Hi K-v-R, Hello world

Thanks Ben for posting news

I released new BuzComp bundle v0.8 beta.(July 06)
http://www.x-buz.com/BuzComp.html



[Changes in v0.8 beta]

・GranComp added
・Crashes in Adobe Audition.
・MAT added in SonicFilter.
・Stereo Enhancer added. (Stereo versions only)
・Knee parameter changed.
・GUI fixed.
・1preset added for CP3. (Thanks to Julius.)

[Changes in v0.71 beta]

・Crashes in Logic & Orion.
・Re-designed SonicFilter algorithm.
・CPU usage when audio signal stopped.
・Mono versions fixed.

[Changes in v0.7beta]

・Amount option for SonicFilter Added.
・Reduction algorithm fixed.
・Little changes of GUI.
・CPU optimizing for SSE. (Compiled with MSVS.NET 2003 Professional.)


BuzComp is the bundle of Compressor/Limiter.
Very smooth compression/limiting, for Mastering.


[Limiting & Maximizing MP3 demos](All demos are normalized to 0dB.)
These are v0.7 beta sounds.

Dry
Wet (Makeup:+3dB, Knee: HARD, Rel: Minimum, SMOOTH)
Wet (Makeup:+6dB, Knee: HARD, Rel: Minimum, SMOOTH)
Wet (Makeup:+12dB, Knee: HARD, Rel: Minimum, SMOOTH)


Especially I want you to pay attention to SonicFilter.
SonicFilter adds the harmony overtone like the tube or the transistor a little. It is not EQ.
And it makes sounds warm, bright, powerful... etc.
I want you to check these by your tracks, and to feel in your ears, spinal cord and wild instinct


[Various SonicFilters MP3 demos](All demos are normalized to 0dB.)
These are v0.7 beta sounds.

Dry
Wet (Type: BRIGHT, Amount: 4)
Wet (Type: WARM, Amount: 4)
Wet (Type: LOUD, Amount: 4)



I want reports, especially from Pen3/Pen4 users.
(My environment: AthlonXP2100+, Windows2000/XP, Cubase SX1/SX2.)

Now beta versions are free. Let's try BuzComp

http://www.x-buz.com/


Byecha!

empty?

Now I'm creating next beta.
wait for 3 days...

hi,
downloaded and tried it, so here`s my details :

1. sound > very good.

2. gui > perfect.

3. cpu usage > too high, especially the ana comp.
(maybe put your hands on parallel calculations or
use the new intel compiler v.8 ?)

4. all plugs crash logic 5.5.1 pc when unloading.

5. the multiband comp reacts on all bands, when
moving only one bands threshold/ratio/gain ... ?

6. the sonic filter could take advantage of
overdriving/saturating the high frequencies
(sidechain > shelfing > saturation > mix) for
that "upfront" analog feeling ...

summa :
you are very close to very high quality pro equipment. so if you get rid of the upper described problems, this is a big thing then ... max respect.
let me know,

reg,

o.k. - I did some tests:

the cpu-usage is imo o.k. for what it does -

- smooth comp e.g. uses about 5% more cycles than Blockfish, about 250% more cycles than H2O and about 50% more than classic compressor on my machine

but especially with extreme settings it sounds so much better than those.

To me it sounds very 'analog'

Gui is simple and functional

I really don't know what to criticize

I don't understand why so many people seem to go crazy about the GCO-1 (which is admittedly great as well) but rarely no-one appears to notice this thread here

So far, anacomp crashes Orion Platinum 5.5 when unloading.

win xp/P IV

edit: I am refering to beta 7.

with fruity loops and ableton live 3, it works fine on my machine which is a pentium4...
(i'm talking about the 0,6 beta version...)
it is efficient, really good compressio, i like the sonic filter
it takes little toomuch cpu usage (more than kjaherus classic comp for example), so i have to use it on the master output for a live use, and not on each track...
the gui isn't great to me, it could be more "sober", i like square design with sharp graphics, but this one could be imprived, i think !
netherthelsee, one of my favourite comrpessor plugin ! !

Quote:

5. the multiband comp reacts on all bands, when moving only one bands threshold/ratio/gain ... ?

Uncheck the "multi link" button on the right side. The thing doesn't exactly jump out at you.

