Alan Smart C1: makeup gain?

[switch1]

I know that lots of people do not like the makeup gain of SSL compressors (on the master bus). What about the Smart C1? Sounds good?

I was thinking about using (master bus always) the C1(compressing, zero makeup gain) --> Portico 5043 (no compression, transformer sound, gain sounds yummy!) What do you think?

[beau]

i use the c2... to me the makeup gain sounds fine. i dont see why the 2 units would have different sounding make up gains.... but they could... i've used a c1 a few times, and didnt notice the make up gain bumming me out.

peace

beau

[SmignalFlow]

I cannot believe that someone is blaming MAKEUP GAIN for bad sounds. I would guess that they're not that good at compression and they're hearing the flaws of compression when they turn the track up.

Trust me, it's not the makeup gain that's bad.

[switch1]

Originally Posted by SmignalFlow

I cannot believe that someone is blaming MAKEUP GAIN for bad sounds. I would guess that they're not that good at compression and they're hearing the flaws of compression when they turn the track up.

Trust me, it's not the makeup gain that's bad.

I've never blamed makeup gain for a bad sounding mix. It's is just that some stuff sounds better than other

People like Andy Wallace have commented on that matter (for it's SSL's master bus comp):

Which I've noticed you consistently set at 4:1 on automatic release.
Pretty much.
And you usually leave the makeup gain at unity?
To my ears, the gain makeup sounds like a noisy amplifier. I suppose it's paranoia, but I figure I can achieve the same end by how hard I hit the compressor. As long as I can get a reasonable output, which I can, I'll usually only use seven groups to put everything on and then I assign all those groups to group number eight, which serves as kind of a universal pre/quad compressor trim. So I can adjust how hard I can hit the compressor by moving that without having to adjust the makeup gain.

Here is the whole article (nice stuff!):

Tech Tips from America’s Hottest mixer-Andy Wallace