Alesis 3630 Compressor/Limiter/Gate

Everyone who complains about clicking either:

A - Cannot use a noise gate (Gates that click! Whoooh! Never heard that one before!)

or:

B - Is overdriving an unbalanced insert return at the +4dB output level (your input meter on the mixer will still look green though!)

They should learn to use the gear properly! Its EASY to use with BIG meters.

If you like French House music you will have heard the 3630 on LOADS of records pumping up the drum samples.

These records have had sales success without people noting the 'rubbish compressor sound' as other people have here. It sounds fine. It doesn't sound expensive but has a character to its processing.

If you make the 3630 sound bad, it is probably YOUR fault, not the machines.

Does not weigh enough to worry about transport damage. Its fine. If it breaks buy another one. They are CHEAP.

Nothing wrong with this one. Someone else noted its a CHIP based device, but Alesis know what they are doing.

Some of these are really old now and still seem to be going so have fun using it and don't worry.

If using a 3630 is make or break for your music, your music must be rubbish in the first place.

Simple and straight foward, if you cant figure this out idk what to tell you...

This guy down here is hating on this thing. This thing makes house/electro/hip hop tracks sound great... hes just an elitist who obviously has access to overly-expensive equipment.

If you make any kind of electronic music using synths, or samplers i highly reccomend this piece. its $100, and does a nice job on a variety of sounds, i love running my drums thru this thing it adds a nice punchyness and teh fact it cut some frequencies is a good thing when you want that lo-fi type sound.

never failed me yet, in 2 years. i have 2 of them!

never had to deal with them

great for hip hop/house/electronic type of music! makes drums punchy and crunchy, love how my synth sound thru it... a great addition to any studio and beats any compressor ive ever used. This is for us, teh home studio type of guy who dont need/want $1500 compressors, you know how much equipment id rather buy!?

hello ... i ve been a sound engineer for thirteen years i have tweaked a lot of the different stuff out there (compressors) from a drawmer and manley all the way down to compressors like the dbx 166 and 266 etc ... and there is nothing nothing like an alesis compressor ... see there is no way you can achieve any kind of professional quality with this ... some of the reviews i just read make me a litte upset because i can belive that people actually recomend stuff like this this thins is really a pice of crap .. one of this reviews says that after all our ears are not that sensitive to dyamic change ... WHAT ? hahahahahah you have got to be kidding me if our ears were not that sensitive everybody would buy alesis compressors and not draxmers or manleys costing above 4,000 dlls !!!!!!!

the sound quality is very poor the dynamics are just not handle buy this compressor all it does is cut out everything and it does not even cut the sound on all the frequencies !!!!!

NO no never go to a show or a live performance or recording expecting this thing is going to help the best thing you can do is spend the 100 dlls you are going to spend on this compressor on burgers for the musicians !!!!

i ve never dealt with the company

i record all kinds of music from maricahi music, rock, salsa, cumbia, norteno, classic, jazz etc ... and that's exactly my point this is good for nothing a good compressor is something that is adaptable to any style of music because its a dynamics contoller nos destoyer .... dont get me wrong any compressor will destroy your music if you dont know how to use it ..... but there is not a single point where this compressor will perform or deliver any kind of quality if you have a couple of hundred bucks go get yourself a dbx !

I would say hard to set up to get sounding 'good', if indeed possible at all.
And yes, the colour scheme on the front panel makes it very hard to read what you are trying to adjust.

I find it loses some top end / high frequency of the sound running through it.

Haven't had it long, so can't really say.

No experience.

I bought this recently partly on the strength of the quite 'rosy' reviews here.
However, after about a week I have to conclude this is a very poor budget compressor for my uses, which is mainly running a radio type mix thorough it featuring speech and music. It also only really seems to perform acceptably at mild to moderate compression.

You can try your best to set it up to handle 'generic' music and you might get it sounding okayish some of the time, then you will suddenly hear unattractive 'clicking' or 'pumping' if the beats per minute or EQ of the track aren't to the 3630's liking.
Might be ok for compressing individual instruments as part of a mix if you set it up very carefully each time.

I would say, save a 100 or so more notes and buy a better compressor. Generally I would suggest don't consider the 3630 even if you are quite desperate for a compressor.

This is my first real compressor, and I figured it out right away. I've been playing for about 15 years but still.

It makes my old weak quiet guitars roar like little lions, it does more than what I thought it would. I'm using it with a 1957 Framus hollowbody and a 1959 Fender Bassman.

I just got it so I have no idea...

I think that any guitar player or musician who really wants to sound like a professional needs to understand how valuable compressors are and also how often they're used on albums that they love, even the filthiest Misfits albums use them. They allow me to focus my tone to do exactly what I want it to do. It allows my Fender Blender to still sound completely out of control but not hurt my ears. I'm a vintage gear collector so it helps to give me an overall more consistent sound.