Actually, I'm at 1024 X 768. The text gets *really* small when you go higher than this.

kilroy wrote:

Quote: 5. the multiband comp reacts on all bands, when moving only one bands threshold/ratio/gain ... ? Uncheck the "multi link" button on the right side. The thing doesn't exactly jump out you.

oh, ok ... so cut thatone from my list ... thanks !

reg,

Thanks for many responses

Today I've just released new v0.71 beta.
http://www.x-buz.com/BuzComp.html
I can't try with logic (I don't have logic...), but v0.71 beta will work fine with both of logic & Orion now.

and, I re-designed SonicFilter.
More less clip noise, when you make up gain, using as loudness maximizer.


In next version, I'm planning stereo enhancer.
The combination of stereo enhancer and SonicFilter will introduce good results


very sleepy...

Allow me to say that the illuminated look is pretty slick.

Will try the new beta & get back to you for compatibility.

I really like the sound of these compressors. Especially the smooth compressor. They have a very distinct own sound to them and will be perfect together with my sonalksis compressor and my future purchase, the golden compressor. Before you ask, yes I DO NEED that many compressors .

Cheers!
bManic

Aah, a couple of things that I forgot to critique. That 'blackbox' in all the compressors (smooth, bright, loud, cold etc.) should have an OFF setting too. Just like in the 0.5 version where the warmth parameter could be set to 0.

Also, the multiband compressors MULTILINK button would be better placed if it's in the middle instead of in the left side. It would be easier to spot in the middle and require less mouse movement when tweaking ratios etc.

One more thing. Could the Anacomp, Smoothcomp and Purecomp be made into a single GUI? That would unclutter the VSTplugins folder a bit and it would make it more clear in the host aswell.

Cheers!
bManic

bmanic wrote:

One more thing. Could the Anacomp, Smoothcomp and Purecomp be made into a single GUI? That would unclutter the VSTplugins folder a bit and it would make it more clear in the host aswell. Cheers! bManic

yes, I wanted to suggest the same thing... also they all have a limiter-stage, so I'm not sure if the limiter couldn't be included as well...

Just gave the buzzcomps a 2 hour testdrive again, which gives me some more ideas.

Could the 'knee' setting in the single band compressors be made a continually adjustable parameter like in the multiband comp? Sometimes I would like just a tiny bit of slope on the curve but not as much as the 'mid' setting gives. This would make it a bit more flexible.

Cheers!
bManic

bmanic wrote:

Aah, a couple of things that I forgot to critique. That 'blackbox' in all the compressors (smooth, bright, loud, cold etc.) should have an OFF setting too. Just like in the 0.5 version where the warmth parameter could be set to 0.

"SMOOTH" means OFF setting It's the original BuzComp sounds.

bmanic wrote:

One more thing. Could the Anacomp, Smoothcomp and Purecomp be made into a single GUI? That would unclutter the VSTplugins folder a bit and it would make it more clear in the host aswell.

umm.. difficult...
Because these comps algorithm differ each other.

bmanic wrote:

Also, the multiband compressors MULTILINK button would be better placed if it's in the middle instead of in the left side. It would be easier to spot in the middle and require less mouse movement when tweaking ratios etc. Could the 'knee' setting in the single band compressors be made a continually adjustable parameter like in the multiband comp? Sometimes I would like just a tiny bit of slope on the curve but not as much as the 'mid' setting gives. This would make it a bit more flexible.

ok, these are possible wait for next beta.

hi
thanks for this beta

buzcomp 0.7

1.sound
very very good
Lt1 sound amazing! a dithreing option will be useful( LT1) buzcomp with dithering will be independent .

2.gui

Quote:

Gui is simple and functional

CP3 and the others comp will be PERFECT with a visual GUI ( like triplecomp from Sinusweb for exemple) but I thinks it will be very complicated.

3.sonicfilter
useful. I just find "warm" a little bit exaggerated.

4. cpu
athlon 2200+ 700 ddr, win xp
for exemple CP3 21%
Lt1 08%
(in minihost)
all plugins works fine in tracktion and ableton live.



I just try buzcomp with .wav 16 bits and 44.1 khz.
could it works fine with 24 bits and 88200 khz ? that's why the users could use dithering and could consider it will be esential.
they are the best comp i tried (whereas I really like triplecomp)

CONGRATULATIONS it's really a god job
(and sorry, I speak english like a french cow)

Quote:

I really don't know what to criticize

me too it's just some ideas

Quote:

Also, the multiband compressors MULTILINK button would be better placed if it's in the middle instead of in the left side.

Errrrm...bmanic, that multilink button is on the *other* left side...at least it is on the plugin I tried.

Yeah, I know...I'm a nit picking, smarmy putz.

