Cheaper alternatives to Waves NLS?

[MogwaiBoy]

In answer to the topic I fully recommend Sonimus Satson

[Digivolt]

by contrast, Airwindows stuff bypasses the DAW summing altogether (which is why you cannot use DAW faders with it), and as far as the DAW is concerned nothing comes into the bus.

Sorry to sound like a noob but are you saying that these bypass the DAW Faders (doesn't seem to be the case in Studio One), or that you're not supposed to use DAW faders if you're using the console plugs unless you have it as a post fader FX ?

[simon.a.billington]

I could imagine one way they could achieve actual summing without bypassing the DAW, by having each channel plugin somehow compensate the signal so that the resulting combination within the DAW summing results in the desired result.

I think that would be giving NLS way more credit than it actually does. That said, I recall Steven Slate asserting that through their extensive tests, they found there to be absolutely nothing special about the actual summing stage in real consoles - that the analog magic happens completely elsewhere. So, then, it wouldn't matter that plugins like NLS wouldn't bypass the DAW summing.

Honestly, the whole NLS thing rubbed me the wrong way with its misleading presentation. Not to bash Waves - I really love a lot of their stuff, but NLS just has this very shady vibe about it which is absolutely not helped by the fact that it does not even have stereo bus crosstalk nor proper VU metering

Britson/Satson, coupled perhaps with something like Burnley73 to simulate the preamp stage is all you really need. Burnley as a first insert on every track, then Britson/Satson as the last inserts, then followed by the Busses wherever appropriate. Try this setup on some raw multitrack drums (set the Burnley to at least "Mic 20" input on every track) and you will right away hear some proper enhancement that is neither too subtle nor too hyped - it just sounds real and convincing enough and for less than a 100 bucks

True about the buss crosstalk, but then, that just narrows the stereo image, loosely speaking. Like it's controversial Noise options, cross-talk could also be considered undesirable. Especially in a day and age where everyone wants wider mixes, not more narrow ones. But hey, if you have optional noise you should also be able to have optional cross-talk as well, I agree.

Although, the Stereo Mode does offer a more narrow field than Duo-Mono, it's possible to use that instead, but hey, it's not really the same.

[Bouroki]

True about the buss crosstalk, but then, that just narrows the stereo image, loosely speaking. Like it's controversial Noise options, cross-talk could also be considered undesirable. Especially in a day and age where everyone wants wider mixes, not more narrow ones. But hey, if you have optional noise you should also be able to have optional cross-talk as well, I agree.

Although, the Stereo Mode does offer a more narrow field than Duo-Mono, it's possible to use that instead, but hey, it's not really the same.

Crosstalk feeds parts of the frequency spectrum out of phase to the other side, so it should actually widen things a bit. Anyway since then I've moved past console and summing emulations altogether and I appreciate having precise digital control over what I'm doing, not to mention that should the need arise, there have been some awesome master bus plugins that will give you all the mojo & width needed like IK Tapes.

[simon.a.billington]

True about the buss crosstalk, but then, that just narrows the stereo image, loosely speaking. Like it's controversial Noise options, cross-talk could also be considered undesirable. Especially in a day and age where everyone wants wider mixes, not more narrow ones. But hey, if you have optional noise you should also be able to have optional cross-talk as well, I agree.

Although, the Stereo Mode does offer a more narrow field than Duo-Mono, it's possible to use that instead, but hey, it's not really the same.

Crosstalk feeds parts of the frequency spectrum out of phase to the other side, so it should actually widen things a bit. Anyway since then I've moved past console and summing emulations altogether and I appreciate having precise digital control over what I'm doing, not to mention that should the need arise, there have been some awesome master bus plugins that will give you all the mojo & width needed like IK Tapes.

This hasn't been my experience with working with consoles in the past. Compared to DAW mixes I find consoles to sound a bit more narrow. On the plus side they are more harmonically "enriched". That is until you crack out the harmonic plugins in a DAW.

Much of a muchness, though. Crosstalk is just something I don't really miss personally. To each their own, though.