dbx 266XL Dual Compressor/Gate

Very easy to use if you know anything about what a compressor does. And if you don't the manual gives pretty detailed explanations on everything.

I play guitar and I bought this for my live rig. My set up is: Schecter 7 strings > rack tuner > ISP Decimator > Laney VH100 > dbx 266XL > rack effects > BBE Sonic Maximizer > back to amp.

I wish I had bought this unit a long time ago because it would've saved me a lot of money and frustration trying to find the peice of gear that would give me a great sound. I've always been turned off by compressors because the stomps that are made to run into the front of amps squish the tone of the guitar too much and add more noise to the signal.
However, this compressor in the effects loop of my amp is great. the signal from the guitar pickups retains its feel and tone while the 266XL handles the sharp peaks in the preamp signal and evens everything out making the sound more lively, even and clear.
I use mine with the threshold at about -4, ratio just over 1.3:1 with the overeasy and auto switches on and gain at about +2. I don't use the gate as I don't have any noise issues at all. The tone I get is as close to perfect as I've ever gotten. With both clean and heavy overdrive, I can hear every note in my chords and my lead runs are thick and powerful. I'm playing through songs I've played thousands of times and hearing harmonics I didn't even know were there.
The compression itself is extremely transparent the way I have it set up. I didn't have to adjust anything else to compensate.
This unit also helped me to get rid of a peaking problem I was having with my effects unit when I played at high volume. It seems to sound much better now that the compressor is in front of it.

I play metal but gobs of crushing distortion is not really my style. I prefer to hear the notes that I'm playing so I use more of a heavy, dynamic overdrive. And of course, the less gain the more prominant the dynamic peaks you hear. The 266XL evens everything out so that the sound is still dynamic but with a more rounded punch that is less prone to cause ear fatigue.
To me, the sound quality using this unit is like the difference between a rough-mix recording and a full master. I would suggest trying on of these before spending all kinds of money on tubes, pickups, or other items that effect the primary tone of a guitar rig. You may save yourself a lot of time, trouble and money.

Its a compressor, and is as easy to use as any other compressor out there. Although these 'pops and clicks' that everyone keeps talking about is likely a result of people having trouble with the settings.

I use this compressor in my studio as a general purpose compressor as well as live applications. I have never had trouble with it, I do respect that it would likely not work well on Bass Guitars. There are other compressors that are better suited for a bass rig. This would be a great addition to any PA, In my experience are not any other compressors in this price range that will give you the control and quality of dynamics that this compressor pumps out.

The Expander/Gate is NOT subtle at all. It is best used as a gate and not an expander. I used this unit for a while on my Hammond organ rig to cut out all the noise when I am not playing a key... Worked great.... The expander reacts far too quickly so that is 'pumps'... not good...

Never any trouble in the 3 years that I have had it.

? never any trouble...

I do soundtracks for Film and Television as well as independent music recording and live sound. I have much higher quality equipment than this. It is no substitute for a Avalon or SSL unit, however if you want a few extra tracks with compression the price is right.

I have never really wasted any time with it in a bass rig, However from the sound of it, people are just not setting it up properly. To reduce the click, the attack should be slower and it should be set to OverEasy which is NOT a 'automatic' mode as some people seem to think. The OverEasy option is a DBX specific type of soft-knee compression.

Learn what the parameters are. If you know how to use a compressor it's a no brainer. If not, there's the over easy button.

It's decent particularly for the price.

Now this has just barely been touched upon but I have to reiterate. If you want to use this with a HIGH IMPEDANCE source like a BASS GUITAR you MUST use a DI. This is a line level effect and is meant for line level sources. A high impedance source will clip the unit. That should be obvious. Don't blame the compressor, blame yourself for not taking this into consideration.

Very reliable. My only complaint is that the power cord is loose in it's socket. Not a big deal but a bit of a nuisance.

Never had to use them.

I've been playing guitar for over 25 years and engineering for 14 years. This is not a high end compressor but, it is a decent one and very good for the price. You will not find another comparable compressor at this price with the exception of the FMR Audio RNC (Really Nice Compressor).

