Not in love with my TG1--what the hell is wrong with me?

[indie]

Have you tried it on vocal and acoustic? Sounds huge and creamy on vocal -- I can't get the distressor to do that for me.
I use it 90% of the time on limit as well...but it sounds great on the compressor setting for acoustic during mixdown to me.
Every time I try to NOT use it (to see if I'd be happy without it) I go running back to it.
You may have tried this, but I've never been able to match the "size" of the sound on electrics during mixdown..on limit mode.

[zboy2854]

Thanks for that, Micah. Truth be told, I haven't tried it all that much on guitars or vocals, I've mostly used other comps for those chores, so maybe I just need to go back and spend more quality time with the unit with some of those kinds of sources.

[thethrillfactor]

You know its ok not to love every high end piece you buy right?

Its actually normal.

Its called being in tune with your own personal sound and what it leans toward.

If you loved every piece then i'd be worried.

[zboy2854]

Originally Posted by thethrillfactor

You know its ok not to love every high end piece you buy right?

Its actually normal.

Its called being in tune with your own personal sound and what it leans toward.

If you loved every piece then i'd be worried.

What I was asking was for other suggestions or ideas on using the TG1 that I may have overlooked before deciding it wasn't for me.

And for the record, personally I don't want to have a personal sound, I'd much rather be like an Andy Wallace who leaves no sonic stamp on the material, other than to make it sound the best or most appropriate it can for that project. But that's me.

[thethrillfactor]

Originally Posted by zboy2854

What I was asking was for other suggestions or ideas on using the TG1 that I may have overlooked before deciding it wasn't for me.

I kinda got the gist of that from your post.

Originally Posted by zboy2854

And for the record, personally I don't want to have a personal sound, I'd much rather be like an Andy Wallace who leaves no sonic stamp on the material, other than to make it sound the best or most appropriate it can for that project. But that's me.

And i hope you are kidding right on the personal sound thing?

AW definitely has a sound to his mixes.

[drakewire]

DUDE this is an awesome unit all the way around... but if your not happy you can always just go neve... Cmon your in the high end board Chandler makes some great stuff, but if your not happy sell it to me, then go neve

[RUSCO]

I only use it for fast recovery compression. Wouldn't use it on acoustic guitars or percussion but for vocals and sometimes bass. Good for smoothing out some shit but very different to a distressor.

[mwagener]

My TG-1 has been on every lead vocal over the course of the last year. It also has been involved with every drum room track and a bunch of other sources. In fact the only place I have not used it yet, is the stereo bus, but I'm sure that will happen sooner or later too. When I got it, I only used it on drum rooms and then I started trying it on other stuff as well, sometimes careful, sometime totally over the top. I think that box grows on you, I would definately keep it.

I just got the plug in as well and did some heavy testing and comparing today, the plug in rocks, so close to the hardware box that I sometimes had a hard time to tell the difference. The settings are different to get to the same effect, but if you just twiddle knobs and keep comparing it gets extremely close. That said, I wouldn't want to miss my hardware box, but the plug sounds great too.

[zboy2854]

Originally Posted by thethrillfactor

And i hope you are kidding right on the personal sound thing?

AW definitely has a sound to his mixes.

Really? I'd defy anyone to tell me what, to take one example, Nirvana's "Nevermind" and Ben Folds Five "Whatever and Ever Amen" have in common sonically in terms of the mixes, other than they sound good and appropriate for the material. Totally different sounding sets of mixes. What sonic stamp do you hear from Andy Wallace between those two records?

[van Overhalen]

I had both the Distressor and the TG 1 for a shootout
and I immediately loved the sound of the TG while I found the Distressor pretty nothing sounding.

So comparing this with your situation I'd simply say that you actually just like the Distressor sound more than the TG sound.

There is no "magic" application that you haven't found out about.

I could use the TG on anything simply because I like how it sounds.
You could use the TG on anything and still prefer the Distressor...

Nothing wrong about that.

I am using the TG on 2 bus, vocals, spoken word, electric and acoustic guitars, piano, bass, sd, cymbals, room mics ...

[zboy2854]

Thanks all. I'll definitely go back and try it out on vocals, I hadn't really been doing any of that.

