FMR Audio Really Nice Compressor 1773

It is easy as any normal decent compressor: threshold, attack, release, ratio, gain. Two modes: normal and super nice. Actually when you are compressing you don't need to know what the settings are in numbers because all you need is trust your ears and tweak till it's what you are looking for. But if you are like me who doesn't trust own ears it's nice know where you are going. The great thing is that you will really get what you see. That's in normal mode IMHO. The super nice mode is kind of confuseing me. To me the super nice mode is not doing what I set it to do. I haven't used the super nice mode since I haven't made up a application where to use it. I tested the super mode but about that later.

Very clean and transparent. No high end loss. No noise. I have used it with drum machine (I record snare and kick separately and then the rest of the kit as stereo), ac guitar, guitar amp, bass, synths, vocals. I compress basically everything as I track and it works really good. But I still don't know what to do with super mode. I tested super mode as follows: I recorded a mixed song through the RNC in super mode while compressing the heck out of the song (threshold min -40, ratio max 25:1, attack min 0.2 ms, release min 50 ms) then I bypassed (true bypass as I hear the relay click) the unit and recorded the same piece untouched. Finally I normalized the two to the same peak volume. What I found is that the transients were smoothed a little but the rest was left pretty much as it was. One other thing happened. The song's gentle passage was lift up in relation to the hotter part of the song. This has left ME to think that super nice mode acts like an automatic gain control in the long run (like secs) and like a soft high threshold limiter in the short-term (like msecs). HUH! I don't know... This (I mean me) may sound stupid but that's how I figured it. As conclusion to this I want to say that when I am compressing I want to hear the compressor really smooth the thing and that's what normal mode does nicely.

It's working fine in home studio but if I needed it on gigs I'd keep it in the rack because of a wall wart. The power cable is very thin (a european adapter) and I think that couldn't stand much physical pressure. Otherwise I would depend on the unit. It's boxed in aluminium case and the pots are screwed to the front panel. Nothing wrong with mine after 4 months.

I emailed to FMR Audio and asked ordering info and got a friendly answer quickly. I ordered via fax and asked to confirm the received order via email. Didn't get the confirmation and I emailed them again and then got it. The package came promptly here to Finland to my home door.

They actually have more info about the RNC in their web site than in the booklet that comes with the unit. The manual could be better. And too bad you can't tweak the channels separately. After all you are compressing mono channels most of the time. This is obviously a matter of cost. I have used RNC in pro studio and it does its job like any standard pro compressor. I have used Drawmer, dbx, bss in my work but haven't A/B'd the RNC with others. Played guitar 20 years. If I needed more compressor channels I would buy more RNCs. The quality/price ratio is excellent. The feature you can insert RNC to a mixer channel (I use Mackie 1202-VLZ PRO to Roland VS-880) with a single balanced phone jack is handy (however the RNC itself is unbalanced). Sidechain is there to use with special applications like de-essing and ducking. I am waiting for the Really Nice EQ which have been in testing for a while now...

simple controls: threshold, attack, release, ratio, gain.
they feel good and respond well. everything is clearly marked.
many options for hooking it up.

I've used it 7 or 8 times in a live recording situation. It can go from a very compressed clean sound to unnoticable. I usually use it to keep everything out of the red on a DAT recorder. You wouldn't know it was there if you use it just to limit the trancients.

I can't say. I've only had it for three weeks. Seems like it will last.

I called FMR Audio and spoke to the guy that makes them. He was very helpful answering my questions about how to use the RNC in my setup.

I've used Ashly, Symmetrix and Boss compressors before. The RNC is my favorite. I'm a professional musician but amature recording engineer.
This compressor took care of my clipping problems and kept the sound true.

Just a followup: I was able to finally use this unit in our church, on the pastor's mic among other things. Very nice...no pumping, easy to set up, like I said before...piece o' cake.

Piece o'cake. The unit has 5 knobs (threshold, ratio, attack, release, post-compression gain) and two buttons (Super Nice mode vs. regular compressor and a bypass button.
The controls have numbers on them, and for a change when you set the knob to that number, there seems to be some correspondence with reality! (In other words, setting the ratio to 2:1 really does seem to get you a 2:1 compression ratio.)

I've used it primarily in live situations, doing acoustic guitar and vocals. It's in the FX loop of my Trace Acoustic rig, so it compresses the main mix. "What???! Sin!" Nay, I say unto thee...in Super Nice mode, the effect is basically to smooooooth all the dynamics out, not to remove them. For the vocals, this basically means that I don't have to worry as much about where my mouth is relative to the mic, and I can actually *use* the mic's proximity effect to bump up the bass in my voice for effect. For the guitar, this means that I can smack a string against the fretboard, get that nice smacking sound, but not smack everyone in the front row in the forehead with it. It retains the timbre, but removes the icepick.
SuperNice mode basically emulates the effect of putting several compressors in series. This removes some of the harsher artifacts of compression, making the overall effect much more transparent. Good idea.
If you have ever used a lower-end compressor like the Alesis, Ranes, etc., you won't believe the difference. For the money, this one cannot be beat. It's suitable for home studio use, live use, whatever.

I have only had it a couple of weeks. My impression is that it is well-built, and reliable. It does require a wall wart (gulp).

The first time I ordered one, apparently the shipper just left it on my doorstep. Someone walked away with it before I got home. FMR was quick to investigate, and quick to get another unit out to me. You can usually tell when you're dealing with good people, and these are good people.

I've used quite a few compressors, including a few high-end ones. This easily keeps up with them. Get one. Keep these guys in business, because they are making a great product at a great price. Encourage them to make more.

It gives precise control over all the compression parameters. It's a dual-stereo unit; one set of controls for both channels, or you can use it as a mono compressor. The pots have a smooth, silky feel. The LED display of the compression amount is easy to read. The unit takes 1/3 rack space; I got a cheap Raxxess rack shelf which the up to 3 RNC's can screw onto. A nit: the units labeled beneath the knobs are hidden by the knobs when the RNC is below eye level. There is a sidechain insert on the back, though no bypass switch for it. A button engages "Super Nice Mode", which is claimed to emulate three VCA's for more transparent light compression. The Super Nice mode is difficult to adjust. It seems to take 3-4 seconds to react to changes in the control settings, unlike the instant response in Normal mode. The threshold seems to be touchy in Super Nice mode, going suddenly from almost no compression to a lot of compression.

It is very clean sounding; it doesn't degrade the sound at all, unlike the Behringer Composer it replaced in my rack. I've had great success using it on classical guitar, vocals, and 2-bus mixes. Other engineers I've worked with who are used to much more expensive equipment have been impressed by how good the RNC sounds. I haven't yet found an application where I prefer Super Nice Mode over the regular mode.

Nothing about it seems flaky...

Excellent! Mark McQuilken <eds10@flash.net> (the designer) seemed eager to talk on the phone to discuss the design philosophy behind the circuit, how it compares to other compressors, and other aspects of sound engineering... clearly a talented engineer who loves his work. He made a followup call at his expense a week after shipping the unit to make sure I'd received it and to see how well I liked it, and to ask whether I had any suggestions for improvements.

This has to be the best compressor available for under $500! It's only sold direct, 1-800-343-9976. If you can live with a wall wart and unbalanced I/O in a 1/3 rack space package, you'll be rewarded with excellent sounding, precise compressor.