*** ChunkWare Vanilla Compressor alpha, build 56 ***
http://www.chunkware.com/vanilla/

This is the final stage of feature development. After this, it's tweaking/GUI.

New features:
- output limiter with 1ms "look-ahead" (see latency note)
- post-wet/dry output gain (to drive limiter)
- special SC version with real stereo sidechain (see notes below)
- refined power summing for equal gain redux in peak/RMS
- denormal-safe? (you tell me. i don't have a P4.)

LATENCY:
Since the latest version sports a new output limiter with 1ms look-ahead, the latest version has a latency of 1ms. Hosts that support latency compensation should compensate for this--however, it all depends on the host, and when setInitialDelay() is recognized. this might affect sample rates other than 44.1KHz, or instances in which the sample rate is changed after plugin instantiation. (Blame Steinberg for this.)

LIMITER:
This is meant to be a SAFETY LIMITER, NOT A MASTERING LIMITER. please, don't try to push it too hard. Use your ears! If you hear distortion, then back off a bit. In my tests, it seemed capable of 3-6 dB of gain reduction without noticeable artifacts. Please try it out for yourself and post your feedback.

SIDECHAIN INPUT:
As you can see, the "fake sidechain" option has been removed. That was just silly, IMO. The new zip file contains a special 4in/2out version of the plugin, which can be used for real sidechaining. As such, inputs 1/2 are the signal inputs, and 3/4 are the sidechain input. I did some very quick tests with the Cubase demo, and I could post instructions on using the sidechain later on. Please post your results with other hosts. PLEASE NOTE: in order for it to properly detect a MONO sidechain input, you must assign your mono source to a stereo output/aux/whatever. (Your host will just send it to both sides.) The sidechain is processed in stereo and requires a stereo signal for accurate power summing. I would really love to develop an autonomous sidechain plugin that can be inserted apart from the main plugin, but that will take some development time...

Please ignore the information on the website for now. There wasn't time to update it, other than the correct date and build.

As always, your feedback is invaluable. So pleae, keep it coming. Especially important: sound quality comments, CPU performance.

Also, I would like to thank all of the kind (and brilliant) people on the DSP/Development board who have so generously offered their programming expertise when my (meager) programming skills fell short. Thank you.

Now go and download the Vanilla Compressor!
http://www.chunkware.com/vanilla/

hey, don't everyone post at once! i don't think that the server can handle this sort of bandwidth!

quick update: build 57, 10/07/04.
http://www.chunkware.com/vanilla/

changes:
- fixed more denormals
- slight change to ARC-2 (less pumping)
- is it just me, or does this build sound generally warmer than the previous?

enjoy! and please, please, post some feedback when you get a chance.

== chunk

There would probably be more posts if it was c r u n k w a r e.

its true... u cant say c r u n k now!

jtxx000 wrote:

its true... u cant say c r u n k now!

crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk crunk

Forever,




Kim.

WTF???



Forever,




Kim.

thanks for the constructive feedback, guys.

I like it, but I think it uses a bit too much cpu. It's using about 14% here on my Athlon 2400+. Do you think theres any way to reduce it at all?

Any GUI news?

Forever,




Kim.

Don´t now yet about this version, but the previous one used 4-5% max. here on my proud and fast Duron 1,3 ...
Perhaps you could do two versions, one light and one full-featured. Apart from this, i still like this a lot - it sounds transparent and great and is easy to use.

Kind regards, Richard

Crunk

Any chances of a before/after mp3 or similar...there´s a lot of comps out there and for this to be worthwile downloading, a simple audio demo would be cool...the fact that there´s no gui to impress is a reason to the low amount of comments so far...

hey chunk

I dl'ed and tried out a build this past week and could get quite a range of pleasing sounds. Its nice to have a sort of an all in one sort of thing. It squashed my drum tracks nicely and settled the vox well. the only real issue i had with any of it was the auto make up gain being extremely loud.

I didnt get a chance to play with the sidechain yet, but look foreward to trying some ducking with this new build.

Thank you for your contribution to dynamics processing.