[beats workin']

the tg1 took me a while to get a handle on. once i got to know it, i find it extremely useful in actually creating sound rather than simply as a comp. i also mostly use limit, but when using it in comp mode, try using slower releases.
i've used it on everything from vox to ag peeano etc, and of course its mainly home s on the drum buss. whoa.
have fun checking it out, but you know, it's a disntinct sound that may not suit all.
david

[Fletcher]

Originally Posted by drakewire

DUDE this is an awesome unit all the way around... but if your not happy you can always just go neve... Cmon your in the high end board Chandler makes some great stuff, but if your not happy sell it to me, then go neve

I seriously hope you're joking... if you're not, see a doctor and get the cult following shit out of your mind.

Chandler is no magic bullet

Empirical Labs is no magic bullet

NEVE® is certainly no magic bullet.

The only thing that comes close to a magic bullet is an engineer who knows what he wants to hear and is able to employ the devices around him to accomplish that goal.

I have a TG-1, of all of my compressors it is probably the least used... but when I do use it, the reasons are obvious why it has been used.

I use the TG-1 mostly in parallel applications... parallel compression on a room, on a buss... dialed in off one or two sends with different balances of material sent to the unit to accentuate a texture within the song. If you turn in off you'll miss it having been turned off but you don't actually hear the unit in context of the actual mix. It's not a "go to" unit by any stretch of the imagination... but it is definitely in the "something I would prefer to not have to live without" phylum... along with a bunch of other stuff.

The music we create should have the individual's touch on it. You were hired for a reason, that reason is "your sound". What "Thrill" was driving at earlier is that maybe this unit has no place "in your sound". It may work like a charm for many of the members here... Michael Wagener says he uses it for vocals all the time... I generally find it too cloudy for vocals and generally prefer it elsewhere. Which one of us is right? In our individual caseses both of us are right, as it applies to you neither of us is right.

There is no sin in finding you don't love a piece of hardware that every one has gone "ga-ga" over... the only sin is feeling any form of inadequacy because you happened to notice that in your reality the Emperor has a 4" wee-wee [which is fine for his requirements, after all, he is the Emperor and can get all the pussy he wants] but would bum me right the fvck out if I had to endure life with an itty-bitty pee-pee.

Find a use for it, or keep it on the shelf for at least a year while you look for a use for it. Who knows... sometimes lightning strikes in the weirdest places you can imagine and you'll discover a use for the thing nobody here ever imagined.

Peace.

[Clive Banks]

sometimes lightning strikes in the weirdest places you can imagine and you'll discover a use for the thing nobody here ever imagined.

Too right.
Talkback compression perhaps?

[zboy2854]

Thanks Fletcher, sage words indeed. I will give the unit some more time and experimentation, but maybe you guys are right, and it just doesn't fit with what my mind's "ear" wants to hear.

If that's the case, as much as I'd love to keep it for those rare occasions, I don't know that I'd be able to justify keeping a $3K comp around to sit idle most of the time, when I could exchange it for some other workhorse pieces. In any case, thanks, you guys have given me some other good ideas to try with the unit.

[kats]

If you have a chance...try using it as a comp/limiter as they were originally intended (IE not so much as an effect box), and a/b with others. That's where I really appreciated the TG1.

I'll give an example. I like a little compression when tracking vocals especially when I'm not 100% familiar with the song - you know, to get a little control over the dynamics so a good take won't be ruined by clipping or whatever.

What you'll find is you'll start to like the tone of certain boxes more than others, for whatever reason - they're all different. In the case of the TG1, I like the tone of the box, I find it "chesty" compared to an 1176 for example - so I end up using it quite a bit.

It's a different ball of wax when you start using a box for effects or envelope shaping - either it does what you want or it doesn't. This is probably where you're not sold on the TG1. With only two attack and ratio choices, your pretty limited in envelope shaping compared to some other boxes out there.

[rashadrm@hotmai]

Originally Posted by zboy2854

I've had my Chandler TG1 (original version, not the current Abbey Road modded version) for some time, and much to my chagrin I'm just not using it as much as I'd hoped. It's done a fine job on piano tracks, and sometimes drum overheads or room mics, but even today I was doing a mix and tried running the room tracks through it, and it sounded good, but then I tried them through my Distressors on nuke and ran back to my Distressors like a little bitch.

