Ableton Forum

I'm thinking about whether or not it would make sense to buy an external compressor for recording vocals and instruments. The DBX 160a would be a very likely candidate at more or less the cost of a Live license.

But: What would it give me that Compressor II does not give me already?

on the face of it, the 160 wouldn't give you much of anything you don't have with the Compressor II plug. but i have always felt that hardware and software compressors are two very different animals.

if it were me i'd look for a used 160 - it's idiot proof, and in a couple of years it's resale value will remain the same, which is more than you can say about the Ableton license. but buying a hardware compressor really only makes sense if you have the appropriate hardware to use it with, i.e., a mixer or mic pre, or your audio interface has insert points for external hardware.