Presswerk patch/emulation area + inits

[3ee]

updated API 2500, same link: https://app.box.com/s/ilfmkjbppjuhjx13r7li

[3ee]

updated SSL G4000 Bus, same link: https://app.box.com/s/c0et25r73ovses6ecrb5

Tested against The Glue also...
seems like the negative sidech delay is mandatory for shaping the attack, it's a tiny bit though 0.80 ms

[3ee]

vastly updated LA-2A: https://app.box.com/s/lhtjw7geqxeftqrsufyt
still not sure about the release + rel adapt though, might try another emulation...

btw, it seems that drastic sidechain filtering is a standard in LA-2A... freq centered around 1-3k

[3ee]

it's official! ...sidechain delay helps allot in shaping the attack.
So does RMS value...

release adapt helps shape the release...

[aaron aardvark]

ORS,
Got the API patch loaded, guess I did something wrong last time. Thank you.

3ee,
Thank you for the patches. Have not tried any yet. My family wanted me to watch the latest Godzilla movie with them.

[3ee]

^ now there's a movie for Halloween

[fese]

Great work, guys, learning a lot from this thread!
What about the LA3A? I have a faint memory of it from the UAD card and remember it not being very different from the LA2A. No compression expert here, i know that it uses tubes instead of transistors but of course still is an opto. Are sound differences mainly defined by the tube/transistor thingy or are there also other circuit changes?

[3ee]

^ from a SOS article:

If you like the character of the LA2A's non‑linear optical gain element, but the valve distortion artifacts aren't appropriate, then the slightly faster, valveless version of the same basic design, the Teletronix LA3A, provides another option favoured by two of the most respected mix engineers on the planet: Bob Clearmountain and Tom Lord‑Alge. "To make a vocal command attention,” says Lord‑Alge, "I'll put it through an LA3A and maybe pummel it with 20dB of compression, so the meter is pinned down. If the beginnings of the words then have too much attack, I'll put the vocals through an SSL compressor with a really fast attack, to take off or smooth out the extra attack that the LA3A adds.”

I thought about trying a LA3A but I don't have any emulation to try it against... maybe a good idea to do what I have 1st.

[OneRoomStudios]

fese

Technically the main difference between the LA-3A and the LA-2A is that the LA-3A is solid-state (transistors) instead of vacuum-state (tubes). That's a bigger difference than you might think though. They both use the T4 opto cell, but they drive them differently - and that's a big difference. The LA-2A drives the the opto cell (imagine a night-light glued to a photosentitive device) directly from a high-voltage tube. Because the LA-3A is using transistors instead (much lower voltage), it can't drive the opto cell directly, so they use a transformer to step-up the signal. That step up means that small changes in level are exaggerated at the opto. This results in a much faster attack, a harder knee, and a "grabbier" sound over all. The LA-3A also distorts very differently from an LA-2A (generally less, but when it does, it's more aggressive).

[3ee]

"This results in a much faster attack, a harder knee, and a "grabbier" sound over all. The LA-3A also distorts very differently from an LA-2A (generally less, but when it does, it's more aggressive)."

So, the dynamic saturation parameter needs to be at higher value (maybe at max?)?

[OneRoomStudios]

Yeah, that's probably not a bad place to start.

[3ee]

SSL channel comp:
fast-hard: https://app.box.com/s/csik9uamcy10a6oz23ou
slow-soft: https://app.box.com/s/vhjurcr8bbhzok65wy4x

had the NI solid dynamics for reference.

[aaron aardvark]

I'm no compressor expert, but I'll tell you what is working for me right now as I'm working on a new tune. I started out with OneRoomStudio's API2500 patch on toontrack drums (which has its own compressors on certain drum pieces). It seemed a bit boomy by itself (with drums only), so I automated the Presswerk's Dry:Wet mix starting at 65:35, and then I increase it to 60:40 as more instruments (synths) come in with the drums still playing. I might come up with something better later, but I'm liking it so far.

[aaron aardvark]

double post.....don't know why that is happening again.

[sascha]

3ee:
The LA-2A is a pure peak limiter, so I would have the RMS window at nearly zero. Yes, it is FB. The real trick with the LA-2A is emulating the non-linearity in the T4 cell. I'd have to sit down with the transfer curves and try to mimic them in Presswerk, which I won't have time to do until later this evening. Getting the saturation right is going to be tricky too (I wish you could do pre and post).

The vactrol element in the LA-2A can't do true-peak sensing. Even if the light source is almost spontaneous, every LDR has an attack lag. So, a few ms are system-inherent. At least all LDRs I tried myself have at least some minimum attack in the ballback of at least 3-5ms.

Also, it's not easy to determine the detection, whether FF or FB. The comp/limit switch (bypassing a resistor) is right in the middle of the resistive network, between the series resistor and the LDR. Therefore, the detection changes from almost FF in limit mode to FB in comp mode. We mimic this behaviour a bit in the optical mode, although our limit mode uses Interactive (INT) detection. See p.21 (currently) in the PW manual.