Hi. Could you suggest me a really low budget hardware compressor for synths or vocals to play OTB. I would like to touch it with my hands, physically touch those knobs, feel it in my gut... just to approach it differently than ITB.

 

If it's just a matter of tactile sensations, get a MIDI controller and map the plugin parameters to knobs/faders.

 

RNC 1773

 

Most certainly.

Also FMR Audio's RNLA is class. It's not quite as versatile, but it's still a great colorful comp.

 

analog heat mk1-mk2 or oto boom can do some compressor tricks

 

UREI LA-4.

 

You can probably find older Behringer Composers for pocket change. The new ones are also cheap, but I haven't used one so no opinion on those.

Are they really high fidelity mastering grade units? Fuck. No. But they're good for variety of purposes, live use, monitoring, and taming input signals. And get some nasty distortion when pushed.

At one point, you couldn't turn your head without hitting an Alesis 3630, again a fairly non-subtle device, but handy to have around for all-round purposes. Then the pumping sound became famous because of Daft Punk and filter house records and the price was fairly inflated. But I'm sure if you look around you can still find them for cheap.

 

dbx 560 or midas 522. 500 series in general make the most sense in the hardware domain.

 

I love my DBX 166XL for drums/bass and Drawmer DL241 for vocals and general sounds. Not bank breakers, but very useful for performances or mixing. Great for learning compression esp DBX as it can be hard or soft and has sc hpf, and diode limiter. <-good on bass

RNC 1773 is great for vocals and everything else pretty much. Really Nice Compressor.