What's more, I've found that I never seem to like the sound of the unit on Comp, only on Limit. Now I'm starting to question if I should sell or trade it for some other comps I'll get more regular usage out of. But before I do, I thought I'd ask fellow TG1 owners--what the hell is wrong with me?

More specifically, how are those of you who use and love it using it? I wanted to get some feedback to see if maybe there are some ways of using it I've been overlooking. Thanks.

I also had the TG1, and like you I couldnt find anything exciting about it compared to my other compressors, the one thing that I did like was the THD function. Not to say that it isnt a good unit, just not for me. The last thing you want to do is have a $3,000 unit in your rack collecting dust. I traded mine in for a pair of CL1B's and couldnt be happier. I also parted with my germaniums and TG channels MKII's for the IBIS and a pair of Trakkers. Go with whatever sounds good to you.

[mrface2112]

Originally Posted by Fletcher

sometimes lightning strikes in the weirdest places you can imagine and you'll discover a use for the thing nobody here ever imagined.

cross reference: hugh padgham, phil collins, peter gabriel's "Intruder", drums on the "listen" mic and the trend-setting madness that followed. apologies to tapeop55.


cheers,
wade

PS--this world sure would be lame if we all loved the same gear.

[u b k]

Originally Posted by zboy2854

Really? I'd defy anyone to tell me what, to take one example, Nirvana's "Nevermind" and Ben Folds Five "Whatever and Ever Amen" have in common sonically in terms of the mixes, other than they sound good and appropriate for the material. Totally different sounding sets of mixes.

to be fair, i'm not sure how much they could ever have in common sonically given how very little they have in common in terms of vibe, arrangement, energy, performance, and composition.

but since you asked, i'd say in both productions the kick tends to be snappy rather than boomy and it sits in front of and above the bass, which itself is neither huge nor thin. the drums are crisp on top and have ample room around them, the snare tends to crack rather than thwack or thud. the voice is mixed up front and with generous upper-mid energy, and the soundfield is very wide, larger than life, often unnaturally so.

none of the above is meant to imply that i could've spotted either or both records as 'andy wallace' mixes. but they do have commonalities, the guy does seem to favor some esthetic choices over others.


gregoire
del
ubk
.

[Silver Sonya]

parallel compression is the only application i find use for this box. but in that application, it has no equal and no substitute. send a drum submix to it, especially one that emphasizes the room.

it adds roar and sizzle.

here at silver sonya, we call it the "explosion box." it adds fireworks and crackle tot he mix. sneak it in under an untreated or mildly treated source and it just adds electricity and saturation. nothing else in the world works the same way and i can't imagine living without it.

i also can't fathom how people use it "normally." my unit must be really different from everyone else's. mine is something i can't imagine any normal engineer using as a regular, conventional compressor for anything. this just proves how everything is truly subjective. y'know?

i am baffled that people use it any other way... even at mild settings, it seems like a really extreme "effect" type compressor.

so i concur w/ fletcher. try using it as a blend-it-in type device and see if it doesn't blow you away.

cheers,

chad

[yeloocproducer]

Alot of folks try it on the stereo buss and go "huh"? But the trick way of using it in this capacity is setting it into limit with the fastest possible release time, dual mono... and setting it so that the needle doesn't move AT ALL. If the needle is moving, you are probably over-mastered.

That being said, if you have a garage punk group or some kind of really blown up sounding retro thing you want to do... it can work great in this capacity. Not for everything, but for certain projects it can sound great.

[AB3]

Please DO NOT post clips.
And size does matter - look at the Shadow Hills Compressor. Any guy could get a babe with that.

Originally Posted by Fletcher

There is no sin in finding you don't love a piece of hardware that every one has gone "ga-ga" over... the only sin is feeling any form of inadequacy because you happened to notice that in your reality the Emperor has a 4" wee-wee [which is fine for his requirements, after all, he is the Emperor and can get all the pussy he wants] but would bum me right the fvck out if I had to endure life with an itty-bitty pee-pee.


Peace.