FMR Audio RNC1773 Really Nice Compressor

Description

FMR Audio is headed by Mark and Beth McQuilken, a married couple who started out their careers as high-tech design consultants for companies like Motorola, RCA and Lockheed Martin among others. Their rise to fame in the professional audio world began in 1997 with the birth of their first commercially available product, the famous and revered RNC1773 better known as The Really Nice Compressor. Let s discuss...The FMR RNC1773 is a high fidelity stereo compressor housed in a sturdy metal 1/3rd rack space enclosure. It also operates in mono (not dual mono). Employing a marriage of cleverly employed digital circuitry and top notch analog components, its sound is virtually invisible as it compresses your signal with minimal artifacts and delivers a clean tonal character. There are 2 modes of operation in the RNC, normal and SuperNice . Think of the SuperNice mode as what you might achieve using multiple compression units chained together in series, each one subtly compressing the signal until you have complete control of the sound. Due to each unit doing it s job in little increments, no one unit is over-worked so to speak resulting in smooth, undetectable, compressed audio, free of nasty compression artifacts and the sometimes dreaded pumping effect. You can t hear the compression at work as it s truly transparent, hence the SuperNice name. This mode does an amazing job of emulating those principals making the RNC an incredibly versatile compressor at any price.The FMR RNC1773 has an 8-segment LED meter that gives you precise reading of the goings ons. The 5 rotary controls offer precision compression control (in normal mode) and the enclosure is made of quality aluminum and metal with resilient plastic knobs. The overall look of the FMR RNC1773 is decidedly home-grown but its actually built tough and sturdy right here (Texas, that is ) in the good old U.S. of A.!So you d think all this wonderment in a box would have you mortgaging the house and selling the kids Review: Love this compressor! - I’ve been considering the RNC for years, finally pulled the trigger and couldn’t be more pleased. I already have a Symetrix 528, a Presonus Studio Channel, and a dbx 1046 in my outboard rack, used the Symetrix the most. But there’s a reason famed producer Steve Albini has an RNC in his studio ; it’s awesome. I run my microphone through the Symetrix to utilize the pre-amp stage and equalizer (compression bypassed), then out to the RNC, and it sounds GREAT with my Shure SM7A microphone. Smooth, flexible, easy to use, no artifacts that you can get when you drive some compressors too hard. And the price is a huge plus. A little confusing at first as far as cable/connectors to use when hooking it up (TS vs. TRS), but not a huge deal. Highly recommend. Review: Well worth the price. - Like the quality, performs as good or better than units double the price. Use it for my vocals on stage and in my home studio.