RNr wrote:

bmanic wrote: Aah, a couple of things that I forgot to critique. That 'blackbox' in all the compressors (smooth, bright, loud, cold etc.) should have an OFF setting too. Just like in the 0.5 version where the warmth parameter could be set to 0. "SMOOTH" means OFF setting It's the original BuzComp sounds.

Aaah, I see. I was convinced there was a difference, . Maybe label it 'off' ?

RNr wrote:

bmanic wrote: One more thing. Could the Anacomp, Smoothcomp and Purecomp be made into a single GUI? That would unclutter the VSTplugins folder a bit and it would make it more clear in the host aswell. umm.. difficult... Because these comps algorithm differ each other.

Ok, I thought it might be possible to make one .DLL that contains all the different algorithms with a switch but as I'm no coder I have no idea how difficult this might be .

Keep up the very promising work!
Cheers!
bManic

kilroy wrote:

Quote: Also, the multiband compressors MULTILINK button would be better placed if it's in the middle instead of in the left side. Errrrm...bmanic, that multilink button is on the *other* left side...at least it is on the plugin I tried. Yeah, I know...I'm a nit picking, smarmy putz.

(..and for the record, I wasn't even drunk while typing that..)

Cheers!
bManic

v0.8 beta released!

I'll rest for a few days... so tired

downloading v.08 now. I will report back here asap.

thanks a lot .
You never stop to work!

Hmmmm....maybe I'll try loading the vO.8 - Might have more luck with them.

v0.71 - "crashed when loading" every single one of the buggers.

Cubase 5.1
Win98SE
Athlon 1.1GHz
Aardvark LX6 card

kritikon wrote:

Win98SE

yeah - strange that there are still people running that old DOS-crap without being forced by someone who's holding a gun at their head

jens wrote:

yeah - strange that there are still people running that old DOS-crap without being forced by someone who's holding a gun at their head

There's quite some good reasons to still run 98SE, especially when being connected to the net. There's been close to none trojan and other attacks towards 98 in the last few months while there's HEAPS of them for XP.

Then there's some other nice tools that won't work under XP, for instance the alternate CDFS driver, allowing you to directly access audio CD tracks as wavefiles or the incredibly great "Quick Folders" which will add some sort of definable "recent" menu to each and every standard open/save dialog. A great time saviour in case you're using loads of different directories (which a lot of us audio folks do, I assume). These are either not existing on XP (CDFS) or not working (Quick Folders).
Further, there's some incompatibility issues with XP and older games (but I wouldn't know much about that as I'm no gamer).

OTOH, most audio applications still work fine under 98.
I have recently switched to XP on my main music machine, but it was merely because it came with XP installed - I don't experience much of a stability increasement... basically perhaps because my 98SE machines have allways been working fine anyways.

kritikon wrote:

Hmmmm....maybe I'll try loading the vO.8 - Might have more luck with them. v0.71 - "crashed when loading" every single one of the buggers. Cubase 5.1 Win98SE Athlon 1.1GHz Aardvark LX6 card

Thanks kritikon.

your Athlon cpu may not support SSE(Streaming SIMD Extensions).
I've just released non SSE version (for old Athlon/Duron). plz try again

RNr wrote:

kritikon wrote: Hmmmm....maybe I'll try loading the vO.8 - Might have more luck with them. v0.71 - "crashed when loading" every single one of the buggers. Cubase 5.1 Win98SE Athlon 1.1GHz Aardvark LX6 card Thanks kritikon. your Athlon cpu may not support SSE(Streaming SIMD Extensions). I've just released non SSE version (for old Athlon/Duron). plz try again

I had the same problem with my
P4 at 3,06 GHz
WinXP home
Cubase 5.1
Midiman Audiophile 2496

I try asap the new 0.8 release.

Thanks for these plugs anyway

Stephan

... (double post)

RNr wrote:

... your Athlon cpu may not support SSE(Streaming SIMD Extensions). I've just released non SSE version (for old Athlon/Duron)...

I like this collection a lot !
Here is a program (WCPUID)which can enable SSE support on Athlon XP systems. (go to Menu -> Tweaks)
http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA002374/src/download.html

Thanks for the replies - I was quite looking forward to these comps.

Quote:

Then there's some other nice tools that won't work under XP, for instance the alternate CDFS driver, allowing you to directly access audio CD tracks as wavefiles or the incredibly great "Quick Folders" which will add some sort of definable "recent" menu to each and every standard open/save dialog. A great time saviour in case you're using loads of different directories (which a lot of us audio folks do, I assume). These are either not existing on XP (CDFS) or not working (Quick Folders).