Its dark grey small letters on a black front make it loose some points here, apart from that it 'll be up and running in no time if you know what you're doing

Got this unit second hand. actually got two of them fo 100 Euro; that's practicly giving them away. I've used them mostly live and they are extremely good at keeping the dynamics within a certain range. I've even managed to go up to 5/1 ratio's on a laney wedge monitor without feedback although, this required a lot of tweaking with an EQ and the built in gate. (place the eq behind the compressor in the chain unless you're sidechaining) this alowed both whispered as well as shouted vocals to neatly sit in the mix. exactly what i was looking for. actually bought it for the gates to use on drums but I ended up using it on vocals. that just about says it all. If you're going to extremes with it you might experience squeeqs and clicks and feedback upon opening and closing of the gates (in live applications) and also when reducing dynamics you might also bring up the noise floor but you can't really blame this unit as it's just a consequence of pushing down peaks and bringing the average levels up to extreme. these extremes can't usualy be achieved with the more costly vintage compressors so I can't see it as as real flaw. Just don't exagerate (although it IS fun I must admit) Don 't forget that our hearing isn't at all that sensitive to changes in dynamics.

I got them second hand, but the storeowner still said i'd get my money back if they 'd fail me the first year. the ones i got seem to to have been used a lot; still they work is if they were new. since it 's an electronic unit without easily breakable parts (like valves or so) I don 't expect any problems. but since I have 2 I 'm not at all concerned about one breaking down.

Don't know if alesis still exists as a brand, as i've heard they're now in a third party's hands...

haven't contacted them yet, but they keep a nice website, and manuals and info are ready for download

Hope they discontinue this product... so that in a couple of years it 'll become one of those vintage thingies of it's own. OK it's not a tube or opto compressor, but it's got an inherent quality i like a lot. it also got sensible knobs, all with a function and it's verry tweakable (even more than most of the genuine vintage units) I'm happy with the unit as it is even if its not flawless.

really easy to use if you know how to use a compressor... i haven't read the manual. no click type pots - all smooth makes tweaking easy.

great sounding compressor... really warms up vocals and brings them to the front of the mix. the gate is very good - you can easily tell when it's open/closed.

i bought it off of ebay... no idea how old it is. works great.

great compressor with all the features you need for a great price. great for live anything - i haven't used it for recording. I'm definitely going to buy another 2 or 3 of these babies!

I use the 3630 live and agree with an earlier review in saying that the lettering is too dark, and due to the fact i havent got around to buying a rack light, makes it difficult for me to execute compression effectively enough, however other than this the 3630 is the best compressor in it's rang, no doubt.

Great sound quality, however, as i engineer metal bands 80% of the time, im dealing with alot of guitar signal, which, in my opinion the 3630 doesnt enjoy, so iv'e started using the old 300G rocktron for them.
No problem with anything else.
Impressive gates conisering the minimal controls aswell!

Geat reliability, i always keep the behringer on standby, but don't feel i'l ever need to use it.

Overall, a great tool to have in the live sound rack, if the gate had more control, this would possibly be the best comp ive used under ??1,500.
Dare i say its better than any drawmer or dbx i've used in the last 5 years.

Same as any other compressor but lettering on the face is way too dark and you can't see what you're doing in darker enviroment.

Not really made to record with. While it does sound much better than it's more expensive competitor DBX 266XL it does have serious issues with clicking when compression engages. This can be heard most with the bass guitar which in fact this unit can't handle at all as it also distorts the bass. Ok for vocals if always in red. Vorks well in live situation for PA or instruments which I guess is what it is made for. All this said, you can still get a decent studio recordings out of it if used carefully and for my money it is the best compressor in it's price range and still better than some more expensive ones.
If you're looking for serious studio work don't expect anything decent under $1000 and that's it. I had many below that price and none qualified eccept for some of the vintage ones.

No problems

No reply to my clicking queries.

Good compressor for the money. Adds a bit of 70's tone when used for track recordings which I like but you might not, does not have true bypass which makes it pain disconnecting it when I don't want it inline because it does alter sound to a degree in it's bypass mode and adds a little hiss too.

Basic compressor unit, no auto features. Easy to use if you know how to use compressors. Bad thisnk is that box is blac and function lettering is in dark grey - can't see where is what when room is dark. For this I give it lower rating because it shits me specially when in rack with bunch of other gear.

Sound quality is good if used for recording tracks. Has somewhat subtle 70's sound to it. I am happy with it "now". I bought it a year ego and thought I could do better so bought DBX266XL. For next six months I could figure out why my I can't get my mix and masters sounding right. It was the crappy 266XL, it brickwalls even at minimum settings and adds too much thin top. Alesis doesn't brick wall if you don't want it to, it's pretty gentle. So anyway I dumped the DBX and use this Alesis and music sounds good again. I can't buy much better for this money infact for less than $1000 so it's fine enough.

Stil works fine.

Good, answered all my questions ok.

Good basic very usable compressor for very good price.