SKnote release Disto-S - A Distressor, fast and effective.

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Compyfox wrote:
cprompt wrote:
Kr3eM wrote:picure says Disto-R but soundclips says Disto v2, I suspect he has just renamed his Disto v2 to Disto-R...
That's my guess too.
You can rename plugins and IDs in Logic? Interesting...
Yes, right in LPX, and with Auganizer.
You are currently reading my signature.

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Not sure what happened with the latest build, but it causes LPX to crash when clicking on any channel insert.
You are currently reading my signature.

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djanthonyw wrote:Not sure what happened with the latest build, but it causes LPX to crash when clicking on any channel insert.
That must be what Quint meant by "rock solid"

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jbarish wrote:So instead of being a savvy businessman and rectifying much of what he describes as "shit" by refunding unhappy customers, Quint packs up his ball and goes home. If that's not classic childish Quint, I don't know what is. Who won the pool??
Do you know how many refunds Quinto has given? I don't. Do you know how many customers Quinto has? I don't. Do you know how many unhappy customers Quinto has? I don't.

More to the point, if you were on a forum where certain members had nothing better to do than to write long, rambling posts slagging you off under the guise of trying to be helpful, would you stick around? It ruins the experience for all of us who actually want to post and contribute about a specific plugin, not the business practices of the developer. If you don't like the dev, don't buy the product, it's so simple. Nobody should spend hours typing long, boring monologues that practically nobody reads if the poster has no intention of buying the product!

Of course, yes, this is a public forum where people are free to post whatever they want. And at the same time, people are free to respond. And people are free to join and to leave whenever they want too.

/rant
A bit fried in the higher freqs

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Compyfox wrote:
jens wrote:Why don't you simply have a look at the Distressor manual if the explanations which have been given to you in this thread don't fully satisfy you yet? You surely don't want to go on about this for two more pages, or do you?
That's not the point of my question, jens. And I do have the EL-8 manual on my HDD (which also covers the EL-8X btw).

One of my points is, why do people smack down on me trying to "convince" me of the "benefits of the British Mode" (or the superiority of this particular compressor/plugin), not to mention claim that it's a "complete different beast" if Nuke (EL-8) = All-Buttons-In (1176) = Inf Ratio = "brickwall limiting"

So what fundamental thing am I missing, other than the change in attack/release times and a different knee setting?

jens wrote:(And if the behaviour of a real Distressor doesn't really make sense to you, then this thread probably isn't the best place to go on a rant about this either, or is it?)
Again, not the point of my posts...

If only I knew what your point was...

anyway, here's some quotes:
But in All-Button Mode, a few more things are happening; the ratio goes to somewhere between 12:1 and 20:1, and the bias points change all over the circuit. As a result, the attack and release times change. This change in attack and release times and the compression curve that results is the main contributor to the All-Button sound. This is what gives way to the trademark overdriven tone. The shape of the compression curve changes dramatically in All-Button. Where 4:1 is a gentle slope, All-Button is more like severe plateau! Furthermore, in All-Button mode there is a lag time on the attack of initial transients. This strange phenomenon might be described as a "reverse look-ahead".

One more thing to know: the perception of distortion is increased with lower frequencies in All-Button Mode. Because of this, you can make a pair of overheads or a room mic explode with the 1176, especially with the frequencies and transients created by the kick drum.
http://www.uaudio.com/webzine/2003/april/index4.html
Crushing Signals with "All Buttons" (AKA "British") Mode

typically use “All Button” mode on drums or on ambience mics. It can also be used to make a bass or guitar sound “dirty” or for putting vocals “in your face.” In “All Buttons” mode (sometimes also known as “British” mode), compression distortion increases radically. You’ll quickly hear why everyone from Led Zeppelin to the Beastie Boys have used this trick.

Image
The possible ratio button combinations for the 1176 Limiter Collection.