Thanks for the heads up Sascha!

I didn't realise the alternate CDFS app won't work with XP . For me this almost makes XP totally unuseable! Last time I looked, the Aardvark drivers hadn't been updated to enable CD playing. (With Aardvark cards they steal the audio drivers or somesuch thing - dunno quite how) But to play an audio CD you need to use the alternate CDFS to grab them as .wavs - Not that I absolutely need to play CDs on my rig, but it's nice to be able to when inspiration fails - can't do that with Aardvark (one of those things that you accept in return for the pristine quality and converters). And anyway, it would make lifting some of my samples from older CDs unnecessarily tedious too. God, it must be time consuming for all you XP lot.
And quick folders don't work?!
Man, I'm pleased I am still on 98SE. It'd take me forever sifting out audio files and patches if I had to work out routes every time I want to use a file.
I suppose I'll end up with XP soon when I update my PC, but I'm now in less of a hurry to do that - I'd have to seriously think about reinstalling 98SE on a new one, or at least partitioning it up with 98SE for the audio partition. Truely, the CDFS thing would put me off XP - that's a huge oversight! My motto is if it ain't broke, don't fix it - and XP might break my methods of working. Thanks very much Sascha - you potentially saved me some heartache.

And thanks rNr - I'll d/l the alternate version

And thanks THK for the link. I don't really know about SSE stuff - are there many other plugins that require it - these are probably the first I've come across (although others that I've occasionally had problems with might be down to this I suppose?)

Actually, kritikon, there's really not much that should keep you away from XP. At least the lack of the CDFS thingy shouldn't scare you away as tools such as dbpoweramp (best MP3 converter IMO, www.dbpoweramp.com, free, a must have on any system!) will just copy CDA tracks nicely as well. Quick Folders not working is a real bummer though...
There's certain advances with XP though, for instance native driver support, USB hotswapping finally working great (at least for me), WDM driver support and the likes. And it *might* be a tad more stable too (at least crashes won't cause a reboot anymore).

Oh, I'm just sort of hijacking the thread...

Thanks Sascha - I'll check out the dbpoweramp. That at least puts my mind at rest a little.

And rNr - I'll check out those non SSE comps tonight.

Dirkey sounds like it'll fix you Quick Folders woes. I use it on XP and it works just fine and dandy.

Awww....you lot are starting to make me think XP actually works or summat. I'm quite happy in my Luddism.......I'd still be using my Atari if the screen hadn't died.

Wow Ben, Dirkey just looks like the right thing for me! Maybe even better than quick folders... we'll see. Installing it in 5 minutes.
Thanks!

Hi rNr.
Some feedback on the comps. I only had a couple of hours last night, so I only really tried them on some drum mixes I had at hand, and briefly with some full mixes. Haven't tried the comps at all on vocals, basses etc yet, but will later.

GUI - I liked these alot. Very uncluttered, easy on the eye and well set out.

CPU - Very easy on the CPU. No spikes. Must be some tidy coding, as I can think of several comps that eat up at least twice as much CPU.

Stability: No problems. No knob twiddles caused any problems. I could even load and unload them with the host still playing.
I haven't tried them out with a full set of other plugins yet to see if there are any clashes, but I'll do that over the next few days.

Sound: Mostly pretty damn good!
With "smooth" on (didn't you say that switched out the saturation/valve thingy?) it sounds very clean and precise which is a good thing. Then with the saturation thingies they add in some character and dirt - the best of both worlds I'd say.

Bright - very nice setting - I can see this being a favourite for drums. Good brightness without being harsh - it worked well on already very hatty mixes without making the hats grate.
Cold - Personally I still found this reasonably bright - useable and less obvious than bright.
Hot - bit extra dirtiness - good
Warm - this one let me down a little I'm afraid - I didn't find it particularly warm. It had similar characteristics as the others - for warmth, I'd expect a little midrange or lower distortion or harmonics or whatever. I noticed only some higher end sheen but not as bright as the others. Not really any enhancement of the body of the sound. Still useable though.

The comps certainly all took on some character with the saturation/valve thingies. As said, I only really tested drums out - You should really push your comps at people for drums, I think they excel in that area. They are capable of pumping pretty cleanly, but retaining topend, then when you switch in the thingy they start to shine.

To be honest, I couldn't really tell much difference between the different comps. Again, maybe that'll show up more with other material.