About as easy to use as you can get without presets. The auto function is flawless and makes for quick (and good!) work of any instrument or mix I threw at it. (bass, guitar, full rock mix and especially kick and snare drums)

This thing sounds great to me. I initially had the clicking/spitting sound everyone is reporting when I tried to use it to master a mix. In troubleshooting I quickly found that I had a huge impedance mis-match on the right stereo channel. If you have the click/spit problem CHECK THE IMPEDANCE LEVELS OF YOUR EQUIPMENT. If you are using it for live sound (as in into amplifiers) you want to press the switch on the back that reduces output to -10dbu. If you are connecting to studio equipment make sure it's set to +4dbu and make sure your equipment supports this setting (read the manuals for equipment you are connecting it to). In my case I had the right stereo channel going into a combo line-level/high-z port. I had forgotten I'd set the port to high-z a while ago for some direct guitar recording. When I flipped it to line-level the click magically went away. This thing is great. You just need to use it correctly. Also, make sure you are using balanced I/O cables where ever your equipment supports it.

Feels like it's built solid. The knobs are stepped feel very firm. I haven't had it for too long but I trust it.

Haven't had to use customer support.

I love this thing. I have been able to dial in amazing sounds from kick and snare drums. Worked well and as expected on guitars and bass. For mastering it really stands out as well. You can really fatten up a mix with this thing with very little effort.

Easy to use as most compressors, has the Over Easy function which can be helpfull if youre not sure how to set the compressor manualy.
Has rather limited metering that's why the 5 rating.

Sound is pretty bad. While they say it has the classic DBX sound, yes it does but once you push the compression over 2db it turns to crap.
It starts to spit, gets thin and the sound looses integrity.
Then gate is useless. It either clicks or fades out in uncontrollable fashion and sound like a fading out tremolo.
You can't drive this unit with higher levels because it will distort. You can drive something else with it because when you turn the level up it will distort it's self instead of putting out high levels.
I can drive an old DBX 117 with 20db and it hold it's own and sounds great. And that's not even a proffecional device as the 266XL one is claimed to be.
The only use I found for this compressor is use as a studio headphone amp limiter and even than it is still pretty crap.

Works(?) reliably.

They were ok when I asked them some questions about it.

Worst compressor I've ever had. I've got few other and cheaper compressors like Alesis 3060 which is infinitely better. I expected better from DBX when I bought it new but it was not to be. At least I've learn a lesson not to buy any new DBX gear in the future.

Its a compressor, either you know how to use one or you don't.

Sounds good, haven't really had any problems with it. I use it in live sound for vocals, bass, acoustic...pretty much anything that can use compression this unit will work great for. Have not experienced any sort of clicking with the bass that others have reported. I also leave the attack/release on auto which works great, and have yet to have a reason to adjust them manually for any application so far.

Bought two of these to replace some behringer comps for the club I work at a couple months ago, so far no problems. There is an older one of these thats been at this club since before I worked there (2+ years) where the right side doesn't work. But the stereo comp mode works so I just have that one inserted on the mains and it works fine.

n/a

I bought a couple of these with my own money even though I'm a house soundguy and the club should pay for it only because I was bloody tired of using these behringer quad comps they have. Needless to say, its a vast improvement. I was gonna go with the dbx 1046 quad comp, but two of these babies are still cheaper than that so I figured what the hell. I find this unit to be very responsive and quite suitable for any application in live sound. Haven't used them in the studio. Actually last night I had one left over after using 3 for vocals, and I took out the behringer comp I had on the bass and inserted the dbx and immediately noticed a difference. In the room I mix in I find that I really have to squash the hell out the bass guitar otherwise its all over the place. Right off the bat I noticed I could use less compression than the behringer and still get a more stable and even sound. If your curious, the behringer I'm referring to is the MULTICOM PRO MDX4400. And yes, I'm more than aware that comparing dbx to behringer is a no brainer. The point is that this is dbx's bottom of the line comp and still quite good and runs circles around any other top or bottom end behringer comp I've used live. I find dbx to be a very quality company in my experience and if this is there cheapest compressor then I'd love to try there higher end stuff.

On a side note, if your looking for gates, the dbx 1074 quad gate is KICK ASS, sounds great with great control.

