dbx 520 Compact, Professional De-Esser

A lot of people are deterred because it is a 500 series module rather than a stand-alone product. Don't let that deter you. It's fantastic and there are lots of solutions. I went with an inexpensive Alctron Rack3 500. Even though the DBX is intended to be vertical, horizontal is completely satisfactory provided you don't mind the controls being on their side. I added Hudson Hi Fi 1U 500 Series Universal Blank Panels (available on Amazon) to finish it off.

This thing is dope! I use it for rap vocals mainly. It has a great sound and I'm super happy I bought this for the price. I normally don't skimp on studio equipment but i've got a damn good pre so I thought maybe this 160 clone would do just fine. I was right. I won't go into detail about it sounding "warm" as that s*** is subjective. I know that the response is great and if you just spend time tweaking and not over compressing, use the overeasy switch!! ...you can get a good sound you will be happy with. Excellent solid product. -k

I was skeptical initially, but I got the compressor on time and paid ~$100 less than the new...it was still in the plastic bag so, I'm guessing it was actually new...

Lack of any audible distortion. Not flexible enough for "squashing" things, but great for stuff like vocals, anything that doesn't have lots of transients, or for very gentle processing of a mix.

Perfectly present and quiet. I’m impressed with how effective DBX products have been in work workflow chain. You need one of these in your life. Loud, present, doesn’t add too much unneeded saturation. I’ve recorded some hit records with this bad boy.

Really happy with the 560a, I have it linked to an Avedis MD7 preamp and run the pre along side this compressor to track bass. It's very transparent and does its job very well.For the price, it's a no brainier.

These pre-amps are really nice, very low noise, don't add color to the sound in contrast with other pre-amps (which is desirable in certain situations), and the high-detail feature is quite nice!

I like this a lot! It does exactly what it says it does. This is one of those units that you slap it on, forget that it's there, and if you remove it from the mix it sounds like something is missing. Make sure your AD converters are good, b/c this thing can really clip an AD if you push it too hard. You really need to make sure your levels are good. It really distorts in my Apogee Rosetta, so I'm either going to upgrade the signal path for the Rosetta or route it through my BLA Sparrow red mkii.