BTW - are youlooking at translating a mac versioin?

hi guys. thanks for testing and giving feedback. i do appreciate it.

i'm sorry that it's consuming so much processing for some people. i will be working on that now that feature development is done.

xerocreep wrote:

the only real issue i had with any of it was the auto make up gain being extremely loud. ... BTW - are youlooking at translating a mac versioin?

hi xerocreep. if you remember, the "auto gain" control was renamed "max make-up" in order to clarify what it does and prevent misunderstandings. to reiterate: the max. make-up will maximize the output to peak at 0dB, based on the threshold/ratio settings. it should only be used when the compressor is used as a "maximizer". as such, it operates exactly as it should.

i would LOVE to port this to mac, but it should probably be finished on PC first.

citizenchunk wrote:

thanks for the constructive feedback, guys.

i'll download and play with the new version when i get home from work..........

lates

t-willy

Yup, i made sure to read the other thread before i downloaded it. So i was expecting as much.

Hehe, not a complaint, but an observation.

Have you found someone to help out with your GUI situation?

If you are interested, i could PM you a few screens of some plugs i have been working on, and maybe would be able to help you out with yours.

citizenchunk wrote:

SIDECHAIN INPUT: As you can see, the "fake sidechain" option has been removed. That was just silly, IMO. The new zip file contains a special 4in/2out version of the plugin, which can be used for real sidechaining. As such, inputs 1/2 are the signal inputs, and 3/4 are the sidechain input. I did some very quick tests with the Cubase demo, and I could post instructions on using the sidechain later on. Please post your results with other hosts. PLEASE NOTE: in order for it to properly detect a MONO sidechain input, you must assign your mono source to a stereo output/aux/whatever. (Your host will just send it to both sides.) The sidechain is processed in stereo and requires a stereo signal for accurate power summing.

i tried your newest version. thank you for integrating sideline functionality. i must be doing something wrong though. do i have to use both plugins that are in the download file in my set-up to duck the mainline? i will try around some more. maybe i have overlooked something simple.

with respect to CPU needs, this plugin seems to be on the high side. i get 10-13% on a 2.6 GHz PIV.

hmm, also... for quick testing purposes it would be really nice if you could just offer a few presets. well, as i said, i will check it out some more.

merci!

hi, all.

xerocreep: yes, someone has already been hired to do the GUI design. however, they are very busy, so we will just have to be patient. thank you for your offer, though.

blixa: sorry about the high CPU usage. that will be addressed in the near future. regarding the sidechain: here's one way that i have found works in cubase, as posted on KVR:

http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=728848

see tibenmik's post near the bottom of the page. be sure to only use the Vanilla SC plug for this, and only use it on a quad (4-input) group. also, if you use a mono sidechain signal, be sure to send it to both Ls and Rs.

i realize that having one 4-input plugin is not the most convenient solution, but it works for now. in the future, there will be an autonomous sidechain input plugin that will send a sidechain signal, from any track, to the main compressor plugin.

presets will come soon... i promise.

I missed this, nice to see you've got sidechaining implemented proper. I'll be giving a bit more feedback when I get back to the DAW.

(reviving this dead thread...)

NEW BUILD UP!
Build 61, 10/12/04
(ignore the date on the website)
http://www.chunkware.com/vanilla/

updates:
- performance?
- fixed more denormals
- Key parameter is back! now, it controls which side is "listened" to by the sidechain. with SC version (4-input sidechain version), it also controls which inputs are "listened" to.

please ignore the description on the website. by now it is very out of date, and i apologize for that. so little time... but gotta keep workin! so much work to do! keep on keepin' on!...

== chunk
http://www.chunkware.com

funny - zip says b60. whom should i trust?

oops! thought i uploaded it last night. look for it later tonight. sorry about that.

all right, the correct build (61) is now online. sorry about the mix-up.

http://www.chunkware.com/vanilla/

ja, i played with it (just the stereo version) and it sounds smooth.

now there was a thread where someone requested agc plug, so i was curious how this one could work since it's reasonably transparent and has long release - and it shows some promise. maybe with some finetuning and getting to know the sc filter ... should probably test it on dif material. bandpass may be well suited to put together some *agc-like* compression - with parallel mix.

peakstopper is a nice idea.

nice to see cpu backed off from what it was in (b57 ??)

anyway it's a hog.

moreover, it's sonic-the hedgehog.

good night.

mauseoleum wrote:

anyway it's a hog. moreover, it's sonic-the hedgehog. good night.

i'm not quite sure i understand this last comment...

but by "it's a hog," are you commenting on the improved, yet still not optimal, CPU usage? if so, i apologize again. methinks that an optimized compiler will be on me x-mas list... nah! i'd rather have an iPod! santa?... seriously though, the performance will be improved--hopefully sooner than later.

he was a toon character.

