Best API500 comp for vocal

[Takeomi]

Hi

I'm looking for comp.
my favorite comp for vocal is 1176silver(maybe rev.H?) but i dont have space and need to carry. so i want to put comp in my API Lunchbox

how is Purple Audio Action? i don't hear good reputation but purple audio saids that is like 1176.

do you have suggestions?

Regards,

[Continental]

Api 525
for me one of the best Vocal Comps !

[nimblemongoose]

Originally Posted by Continental

Api 525
for me one of the best Vocal Comps !

For me... One of the best comps PERIOD, even amongst the usual suspects.

[shamrock]

I've owned/used the Action and it is a great sounding comp. I do, however, have three API 525's and I really love them on vocals. I have an older (1970's?) "large meter" 525 that is especially good. I've heard people describe them as "not as grabby" as the re-issue 525 and I would have to agree. Anyway, love that thing on vocals.

[jeffinaustin]

The APA Leviathan is an excellent vocal comp. Great tracking comp as well.

[bigfurry]

The OP is not just looking for a good vocal 500 series compressor, but references the 1176, and that makes this a very tough query. There are really good opto comps in the 500 series that I've tried, and I bought one (the Brute), but they're the flip side of the 1176. I'd love to have a 500 series "76", and will follow this thread hoping someone makes one that's close- but so far I haven't found one.

Godspeed, man

[Swansonic]

Originally Posted by Takeomi

Hi

I'm looking for comp.
my favorite comp for vocal is 1176silver(maybe rev.H?) but i dont have space and need to carry. so i want to put comp in my API Lunchbox

how is Purple Audio Action? i don't hear good reputation but purple audio saids that is like 1176.

do you have suggestions?

Regards,

The API525 works similar to the 1176 types, as i have both, if wanting a 1176 FET type for a lunch box the 525 would work quite well.

here is a quote from a discussion on comp types explaining the 525 that i found to be very informative.
PW is Paul Wolff formerly of API


FET CONTROL ELEMENTS

Like optical, the Field Effect Transistor (FET) acts as a voltage dependent resistor. Although it might sound like the perfect answer to a photo-resistor, it’s not. As a gain control element, the FET is level sensitive. Very large signals can modulate the device resistance causing a gain-modulated distortion that is independent of the control voltage used to manipulate the gain. (Translation: overload the input of a FET-based device and expect some funky, most likely undesirable sound.)

PW: in the API 525, the signal is padded down 30 dB and then boosted back up with the FET going to ground on the "—" input of the input op-amp, controlling the gain to minimize the effect of gain-modulated distortion. Another reason that that FB compressors were "limited" to 30 dB of Gain Reduction is that they could only attenuate as much as they were set up to lose. A reasonable point considering that 30 dB of gain did not add a whole lot of "extra" noise.
1176: A Very Good Year
The Universal Audio (later UREI) 1176 is a vintage FET compressor / limiter that is extremely popular with vocalists. The most favored of versions include an input transformer (eliminated in later production runs, both black- and silver-faced), a discrete audio path and an output transformer. The early Allison Research Gain Brain is also an FET compressor / limiter that is both transformer-less and unbalanced.

REALITY CZECH
To make the FET work as a gain control element, the signal level must be kept low requiring more than the usual amount of gain from the "make-up amplifier." One example is the Input control on a Universal Audio 1176 — a dual-pot configured as a constant-impedance attenuator. To satisfy the input transformer, the attenuator must be pre-transformer as well as pre-FET. Extra circuits can help minimize, but not eliminate, the inherent distortion of this topology. What remains is part of the sound of any FET-based device. (Discussed in a future article, more than one output amplifier design was used as the 1176 evolved, affecting yet another facet of its sound.)

For stereo operation, FETs must first be matched and the circuit must include adjustments to "find the threshold" of the device so that it operates within its linear region. The Attack and Release times can be much faster than an optical-based product.

PW: The 525 could match the channels quite closely. They used a 5-kohm, feedback resistor (variable) with the FET connected from the "minus" input of the op-amp (a "virtual" ground) to ground. By adjusting the gain to match the unity level, they were almost always gain matched. The only other problem was distortion matching, which was few and far between, requiring some FETS to be replaced.

[T. Morgan]

i love the 525 on vocal!

[cubehead]

525. Favorite vocal comp ever.

[Takeomi]

Thx guys

looks like 525 is similar

we have API distributor in Japan so i can rent and check 525

maybe Vintage "big meter" one is better, so need to check eBay as well

much appreciated!

Takeomi

[Takeomi]

just checked with 525 and 1176silver
unfortunately, 1176silver is better for me
maybe need to find vintage "big meter" one...