i used to own one, but blew it up (by accident, sadly) at some point and that was that.

while it lasted, though, it was really something when i ran the kick and snare of my yamaha RY30 drum machine through it; you could get the biggest, fattest, most distorted and damn-near useless (but not quite, really) sounds out of it. not exactly a piece for the hi-fi set, but one that's good for certain lowbrow tasks.

Anyone tried this mod (gate disable) besides me? Wondering what you think. It makes a big difference IMO.

lol, totally agree. not a fan. i had one in the rehearsal studio back in the 90s.
we tried it a few times for recording, and gave up on it.

If you know how to mod it to make the VCA chip comply to all of That Corp's application notes and specs, it's actually a decent box. I did some analysis a couple of years ago and found that Alesis did some goofy stuff in their implementation of the 2150 VCA and this goofyness is the root cause of the infamous 3630 sound. Once mod'ed to fully comply with That Corp's recommendations it sounds as good as any other That Corp 2150 equipped compressor - which is most of the $100 to $400 tier.

I retrofit a couple of 3630's with the newer 2180 VCA chip (again implemented to fully comply with That Corp recomendations) and OPA4134 op amps and these are very usable boxes - about as good as can be expected out of chip based compressors IMO.

But if you can't do this sort of stuff, I agree with all of the suggestions by Tibbon...

Come on guys. It's a $100 compressor. I wouldn't, nor would I recommend anyone else spend any more money on it. Let alone $100+ additional it used to cost for the Black lion mod. I have one of these lying around and had heard about the mod mentioned in Tape op. It does make it sound a lot more musical when the gate is disabled IMO. I know a lot of people have these because of the price and would appreciate knowing about this mod if it makes it sound better. But unless you have the time and money to waste, I wouldn't recommend modding it beyond this free mod. Just my thoughts, no offense to anyone intended that have put time/money into these more extensive mods.

I suggest the Funk Logic buy up all remaning units and make it the flagship of their line.

i just had mine outfitted with the vac rac mod heh

i think gear bashing sucks.Does the saying( Its not the gear its engineer behind it?)Mean anything.Ihave and use this inexpensive 2 chn compressor on some subbed drum tracks its just as good as any compressor out there.You must know your gear and it limitations.In retrospect this might not be the compressor for star quality vox or the compressor for that award winning bass sound,but it has its uses in any studio

as does gear / brand loyalty, for the same reason you mentioned.

loyalty to any gear / platforms / software is a waste of time.

at one time or another, we use everything heh

i think the main point here is that you don't want a piece of gear tainting
or degrading your signal path quality / sound too much,
which happens with cheaper components -

sometimes there are ways around this,
but as the saying goes, junk in- junk out...

but hey, if you can produce hits with your 3630, who am i to argue...you go, girlfriend!!

it's certainly not impossible - let's poll gearslutz, and see if anyone's had a hit
using those puppies - SOMEBODY must have.

they're probably passable for ring tones heh

If you can't get great sounds with minimal gear, you'll do no better with high end gear. Yes I have much better comps, but I'm not afraid to slum it so to speak. Give me what you got and I'll make music. Thats what it's about.

have we gotten oursleves into a wee little pissing contest here?

just whip your sh&t out, my man heh let's see it?

First, you missed my point brother. I was agreeing with Studio825 that it should always be about the engineer, not the gear he's using. I am not a gear snob. That said, this is gearslutz right? I currently have a Empirical Labs EL-7 fatso and distressor and a Purple MC-77 which I will soon be selling. I'm very sure many people on this board can kill that list with ease. I am finding myself using less and less comps these days, unless I'm going for an effect. As you yourself implied, I also want as little and as high of quality components in my chain, unless I'm looking for color. I also have a 3630 and some dbx comps in my live racks, if that counts.

Maybe a limiter before your headphone amp so you don't accidentally roast the headphones or the musician's ears? I use one for that.

Jesus, is this thread still going?
Wish I'd never started it now... heh heh heh

In the end I didn't keep the 3630- sold it for a lil more than I paid and ended up getting another D&R fet compressor. thumbsup thumbsup

Awesome recommendation. I think that would make a great place for it.

ya apparently mellon collie was a modded jcm800 with a 3630 in the effects loop (i think that's where they had it).

O course it's art and subjective, but if it's one thing I can't stand about Daft Punk, it's their use of compression. I love that one more time song, but I can't listen to it without getting seasick. I wish they made a version where the entire mix wasn't jumping 20 dB up and down with the kick drum. I get dizzy just thinking about that mix.

I think there was a thread a while back about Daft Punk and I joked that it sounded like they used a cheap 3630 compressor on the mix keyed to the kick drum. And someone told me that's what they actually did. It kinda ruined the joke. Hehe.