A wide range of “Multi-Button” ratio combinations possible with the hardware are now also possible with the 1176 Classic Limiter plug-ins — including the famous “All Button” sound. Each multi-ratio combination is a variation on All Button, adding compression distortion to a greater or lesser degree. In creating these new plugins, we learned that only the “outside” ratios are relevant to the multi button combinations’ sound, and the plug will “auto-fill” any redundant “inside” buttons. The above illustration represents each possible sonic combination available in these 1176 plug-ins.
https://www.uaudio.com/blog/1176-collection-tips/

Each "ratio mode" of the Distressor sets both the threshold and the ratio, in the standard sense of the word. This was done to provide an easy to set, yet versatile group of curves. The 1:1 mode provides no compression, but allows the audio to pass through the "warming" circuits of the unit (we'll get to the distortion modes in a moment). Ratio's 2 through 6 are general purpose curves great for tracking. The 2:1 and 3:1 ratios are "parabolic" knees - very gentle curves that won't typically go into hard limiting and therefore, also won't provide absolute overload protection. Ratios 4:1 and 6:1 have steeper knees and are good general purpose curves that gradually move towards hard limiting, "nailing" the signal in its place. The ratio of 6:1 is very useful for vocals, bass, and acoustic instruments. It has an easy slope at first until after the knee, where an increasing ratio "musically" limits the peaks of the signal before damage is done. The 6:1 and 10:1 Opto ratios employ shorter knee limiting, reminiscent of some old classics from the 60's and 70's (see Classic Emulation). "Nuke" is a different story. The "Nuke" ratio was developed for room mics, but we have since found it useful in many areas. "Nuke" has a medium threshold but when the signal hits it, a nuclear blast won't budge the output level. It is brick wall limiting, keeping any normal signal within 1 dB or so. Just patch in a room mic while recording drums (or other instruments) and slam the meters. Try attack on 4 and release on 2. The release curve of "Nuke" is logarithmic, meaning it lets off quickly at first and then slows. This release curve is a big part of the Distressor's sound. Experiment with the release times - this guy can release really fast without too much crackling, even on bass. 20:1 can be used similarly to "Nuke". Each of these curves again has their own feel to them, with the release slopes slightly altered, and the knees falling in slightly different places. Most exceptional are the 2:1, 10:1 and Nuke ratios, which employ special detector circuitry.
THE DISTRESSOR "BRITISH MODE" OPTION
WELCOME TO ANOTHER UPGRADE & OPTION FOR YOUR DISTRESSOR
 
Basic Description - The original concept of the "British Mode" came from an unusual setting on the classic UREI LN1176 limiter. The unit was designed to have only four ratios, each ratio being engaged by selecting one of four buttons. However, as early as 1980 (or before), renegade recording engineers, always on the lookout for something a little more "over the top", found that you could make all four buttons stay "in" if you pressed them just right. What resulted was a very, very aggressive sound that had some elements of the units 20:1 ratio, but with an unusual knee and new envelope shape. Somewhere along the line, someone called it a "British Mode" and the name has stuck. It is also called "all buttons in" and some other intuitive names.
 
The Distressor has the advantage of being able to apply this "aggressive" nature not only to the new British ratio (1:1) but also to all the ratios since a separate switch is installed, which can be enabled with any ratio.  One should keep in mind however, that an attack below 3 or 4 is required to maintain the LN1176 character.  If you go above an attack of 3 you will also incur a rise in some grunge (distortion) and see the THD indicator lites come on a lot more. The Distressor will no longer behave smoothly, nor like an 1176.
 
How to use the new British Mode Option for the first time
Put the unit in the 1:1 ratio and turn on the British Mode Switch (flip it up and the LED should be lit). That enables it. To sound like the 1176 the only constraint is to keep the attack well under 4 on the Distressors - their attack can go much longer than the 1176. Now you will find that the unit has a new attitude! The attack and release will generally be more aggressive and the unit will get in and out of the way very quickly. Interestingly, the unit will be slightly less colored when not compressing.
http://www.empiricallabs.com/distressor.html
"Preamps have literally one job: when you turn up the gain, it gets louder." Jamcat, talking about presmp-emulation plugins.

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cprompt wrote:
jbarish wrote:So instead of being a savvy businessman and rectifying much of what he describes as "shit" by refunding unhappy customers, Quint packs up his ball and goes home. If that's not classic childish Quint, I don't know what is. Who won the pool??
Do you know how many refunds Quinto has given? I don't. Do you know how many customers Quinto has? I don't. Do you know how many unhappy customers Quinto has? I don't.

More to the point, if you were on a forum where certain members had nothing better to do than to write long, rambling posts slagging you off under the guise of trying to be helpful, would you stick around? It ruins the experience for all of us who actually want to post and contribute about a specific plugin, not the business practices of the developer. If you don't like the dev, don't buy the product, it's so simple. Nobody should spend hours typing long, boring monologues that practically nobody reads if the poster has no intention of buying the product!