Basic compressor layout

For the price its great! Got a nice "chubby" sound, I use it on bass and drums in electronic music and tend to go for a heavy compression. The dbx is great for that and as said in earlier reviews has that classic dbx sound! The Prodigy for example! Had absolutley no problems so far its way better then Behringer/Alesis/Samson's attempts at similarly priced units. The Samson S-COM PLUS was an absolute joke! I'm giving the 266xl 9 instead of 10 because it is as subtle as a freight train! But I like it!

No problems so far, bit worried about these clicking sounds people are mentioning though hope they don't slowly appear after sustained use.

Nothing else I tried compared at this price range its "bleeding marvelous"!

has some important controls

I use this thing on a bass and it sounds great. I don't know why some of the past reviewers are having issues with clicking (soundslike it's being overdriven or overcompressed). I use it for tracking guitar, bass, vocal, etc.... It works great. It just has to be dialed in correctly. The preamp you use is also important. With a good preamp the comp sounds great. With a cheap preamp it's going to sound like squat nomatter what comp you use. Also I'm sure if your using this unit as a stand alone effect for your bass rig that you should put it in the effects loop or insert of the preamp (basically bass guitar to preamp, preamp to comp).

Very easy to use, for mastering I simply leave all knobs at 12 o'clock, Over Easy ON, Auto ON, and just tweak the compression ratio. I might adjust the Gate on the fly as needed.
This unit has a nice feature at the rear - hi/low input pad. Also has stereo link which works well.

As for the sound quality it is excellent and clear. It does have it's own sound color which is good (basically dbx sound). I don't like sterile sounding equipment so always welcome equipment with good "sound color".
The compressor has good and bad points. The compression it's self is great and quiet pro sounding, one can't go wrong with it.
The bad point is the clicking as many people here mentioned. You can't hear it on normal mix but can come up in quiet passages.
Here is an example: Amp tremolo is set on, miked up and I plug a signle string only. Now this through the DBX and listen closely. As the string sound slowly fading out, the DBX keeps on compressing
the small peaks of the vibrator. As it does that, the signal is naturally decreasing and the DBX keeps working on those peaks till the DBX circuit can be actually heard working - the clicking. That's how I explain it, I could be wrong. In any case it shouldn't click. Even my old Fostex doesn't click when used without gate.
Because of the clicking, I think this unit might be useless for clasical music though for rock it should be fine in most cases since the clicking isn't generally audible and if it does show up it can be cleaned up or masked - well one should really do that right? Were talking the ol' DBX man!
Gate is good but not as smooth fading as I'd like.
I'd give it 10 for the sound but have to take 5 off for the click imperfection.

Build well. Come in the mail and must have been dropped REAL hard because the mounting overlap was bend and one button crashed.
If it survived that it will survive anything.

pass

Overal rating? I use Fostex 3070 which is greatly effective for input but too crude for mastering so I've been searching for decent lower priced compressor I could use for mastering for past six months and tried them all, none were any good. But have been holding off to buy this dbx because of the bad reviews so I waited for used one = less money to loose.
While some of the bad reviews are valid I still find it 2x better unit than it's price compeditors but mind you it is only a compressor, it donsn't have limiter so will compress well but won't get rid of your peaks.
Though it has unexusable clicking "feature" (even if not very loud), I'd still go and buy a brand new one now if this one got broken. I'm sure I could find a dozen of other compressors that work flawlesly at the same price but they gona be booring and sterile sounding so I still rather have the imperfect dbx 266xl.

If you know the basics about compression, it is very easy to use.

I'd better point out that I sold mine, but only because I moved to using a PC and I needed the money from selling the DBX (which I did reluctantly).

I used it for full mixes and bass guitar.
Its not ideal for a full mix -It has a definite character, but one which I liked, it reminded me of 1970's/80's of American rock.
It worked well on my bass guitar.

Had absolutely no problems with it. The people who are having clicks and problems must either have a faulty unit, or they don't know what they are doing. Perhaps you have the input attenuation on the wrong setting? - there's an inset button at the back that selects between -10 and +4 ('consumer'/'pro'levels).I only used it at home, but would have been very confident to use it live.I thought the unit was very solidly built, and that it would perhaps last forever.

Never had to use customer support.

The mixes I put through it were dance and dub.
It's not the most transparent of compressors, but I really like the chracteristics it has (to my ears, it gave a slightly vintage sound that I liked).
If it was all I could afford, and I needed to get a hardware compressor again, then I would definitley consider getting another.