Yo Chunkmeister,

How about a mono-stereo or mono-mono version of this as well?

This would conserve CPU when inserted on mono drum or instrument channels.

Crunchessor has a "Force Mono" button for just this purpose. As it stands, running multiple stereo instances of this chews too much CPU for my purposes. I am on a P4 2.6 GHz.

Eg

egbert wrote:

Yo Chunkmeister, How about a mono-stereo or mono-mono version of this as well? This would conserve CPU when inserted on mono drum or instrument channels.

Yo Eg! that's a good idea, and it could be done. however, i'm not sure how much performance it would save. after power summing, the sidechain signal is already mono. so you might save a little by tossing an input filter and an averager, but it won't be a 50% gain. i think that it will be "more better" with an optimized compiler and some trickery.

after all is said and done, i might add a "force mono" button, as it couldn't hurt.

thanks for trying Vanilla!

== chunk

citizenchunk wrote:

egbert wrote: Yo Chunkmeister, How about a mono-stereo or mono-mono version of this as well? This would conserve CPU when inserted on mono drum or instrument channels. Yo Eg! that's a good idea, and it could be done. however, i'm not sure how much performance it would save. after power summing, the sidechain signal is already mono. so you might save a little by tossing an input filter and an averager, but it won't be a 50% gain. i think that it will be "more better" with an optimized compiler and some trickery. after all is said and done, i might add a "force mono" button, as it couldn't hurt. thanks for trying Vanilla! == chunk

well, depending on how careful you code , the new intel compiler could help a lot on parallel calculations ... or do you allready use it ?
vanilla sounds very good ... but cpu optimizing is one of the most important issues in general, but as it is the most unliked and stupid procedere, a lot of the developers dont go too hard on it ...

reg,

reg,

ja, just remembered - from a 3d forum - there was a guy who used (free for 30-day) intel (windows) compiler.

rendering performance gains were up to 400%, on average a bit above 200%.

so you could try to come up with optimizations and betatest with the free version and later on - if you decide so - get the real (or re-load ghosted system disc )

thanks for the tips guys. i did go to the intel site to look into their compiler. but silly me, i thought they would let you download it FOR FREE! little did i know... oh, and did i mention that it costs $400!!!

god forbid that a CPU manufacturer--who, i might add, faces stiff competition from another manufacturer--would allow us lowly developers access to their optimized compilers, so that our code would run more efficiently on their CPU's. why, that's crazy talk! why should they enable us to write optimized code for their shitty, overpriced (yet ubiquitous) hardware without making a buck on it?!?! how naive of me!

afaik it was a free dnld still this summer? don't have the links but there were opensource binaries compiled with aforementioned intel thing?

now I doubt I'd find more info burried in certain forums, so no promises, I'll try to look over weekend. again - no promises. maybe someone else knows exactly where to look?

Hi,
Don't know what compiler and ide you're using right now but I've got quite good results with the free m$ one from the Visual C++ toolkit 2003 which is a free download and hasn't restrictions on distributing the generated code.
There is a thread somewhere in the dev forum and an article here http://www.sawtoothdistortion.com/Articles/FreeOptimizingCompiler.html
on how to use it with the vc 2003 std edition and the difference to the non-optimizing compiler is quite remarkable...

Maybe that helps,

Niko

Hi Chunk,

I registered to this forum just to say congrats guy : Your compressor sound top notch ! Very smooth sound for a digital comp.

Now how did you do ?

Salvator

btw : we're kind of concurent, I too make audio plugins (OSX). I also readed your posts on the music DSP mailing forum a while ago...

Oh, I should add I hate digital artefact on comps, and yours has surprised me in such respect.

I only had a quick 2bus experience with it, but I rank it straight up to par with UAD & golden comp. I think me prefer yours actually...

That said, unfortunately, without GUI or gain reduction meter, people will have hard time to be impressed, in the actual trend, where GUI count more than sound I know you're at it though. So good luck !
Also the name you choosed is well... not my taste to say it in a polite way.

For my part, I continue the work on my own comp plugin, and you're now my targert-to-beat

Take care !

Salvator

thanx for this
I'll give it a spin this weekend