Of course, yes, this is a public forum where people are free to post whatever they want. And at the same time, people are free to respond. And people are free to join and to leave whenever they want too.

/rant
Totally agree

Ive needed a refund once as the plugin didn't do what I needed, no problems with Quinto whatsoever getting my money back.

I've been a customer since 2011and have followed all the drama here and at GS.

Quinto is Quinto, a mad workaholic genius with big ideas and not enough hours in the day to fulfill his ambitions ;)
Amazon: why not use an alternative

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djanthonyw wrote:Not sure what happened with the latest build, but it causes LPX to crash when clicking on any channel insert.
Anthony,
How is support going on your issue??

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jens wrote:anyway, here's some quotes:
So this confirms what I already said:

NUKE (EL-8) = All-Button (1176) = "British Mode" (EL-8X) = Infinite Ratio = "Brickwall Limiting"

The main differences are:
- a slightly different knee
- different attack/release times (EL-8 is slower than the 1176, unless you engage the "British mode")
- the Threshold changes for both as the design of both amps is to "drive" the signal into compression, rather than lower the threshold


My point in this case is, that both compressors do about the same in this case, and that the EL-8X is not some super magic device. The "British Mode" IMO is only bonus, just like the "Opto Mode" setting (Att 10, release 0) at ratio 10:1.

To me - nothing to rave home about, nothing more than "hype". It's not "the" selling point that some users in here made it to be (personally felt - might be different for you)

"oh hey, this device can do it, Slate's FG-Stress can not" - yeah, yeah... So what?



Can the device distort like the hardware? (not just on paper!)

What about the "Link Mode" feature on Mono Channels - does this mod work?

Did the developer fuse the Detection Module with the Output Module? (the hardware has more control, an additional HP filter, a THD indication)

Where is the manual? Why is it so difficult to bundle it right from the start, or link the "new articles" with the product page?

Why was there a need to "split" the concept in the first place? Don't tell me because "simpler", if the original concept was two Distressors, "stereo linked", with an additional saturation feed from the FATSO concept. It was already as simple as it could get.

Why does there need to be a new version of "Disto v2" as "Disto-R" with a new ID and all? Is the only route really to "ignore bugs, and move on"?

Add to that, the price politics (and commentary regarding the 299USD), and lack of demo.



There are a lot of things that just don't add up for me (personally, still don't after all this years). Questions I can't answer myself, and we will probably never get an answer for now, since the dev is throwing a temper tantrum.

Yet I'm constantly baffled that people go on the attack if you point such things out. As if you insulted them personally down to their core, and their dead relatives from three generations back.




cprompt wrote:More to the point, if you were on a forum where certain members had nothing better to do than to write long, rambling posts slagging you off under the guise of trying to be helpful, would you stick around? It ruins the experience for all of us who actually want to post and contribute about a specific plugin, not the business practices of the developer. If you don't like the dev, don't buy the product, it's so simple. Nobody should spend hours typing long, boring monologues that practically nobody reads if the poster has no intention of buying the product!
I'm sorry to point this out, but you're completely ignoring a couple of factors.

One being, that there are people that are(!) interested, but can't test the plugin unless:

a) they "buy" it outright, test it, then ask for a refund (read: no demo)

b) go the grey zone route, as they've been blocked by the company due to "personal issues" (which starts even at "I don't like your nose, so you're put on the waiting line" until "you're banned for life, because 'reasons' - but thanks for your money anyway")

There is no demo version, the refund is highly mood-dependent by the developer (if you were positive towards him, no problem - criticize him, and you're in limbo!), and actually 7 days is IMO way too short of a test period (and also scratching the the barrel of some EU laws!). Add to that the fact, that this is (once more) a rushed release to ride on the popularity wave of the competition...

It should be allowed to talk about this.
It is important to do so even!

In fact, there were users on GS that asked for refunds of this thing recently, and the developer shrugged it off as "no priority". And since the dev (as it's not the first time that this has happened) continued to ignore the user in question, the user went public (GearSlutz), only to be ultimately insulted (the dev considered this as "humor"), and then involving the mods to silence people because he didn't like the responses.

He tried the same in here (see his last post) - he wanted "ultimate control" over the situation. In fact, he wanted me out of the thread within mere minutes (after he wrongfully defamed me as a "racist")!


I'm surprised that you don't see all of this as red flag. Continue to ignore it even.
A flawless developer...

