FMR RNC 1773 Compressor Unit

I LOVE my RNC 1773. It's such a workhorse. It gets out of the way. I use mine in church, since my pastor has a very dynamic voice. He can be whispering and all of a sudden he raises his voice, almost screaming, to drive a point home. I got tired of riding the channel fader on the mixing console (and clipping my Alva Nanoface's converters when I didn't), hah! The best feature of the RNC 1773 is the SUPER NICE mode; it's compression over compression, so it evens out quiet and loud parts without sounding like it's compressing. VERY natural-sounding. This unit is also whisper-quiet. I don't even remember hearing it hiss, not even faintly, even though I feed it with an ART Tube MP Project Series preamp (LOVE its sound). That one can hiss when pushed hard even though I replaced the stock tube with an Electro-Harmonix Gold from VIVA TUBES. Both units make a great pair, transforming the pastor's not-so-exciting lavalier microphone (Rockville RWM2202US) into something beefier and fuller-sounding. I HIGHLY recommend the FMR Audio RNC 1773 if you, like me, get peeved out by the slightest hiss in the signal chain, and want something quiet that works hard without getting in the way. I've also used it on drums and full mixes, and it sounds great. It's versatile. Peace! [EDIT - August 16, 2021] I still have the RNC in my church and do not plan to replace it any time soon. Two years later, it still looks and works as new. I bought a $1499 elysia xpressor a month ago from Thomann in Germany, and only a trained ear could tell them apart in normal use. The elysia is way unique and more capable for creative uses, but for general duties, the RNC is perfect.

This thing is good,so good good Steve Albini used two of them.This is great for my so small music studio and as a drummer/solo musician this is great.For the money,glad I got this!

This is my new secret weapon in the studio. I was in a big recording studio tracking drums. That studio had everything from vintage compressors to an SSL console and everything in-between. However, they decided to use this little guy on the room mics. I was blown away instantly, and in two minutes I ordered two! (one for a friend). Of course, there are lots of better sounding, more "high end" compressors out there, but the money I sometimes can't believe that this STEREO compressor sounds so good and so many things. It has huge punch when you want it to, The attack, release and ratio has enormous range making this thing very versatile. It can handle the most badass drums to a simple vocal track and even an entire mix. You can set it to be as subtle and as noticeable as you like. You can have it even less audible if you engage the "Super Nice" button. The LEDs are nice and bright and give you plenty of indication of how much you are compressing and the overall built quality is very goon. For that price you would assume that something like this would be plasticky, but this thing has a metal frame and nice rubbery knobs. Honestly, in my opinion, this is a no brainer when in comes to studio gear. If you are a home studio producer building your modest studio or a professional wanting to think outside of the box, the RNC is a great addition to your studio.

This is a surprisingly great little compressor. It doesn't have much character to speak of, just a good solid clean compressor. It accepts either a single mono signal, or a single stereo signal, and does great on both. All of the controls are exactly what you'd expect if you've used other hardware or software compressors. The Super Nice mode cascades 3 compression circuits so you can get a substantial amount of gain reduction without it sounding too conspicuous. My main gripes are few, but here's what I'd like to see if they ever do a "revision 2": - A dual mono option. That'd require a 2nd set of knobs to control each side, but it'd make this a slam-dunk winner over the ART PRO VLA II. The ART's dual mono and stereo link make it pull ahead in the bang-for-buck category for me. - less (or more pleasant) distortion at higher gain reduction. It gets pretty nasty sounding when you really slam it, and not in a good way. It'd be nice if it maintained its clean sound as I really dig into the GR. I can't really say that this adds much over what you could get with a good software compressor, but its small form factor and mono-or-stereo operation make it a good choice for a portable live rig, and of course it is right at home in a home recording studio like mine. At this price, it's a really attractive option.

Really nice indeed. If you want a compressor that smooths things out as transparently as possible in this $ range, look no further. The "really nice" mode is great for vocals. I like to use this while tracking vocals as I don't have to hold back when belting a note, but the compression is smooth enough that I can still sing through it naturally. If you are using -10 (consumer/prosumer signals) you really have to take the threshold WAY down for it to become effective, at which point you don't have very much range in the knob to dial in an exact setting. And, I suspect that gain reduction is taking place before it becomes evident on the meter, according to my ear. Minor quibbles... the point of this unit is the smoothness of the "Super Nice" mode and it delivers.

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