Apple Logic Pro /LogicExpress Discussion

Hey, all,
	I finally sprung for an upgrade to version 8 from Logic pro 6.5  
recently. (Bought it at a discount from Amazon the day Apple announced  
Vers. 9 - I have a G5, and they proclaimed 9 to be intel-only, so I  
figured now or never, as a new computer was out of the question for 2  
or 3 years)

Anyway, I'm very happy with it, but have noticed a problem with third- 
party plug-ins. I had two old plug-ins that failed the new validation  
that I like very much -- Ambience and Digitalfishphone's Blockfish. I  
tracked down the newer versions of both, & installed them in ~/Library/ 
Audio/Plug-ins/Components but they didn't show up in the plugin pop-up  
in audio channel strips. Opening an old Logic 6.5 song in 8 that used  
them still gave me the "failed validation" message, and they would  
have the diagonal black line through them.

Then, I converted a Garage Band song that used them to a Logic song,  
and lo and behold, there they were, no probs and showed up in the pop- 
up menu. Yay, I thought. However, now, when I create a new song,  
they're still not showing up in an audio channel strip in the plug-ins  
pop up menu. HOWEVER, and here's the weird part, they ARE showing up  
in the plug-in menu of a bus channel strip. The workaround I've found  
for now is to assign one to a bus, then option+drag it to an audio  
channel strip - that works.

Still. Weird, huh? Anybody have similar experiences?

Also, a second question -- I'm sure you all have opinions on  
compressors -- what's a good option here? Logic's built-in compressors  
are giving me audible distortion well below -0db especially on guitar  
tracks. (miced amplifiers -- generally an SM 57) I need something  
affordable, and don't have any hardware expansion options at the  
moment, so I'm looking specifically for audio units. Vintage emulators  
would be preferred, as I'm mostly mixing live bands. Is there a good  
DBX 160 emulator out there?

Thanks!
Chris