But to each his own I guess.



I'd actually like to take a closer look. Not to provide audio demos and "demolish" it (that's not my job - the developer has to prove himself that he's better than the competition with this release - hence my question "why should we do that?" and "please overhaul your video, make it more objective"). But actually out of curiosity. Just to see how strong my CPU would cave, how well this performs compared to the competition (as the price point is a thing to consider!), etc

But alas, I can't. Neither can I update my existing licenses (or give them away even!). Unless I go "the grey zone" route. Which I won't... and I found suitable alternatives at this point as well.


Still - curiosity kills the cat.

So in my case, the only option is to ask questions, challenge given information (like the video A/B demo, which does tell me nothing at all - could have been doctored!). And if you're honest, the questions were valid and far from being alleged disturbing behavior, or "I don't get what you want!" - yet they were ignored and I was insulted several times on top of that.

Summed up: people questioning him and calling him out were declared/insulted as "mentally unstable", "black mailer", "self-righteous" and "user is on a vendetta". The latter two being boring, repetitive, non creative commentary (I can't call them "arguments" - as this would mean: open discussion, testing, debunking of findings, etc) towards me personally, but what else is new?


However - this is what you (plural) have to deal with this developer!
Do you (singular) really find this behavior acceptable?

Apparently, you do. Which is sad - but again, to each his own


cprompt wrote:Of course, yes, this is a public forum where people are free to post whatever they want. And at the same time, people are free to respond. And people are free to join and to leave whenever they want too.

/rant
Then why is it not allowed to question certain developer behavior?
Why is it not allowed to ask (valid) questions and re-post them if they're not answered?

This paragraph alone gives me the impression, that only praise is allowed on these borders, and only commentary by paying/valued customers of the company.

Aren't we talking about active censoring in this case?



VariKusBrainZ wrote:Ive needed a refund once as the plugin didn't do what I needed, no problems with Quinto whatsoever getting my money back.
It's not my really my business, but out of curiosity - was this recently or in the early days of the company?
Also - were you critical towards the company or not? This has a huge influence!



VariKusBrainZ wrote:I've been a customer since 2011and have followed all the drama here and at GS.

Quinto is Quinto, a mad workaholic genius with big ideas and not enough hours in the day to fulfill his ambitions ;)
If you've really followed all the "drama" from recent years (and not just I skipped through it), you do probably know that the developer is indeed a workaholic, and might be a good developer as well. But he is also "Quinto Sardo" - and his public interaction has a lot to desire for, his user handling is far from being great.

You also seem to ignore (or have forgotten rather), that he called the KVR Forum a "Kindergarten" in 2014 already (over on GearSlutz - in fact, he abandoned his "Official Support Forum on KVR" several times for months and even ignored mails!), and now he finally packed his things and left, while continuing to point fingers. Instead of realizing "whoops... I'm just as much to blame - if not solely. I'm just a one-man army after all".


This move, that he did himself, damaged his company more, than a couple of people being more than skeptical and critical about his creations and behavior (or to some of you: "troublemakers" and "thread derailers"). IMO and all that of course.

But YMMV.






Anyway... you don't have to agree with me, neither I expect you to d that. It's just to balance out the viewpoints...
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Compyfox wrote:
So this confirms what I already said:

NUKE (EL-8) = All-Button (1176) = "British Mode" (EL-8X) = Infinite Ratio = "Brickwall Limiting"
No, not at all! How on earth did you manage to come to that completely false conclusion, despite all the contradicting evidence? The mind boggles! :shock:

All button mode infinite ratio? What the f**k? :help:
But in All-Button Mode, a few more things are happening; the ratio goes to somewhere between 12:1 and 20:1
Can you please please stop to derail this thread?

You are clearly wrong and besides nobody has got a clue why or what on earth you even try to argue and besides nobody gives a rat's arse anyway... I mean: no offense, but it is becoming seriously tedious and irratating...
"Preamps have literally one job: when you turn up the gain, it gets louder." Jamcat, talking about presmp-emulation plugins.

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Compyfox wrote:..........
I'm sorry, I really have neither the time nor the interest to read your long posts. Can you condense them down to a few lines, or at least provide a tl;dr at the end?
A bit fried in the higher freqs

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Compyfox wrote: Yet I'm constantly baffled that people go on the attack if you point such things out.

