it. I'm actually thinking of it relative to a non-existent low F# root note, in which case you get F#min11.

I have an old 160A and really like it in series after my Mesa Studio Preamp. They’re a little cleaner and punchier than the 160X. Also really good on snare

@gdanskJam

Жыл бұрын

Do you like it more then 160X?

@cliftonwright7081

Жыл бұрын

@@gdanskJam the differences are not extremely apparent. Under a sonic microscope, the 160X has a more pleasing saturation for most guitar applications. I’m a chicken picker and prefer the cleaner, perhaps more clinical punch of the A

@gdanskJam

Жыл бұрын

@@cliftonwright7081 I never had an opportunity to compare these myself. I have 160X that I luv. I appreciate your videos. My 21U rack is full of 30/40 years old, weird, rack units thanks to you guyz :O ;). I often cut my costs of food in order to buy next ones :O :D haha

Ah yes, the Carl Martin in rack form ;)

I use the MXR M87 for cleans. I think it was one of the first studio compressor style in a pedal, but don't quote me on that.

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

Yeah they're great!

Wampler ego. Great for an 'always on' compressor

Let’s ruffle some feathers. $300 budget… rack with a pedal drawer so form factor doesn’t matter… Cali76 compact deluxe or 160?

@SurfGreenTelecaster

Жыл бұрын

The 160. But in pedal form, a Carl Martin Compressor is the stuff (older one with an AC power cable)…and you’ll be way under budget. 🍻

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

I've got a vid with the Cali76 for "rack style" tones and it's a fairly different beast to the 160. The Crazy Tube Circuits Golden Ratio comp is pretty awesome if you want a few different styles (VCA, JFet and typical Dynacomp style).

The simple to use half rack dbx 163X is also a great comp/limiter. I wish I had kept mine. I have a DOD 866 Series II 2 Channel Gated Compressor Limiter now. It has dbx VCAs in it, but it hasn't quite the vibe the 163X had. I mostly use a pedal lately - Guyatone TC-X Tube Comp or a Boss LM-2 Limiter.

In a similar way to how a lot of modern compressor pedals have a mix control, would it make sense to run this in a line mixer to blend it with the dry signal? Or am I thinking of all this the wrong way around?

@LeonTodd

7 ай бұрын

You could do that!

I usually agree with you, but IMHO no pedal or rack gets the 160 sound. If another pedal got the 160 sound you would have seen it on a pedalboard in the 80’s. Even the infamous Ross or Boss Blue or Red pedals can’t do it. Sorry, I’m just protective of the 160. Peace and blessings. Love your vids.

I’ll DM my addy so can send that my way lol 😜👍🏽

To me the DBX 160 or 166 is THE compressor for guitar. Are there better compressors out there? Yeah. But not for guitar.

I just don't understand compressors😩

Think you could dial that in for a little slinking Leon? kzread.info/dash/bejne/mI5nmauiqKXQkZc.html Top comment 'After hearing this my guitar sold me'🤣

@LeonTodd

Жыл бұрын

Holy smokes that is an incredible arrangement of that tune!

@sadwingsraging3044

Жыл бұрын

@@LeonTodd Think you can do a little filthy slinking strut Leon? I think you can!😉 Thought you would get a kick out of that video.

@sadwingsraging3044

Жыл бұрын

@@LeonTodd hope I haven't brok'ed you Leon!🥺 I can see you sleepless for days trying to work out how to do something like this on your PRS!🤯

Ain't no way this wasn't in the rack for Great White...