The limiters. Wow. Very very good. These are the stars of the show I'd say. I managed to get up to 12dB of limiting without distorting the sound - and that was on full mixes, not just drums - with drums I think I'd rather use the limiters than the comps. Even with a kick included in the subgroup, the limiter pumped like Linda Lovelace and I could push them up to around 15dB safely.
I'm not sure what the 1,2,3,4 buttons are for? Some kind of shaping for the limiter? Certainly on 4 it sounded like the transients were a bit crisper. That was definitely a defining character of the limiters. They retained some snap even at silly levels - on drums that had already been compressed, the transients still had some life.
I am highly impressed at the levels the limiters could be pushed too. On drums without kick, I'd expect to get a fair amount of squash, but with kick, many limiters struggle - any bass for that matter. Yours worked very smoothly at levels that others would crunch the sound beyond recognition.
Top marks - I'm impressed.

However - onto the only problem I encountered so far - the metering.
All of the comps and to a lesser degree, the limiters undershowed the values.
The comps displayed the output to be around 3dB lower than what showed on my host meters. As for reduction and threshold - with hard knee the comps tended to need a threshold at 8dB lower than the actual peaks of the material before compression kicked in. With soft knee the reduction meters showed no compression until the threshold was up to 15dB lower than the actual peaks. With soft knee, I could actually hear compression starting at closer to -8dB and my host meters did show some compression at that level, so I'm pretty sure it's just your metering. The knee sounded like it behaved properly, and I'd expect some light compression maybe to not show on the meter when it forst starts to work.

I redid this purely by ear too. Without looking at the values on the threshold and the meters, I simply listened until the point where I thought compression was starting - same again but not as precise. But the general figure seemed to be around -8dB.

e.g I had a drum group which was peaking at -5dB on my host meters before inserting a comp. (on the comp output meters it showed around 3dB less).
Comp set to hard knee, attack=0, release=250, ratio 8:1, no makeup gain (so it was an obvious setting). I needed to drop the comp threshold down to around -13dB before the reduction meter showed any reduction, and the host meters still showed the same peaks of -5dB. All the comps were much the same.

With soft knee, the threshold needed to be around -17 or lower before any reduction showed.

This needn't be a huge problem, but with that kind of discrepancy between actual values and what the meters show, there isn't much room to manoeuver at very low thresholds for subtle compression.
The limiters did this too, although the difference was less - nearer to maybe 3 or 4dB before any reduction showed. I double checked it with the limiters with full mixes that I knew had been maximised to -0.2 output. The threshold was down to around -3 or -4 before any reduction showed or was heard.
It seems as though any signal is being attenuated as it enters the compressors and limiters. I don't know why - is anyone else reporting this, or could it just be with the nonSSE versions?

It really shows itself as a problem when using the C3 multiband - just because it's often easier to ruin mixes with wrong settings, and I tend to start off with standard settings - which in this case are all several dBs out. When I'm compressing things like bass and top end, I really need to be able to fine tune settings and need to know what the figures are. Until I go and check out the mix on other systems I can't properly hear the bass on my nearfields, so the tendency is to rely on known workable settings at the startout. When the settings are 5 to 15dB wrong, it disturbs me.

Initially I wondered if it was just some lag on the meters to enable sensible readings, but it definitely is attenuated. Both comparisons between the comp meters and my host meters and testing by ear showed that the thresholds were alot lower than they ought to be.

Overall view.
They appear to be very stable and easy on CPU. Sound ranging from clean to character. Ideally suited to drums - in fact with the limiter on, they are up there with must-haves for anyone who like in-yer-face drums. Nice touch with the stereo enhancer (although I'll have to check again what the gain structure is with the enhancer - it sounded like there wasn't gain attenuation with hard stereo enhancement - on dums, the kick started to get drowned out by both sides. Depends on what type of panning law you use - the standard is the one where it loses 3dB from centre to side isn't it? You may need to look at dropping gain of each side with progressive stereo enhancement, to avoid unnatural loudness)

I haven't hit a problem with them yet apart from the metering, and that may just be in the nonSSE version?

I'll go away and try them out on some other material, as drums isn't going to be a real test, and drums didn't really show up any differences between the comps. But, they sure do suit drums!

I'm exhausted from the summer heat...

Thanks kritikon!
Reading these with my english takes a lot of time.

SonicFilter - Maybe the name "WORM" doesn't fit the sound. In other words, it's "FAT".

Metering - Meters are influenced by speed & timing of signals, and process of host. I must fix these algorithm...

So...in other words.............I've got a crappy old shit-heap of a PC

Probably very true.