But you are not "pointing something out" - you are merely inconsistingly and incomprehensibly rambling - you "points" shift from post to post and you even tend to contradict yourself in these über-long rants of yours - and when someone contradicts you, you just keep shifting and shifting your (non-)arguments. It's basically mostly impossible to have a sane argument with you - which is why people tend to get pissed off bigtime sooner or later. It's not that they hate you - just your thread-derailing rants....
"Preamps have literally one job: when you turn up the gain, it gets louder." Jamcat, talking about presmp-emulation plugins.

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Q, is it possible to increase the resolution of the dials in Disto? They are very sensitive to mouse movement and don't feel smooth with interaction. Tokyo Dawn Records do this well and provide preferences to alter the sensitivity. What do you think? :tu:

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the classic distressor snare sound is with the british mode , but maybe you can get similar wihtout...anyway it was a good addition it turn a distressor into a other comp and this at all ratio and for the same price if i remember.
no one would buy the hardware wihtout this mode today, or only very cheap even if it get rarely used so imo it s always better to have it than not, but in a plugin i really doubt it can be emulated closely with medium/big amount of reduction.

if they can t nail the normal mode there is no way they will nail the british one

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cprompt wrote:
Compyfox wrote:..........
I'm sorry, I really have neither the time nor the interest to read your long posts. Can you condense them down to a few lines, or at least provide a tl;dr at the end?
Oh, so you're of the 2min Youtube video generation?
Sorry, I have to disappoint you there.



jens wrote:No, not at all! How on earth did you manage to come to that completely false conclusion, despite all the contradicting evidence? The mind boggles! :shock:

All button mode infinite ratio? What the f**k? :help:
But in All-Button Mode, a few more things are happening; the ratio goes to somewhere between 12:1 and 20:1
You are clearly wrong and besides nobody has got a clue why or what on earth you even try to argue and besides nobody gives a rat's arse anyway... I mean: no offense, but it is becoming seriously tedious and irratating...
Oh am I? Uhm, guess what - compressors beyond a certain ratio are considered "limiters". For some it's already 10:1, for others 20:1 (the 1176 happens to have 8+12+20 = 40:1 as ratio max though in "regular use"), some even say "infinite:1" - technically you're correct, 20:1 is not infinite, but it is a matter of interpretation still, and where ones personal "standards" reside on this topic...

Then again... wow... :roll: ... the "All-Button" mode pushes the ratio between 12:1 and 20:1 (again, some consider this limiting already) and then messes with the circuit's threshold/attack/release time. One way or another - still a limiter.


I am stilll(!!!!) asking myself, why people are so crazy about this for the EL-8X though? And why some(!) people in here told me, it's apples and oranges for these two devices. Or in fact others devices like a pure digital feedback compressor that can also use attack values in the nano second values?!

Summed up: I wanted to know the "secret sauce", why device A is better than device B.

Get it now?
No?

Sorry. I'm moving on regardless.



jens wrote:Can you please please stop to derail this thread?
Sorry, but no comment on this one, jens.
There is still a whole slew of on-topic, valid, open questions that are unanswered - and not only from me.

Well, Kr3eM tried to answer some of those (actually, "cross referenced" to GS, then asked new ones for himself in the process) - but he's not the developer. But oh wait... the developer sadly threw a temper tantrum and left! :shrug:


jens wrote:But you are not "pointing something out" - you are merely inconsistingly and incomprehensibly rambling - you "points" shift from post to post and you even tend to contradict yourself in these über-long rants of yours - and when someone contradicts you, you just keep shifting and shifting your (non-)arguments. It's basically mostly impossible to have a sane argument with you - which is why people tend to get pissed off bigtime sooner or later. It's not that they hate you - just your thread-derailing rants....
Again - open questions:
Here, here and here - all summarized, all at the bottom of the post

Me being "inconsistent" and "ranting"... funny that I seem to be the only one on that behalf. But okay, you're right - stopping now.

But to give the mic back to the round - why do you keep "derailing"?
*rhetorical question!!!*


kobal wrote:if they can t nail the normal mode there is no way they will nail the british one
Hence me asking "can we please get a new video that shows the hardware in direct comparison to the software?". Or "can we get a manual?".

Plots to compare would have been nice as well.

I know of one developer that didn't shy away from that - he's not from Italy though.


YMMV - have a nice evening, people.
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Thanks for ruining the thread.

Some people?!

Starting to see a pattern with the same names on other ruined threads too.

Sad, sad little people.

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