Any first hand opinions on the dbx 160SL?

What did you use it for? Why? How did it do for you?

-j

Yep - the 160 SL gives you an enormous amount of control of what the box does (and therefore over the signal). it has a bit of that dbx sound, though it doesn't (according so a couple of dbx160VU owners ) have whatever magic the 160VU has. You'd pretty much need to play with one and see if the sound of the unit is what you want. For a drum buss or a mix buss, I prefer the Drawmer 1969 and a Vari-Mu, respectively

Dave,

I tried my 1969 Mercenary Edition on Kick the other day and it wasn't happening. I found the release wouldn't open up enough, so even at the fastest release setting, the kick didn't get a chance to breathe its note out. However, this box is great for a short, tight kick sound.

I ended up using my Distressor for the kick sound I was after. There was tons more control over the attack and release, and their range and usefulness easily outshined the 69's. Also, I was getting that last crucial few db of output from the Ditressor so the kick could sit in the track perfectly, which I wasn't getting from '69.

I'm wondering how to drive the tubes harder in the 69, though. I set it to where I expected to hear the tubes working hard, and I could hear the effect, but not as much as I wanted to hear it.

Hmm - I haven't been using the 1969 on just kick - I've been using it across the whole drum buss. I tend to run the kick through a Purple Audio MC76 when I mix (and a dB or so of a Daking limiter when tracking). And since I use the 'Big' setting on the buss (which is essentially a hi pass filter on the sidechain), the 1969 isn't interacting with the kick that much. I'll have to experiment with that.

The 160SL kicks ass! I own the 160SL, 160S and just recently sold my 162, 2-161's and 2-160VU's. The 160S and 160SL can both do the 160VU/161 sound at about 90% perfect. The main difference was that the 160S/SL is so much faster and cleaner. I can live with 90%. The SL is a great 2-buss or mix buss as it can glue and punch real well. It is also fast enough the take hand slap out of bongos or the initial stick hit from drums. The limiter is usefull and you get a choice of two (gentle and hard). I am very happy with them. With what I sold the 162, 160VU's and 161's for, I was able to buy three Manley mono vari-mu's.

AudioGaff

You're the only guy I know (besides me) who has a Mono Vari-Mu, and you've got 3? Cool!

Ya, I got two single space and one 1-1/2 rack space with the old 6836 in it. And if I remember right the two single mu's are only one or two serial numbers apart. One of them was from Fletcher's private stash. I love them dearly also. Think of me when you want to sell yours...

AudioGaff

The 2 things i found that the 160S/SL is a great on is :1) Kick and snare mults and 2) acoustic guitar mult. Its really great as a sub compressor for kicks and snares. Add some EQ, mix it in with the original and voila!!! Instantaneous fat kicks and snares. Because its bright and flashy, it works well on acoustic guitars. On vocals it like a hit or miss thing(kinda like the original 160VU), it is sometimes the thing sometimes not. The only thing I didn't like it on is bass, it just doesn't cut it. On the overall mix buss, I actually prefer the unit in bypass, just passing through the electronics no compression. It can give the mix a slight lift(sometimes I run it this way in conjunction with a Massive Passive). I tend to disagree withsome one earlier who said that its really flexible, the only settings I've found that really work with it are very low ratios(under 1:5-1) and very high thresholds. But i tend to favor these settings on most comps anyway.