Neodynium or SV-315?

[soulata]

UAD-1 (project) is not much more expensive than Sonalksis (I think).

Vote for Crunchessor tho.

k

[Overflow]

If we're speaking about compressors then best all around compressor is Sonictimeworks Compressor X. Why? Because it has both level detecting modes - Peak and RMS. As far as I understand most of compressors in market has peak detecting mode which is suitable for peak limiting in general. Besides it has soft and hard knee modes and brickwall limiter.

o.

[randygo]

Crunchessor is a great compressor for the price and until recently I used it a lot.

Lately though, I've been using TrackPlug from WaveArts which I think sounds much better than Crunchessor in general.

It just brought a clarity to all my tracks that was missing with Crunchessor. It also as a nice EQ built-in as well, so I suppose its not a truly fair comparison. But even without the EQ I still feel the compressor beats out Crunchessor.

Unfortunately, I believe the $99 promotion of TrackPlug ended a few weeks ago.

Randy

[dreammaka]

one more vote for trackplug.
it's really good.

I use it on every track. then if I need that special compressions
I use UAD-1 stuff or Neodynium or PSP stuff.

for general purpose compressions you can't beat trackplug.

[chagzuki]

Well, it ought to be stated that the unique feature of Crunchessor is it's nice saturation model.

[hello1234]

Remember compressor people, you really should check out the vintage warmer by psp. The reason is that it has "instant gratification" without a huge cpu hit....works for everything actually.

just to add to the mix

[Coolredguitar]

I have all of the compressors mentioned here except the Sonalksis one and tend to use the voxengo ones alot. Dont forget about Kjaerhus..my fav is the golden compressor. It doesnt cost too much and really sounds great.

[bmanic]

Remember compressor people, you really should check out the vintage warmer by psp. The reason is that it has "instant gratification" without a huge cpu hit....works for everything actually.

just to add to the mix

Vintage Warmer is a fancy interface with poor sound IMHO. So just to give a different persepective I voice my objection. However, the new PSP MasterCompressor seems to sound quite good.

Sonalksis compressor is still in the top 3 of native compressors. It works extremely well and can be hit very hard and it still sounds musical (like -20dB gain reduction for agressive vocals, works very well).

Another vote for crunchessor too as it's awesome and for the budget minded there's the free Blockfish compressor in the Digitalfishphones fish fillets series of plugins.

- bManic

[hello1234]

Vintage Warmer is a fancy interface with poor sound IMHO. So just to give a different persepective I voice my objection.

Hey, everyone has the ones they hate/love

[Coolredguitar]

Vintage Warmer sounds great, depends on the program material but it sounds great for most

[jmh]

Well, since bManic took the plunge... I'm in the minority as well that thinks that VintageWarmer isn't all that.

Sure, it can be used in a way so it sounds nice, but most of the time... it just doesn't (to my ears).

Sonalksis, Crunchessor, Golden Compressor... now those things sound good.

Regards,

JMH

[bmanic]

Doh! How could I forget about Kjaerhus Golden Compressor! Yes, that one is fantastic and I very much recommend it.. every time I think about it though my wallet mysteriously appears on my table.

.. must resist!

- bManic

[Z]

I demoed Chrunchessor yesterday as well as a more extensive demo of Neodynium and SV-315. I've still to demo Kjaerhus' compressor, but I have to say that I like Neodynium and I disliked Chrunchessor in comparison. Bear in mind that it doesn't mean I dislike Chrunchessor, I just didn't favour its sound at all compared to Neodynium.

Neodynium made my DFH snares sound extremely snappy and punchy, while nor Chrunchessor or SV-315 sounded as good, Neodynium also made my guitars sound sweet and punchy, while again, Chrunchessor and SV-315 didn't.
This could be, though, because I found the presets in Neodynium extremely and immediately usable for my liking, while Chruncessor and SV-315 needed lots more tweaking even to begin sound as good.

However, as some did point out further up in this thread, compressing is a new ballpark for me, I have a lot to learn about it and maybe if this was 6 months from now, I'd change my mind completely.

However for now, I think I will definiately go for Neodynium.

[chagzuki]

Eh???

If you want snappyness then learn how compressors work and you'll find that any decent compressor with a short release can give you that.

Try this on drums:
take whatever comressor you want (other than Neodynium as it has more complex controls) and set attack to 15ms, release to around 30ms and ratio to something like 5:1. Now move the threshold around and see the results.

Do this with Crunchessor with all the saturation stuff turned off, or set as low as possible.

[Z]

Eh???

If you want snappyness then learn how compressors work and you'll find that any decent compressor with a short release can give you that.

Try this on drums:
take whatever comressor you want (other than Neodynium as it has more complex controls) and set attack to 15ms, release to around 30ms and ratio to something like 5:1. Now move the threshold around and see the results.

Do this with Crunchessor with all the saturation stuff turned off, or set as low as possible.

That's not what I said: "Neodynium made my DFH snares sound extremely snappy and punchy, while nor Chrunchessor or SV-315 sounded as good"

I didn't say Crunchessor/SV-315 didn't sound snappy, just that they didn't sound as good to me as Neodynium.
Just a matter of personal taste, I guess.