I use a Purple 77 on my snare and another on my the kick on the way in. I set them so the sound blooms a bit in the FET and trannys.

I use it for parallel compressing but use more of the clean sound so the compressor just enhances what's there. Usually for guitars though.

What I use most of the time:
 
For vocals, the CA-2A pretty much muscled everything else aside because it flatters my voice like nothing else
For guitar, the Sonitus compressor set up more like a sustainer
For bass, Concrete Limiter or Sonitus multiband (the Limiter button has saved me more than once), but sometimes the PC76 if I want to "smear" the sound more
For drums, Concrete Limiter to bring up room ambience (I don't like compression on drums, except very rarely putting two compressors with super-gentle curves in series - the late, great VC-64 is aces for that)
I never compress keys or percussion
 
The 4K bus compressor usually goes on the master bus when I'm mastering in Sonar, but it's set for a REALLY subtle effect - serious squashing is left to the Waves Multimaximizer that follows it. However, including the 4K in the signal chain really does add something the Waves doesn't provide in terms of glue. The two get along so well I suspect they go out for drinks together when I'm not around.
 
Generally, I don't use much compression except on voice. I wait until it's time to master, and do one major application of multiband limiting to preserve dynamics yet still give a "hot" signal. Of course back in the days of tape, compression was important because of the dynamic range issues...but that's not needed any more. The trick for me these days is to get "heat" and dynamics, and I find compression tends to work against that.
 
Of course...YMMV and probably does 
 

Anderton
Of course...YMMV and probably does 

Not if you've over compressed it.. 

"For drums, Concrete Limiter to bring up room ambience (I don't like compression on drums, except very rarely putting two compressors with super-gentle curves in series - the late, great VC-64 is aces for that)"
 
Are using the Concrete Limiter on drums and not calling the limiter a compressor, or are you explaining that you rarely use either the Concrete Limiter or the series compression on drums?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As a general reminder: The inventor of the 1176 referred to it as a "Limiting Amplifier" or sometimes as a "Peak Limiter" while it seems like most folks these days refer to it as a "compressor".
 
 
 
edit spelling

I've been using the old Boost11 lately, again.  I used it years ago but abandoned it for others.  I did some Karaoke track projects for a couple of singers recently and the old Boost11 helped tame the too low and too high singer parts.
Both of the singers liked their finished (and mastered with Ozone 5) projects so much that they have Christmas CD projects booked for early Oct.
 
The Concrete Limiter was tried.  I forgot about the PC4K, I'll give that a shot the next time.
 
 
 

mike_mccue
"For drums, Concrete Limiter to bring up room ambience (I don't like compression on drums, except very rarely putting two compressors with super-gentle curves in series - the late, great VC-64 is aces for that)"
 
Are using the Concrete Limiter on drums and not calling the limiter a compressor, or are you explaining that you rarely use either the Concrete Limiter or the series compression on drums?

I use either the Concrete Limiter on drums, or or two compressors in series with very gentle compression ratios. When using the two compressors, I still tend to favor the VC-64.
 
There have been [endless] discussions here about the terminology of limiter vs. compressor with no resolution because there are no language police in this industry. Some people think everything is a compressor and a limiter is simply a compressor with an infinite compression ratio. Others think if a compression ratio goes over 10:1, it's a limiter. So I have my own definition  If there's a dynamics processor, you set a threshold, and the output level doesn't go above that threshold, it's a limiter. If the output can go above the threshold, it's a compressor.
 
But really, I think the best term these days is simply "dynamics processor" because now we have devices that can do combinations of limiting, compression, expansion, and gating. 

Karyn

Anderton
Of course...YMMV and probably does 

Not if you've over compressed it.. 

Well, a lot of people do. And if they overcompress anmaster that has a mix with tracks that are compressed, I think it sounds even worse.

Yes, I don't have any interest in language police, I simply found the phrase "I don't like compression on drums" left me wondering what you were trying to convey.

Going back to the original question, I think "nobody talks about the 1176" because it has become the "stock" compressor. It's in every track's chain by doing fault whether it is active or not.