because of the latency i won't use the comp on the 2 bus cause any vi's or whatever that are played live incur the additional few ms latency..

but i will use it in my 2 track for mastering..

in fact i don't think i would use anything else for the purpose of mastering a track, other than perhaps a *touch* of mcdsp ml4000 multi band dynamics here and there. (and of course a limiter, usually sonnox these days, but barricade will be purchased this week for sure)

Can you describe what you like about the compressor section so much?

IE. what are you able to get out of it that you can't do with The Glue or Fabfilter Pro-C or Waves SSL etc... is it really that much better?

well it's completely transparent.. as in COMPLETELY

it's basically that simple.

When i master (or try too)

i aim for the ultimate in transparency

It's also very hard to make it sound "bad"

that's important to me..

so.. yes.. without much tweaking, you throw it on your mix and it instantly sounds BETTER

i can hardly say that about many plugins.

The glue is nice too though and a long time fave of mine

you really intrigued me, ttoz, so i checked out the barricade demo and paired it with reelbus and gentle compression with the track compressor as a sample mastering chain on an unmastered copy of one of my tracks. I will say the results were quite good to my ear. I was able to get commercial-level loudness and good quality. *Almost* as good as I could do with Ozone Advanced. For the money, it's certainly a great setup.

I use the FG-Comp on pianos, pads and vocals (not rap vocals). The great thing about it is you'll have a hard time trying to make it sound bad, it just works (on soft and delicate material without too much transients). There's a nice trick you can try, set the attack and release all the way down to the right and use it as a leveler, it just tightens things up in a very musical way without destroying the dynamics (good for pop/r&b vocals where you need to keep the emotions and dynamics of the performance). It's not a fast compressor so don't put it on percusive stuff BUT if you're planning a LA-2A->1176 trick then try it instead of a LA-2A, you may like it.

I like fgx for master buss so thanks for the tip on the settings, will give it a whirl.

Mercado what do recommend for fast comps in the virtual world on drums/percs for the quick snap on individual sounds rather than the drum buss (exc any poco/ead stuff please).

That's a tough question. I think I haven't found a good compressor for transient-rich stuff like snares, rims, tambourines, etc. All software compressors I've tried fall short when it comes to clamping trasients down, like hardware does, they all sound "clicky", so to speak. Now, since we're talking about software I'd say The Glue or Abbey Road RS124. This Abbey Road plug-in is slow, very slow, but it has a very particular sound that seems to work on transient-rich material. I love it on kick drums, congas and bongos (I never use it on drums or percussion busses). Since that compressor is very slow, I tend to use a limiter right after, something like ToneBoosters' Barricade without "auto saturation". In my opinion, this RS124 is one of the best for individual drums. It takes time to get used to it because it doesn't behave conventionally but once you've read the manual and learned how to use it properly, it does wonders. The Glue is also great but too clean/transparent sometimes. I use it when I need to maintain the drum sound I shaped (or on drums/perc busses).

By the way, even though it isn't my favorite type of compression, the CLA-76 is also good if you don't have barricade. 1dB or 2dB of GR after the RS124 may help.

Cheers

Thank you Mercado read, unstood and educated. Think I need to start looking at what I use, need and so on for another thread. Appreciated your time.

@OP Sorry for the slight off topic tangent.

nothing to apologise about whatsoever, i find all the stuff intriguing to read myself

Thamk ttoz, in which case...

Ive got an old TC Electronics Triple C comp. Whilst digital I am wondering if I would be better using this over soft comps for a faster comp using spdif on a send in the cubase?

Not familiar with that unit, you might get an answer from some of the hardware gurus here.

When i had my proper studio i had 3 hardware comps.

a dbx blue, a focusrite red and wait for it, a behringer composer

...been there, sold that

I'll echo the FGX comp, or is it FX-G? anyway, Its brilliant.

I found that on some pretty dense trance I could pump about 6-7db out of Barricade and it sounded absolutely fine. Not so with FG-X. About 2db max and then it started to get distorted. In fact it sounded a little distorted with no gain. This was without using the compressor section.

Using the compressor I could get a gain of about 4-5 db depending. I was then able to use the additional functions.

This did a great job if you ask me. It probably isn't doing much you couldn't do yourself with mixing skill, but it's a great way to shape the overall dynamics of your track when your done.

Levels not flat enough? Okay, Comp fixes that (and I really love this comp).

Now its quiet? Turn up the limiter gain.

Now there's no bass? Turn up the bass knob thing

Now there's bass but it sounds flat with no movement? Turn up the dynamic knob. You got your kick back.

Overall, I found that using the FG-X I could get my mix loud without it sounding dull. The barricade got it louder but I feel like I completely lost my low-end energy in the process.

It finally had a smooth, solid feel. I also really thought it sounded fantastic on my drum & bass buss.

I use my eareckon limiter and well I never ever clip like never. I have not once gotten a clip from wav to mp3 or just to wav using that limiter. Its more of a you dont push hard limiter because its just meant to be super transparent. But I was planing on buying the toneboosters one seeing as how well everything they make just rocks. I would say demo the eareckon one and see if its letting anything peak for you. It works fine for me

I think that Barricade is (and reelbus for tape subject) most underrated and underpriced yet one of the best limiters currently available.

IMHO anyone doing any kind of stuff and making demos or mastering - should have it! Simple as that!