Smashing Sounds with Sonalksis Compressor

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On the other hand I may implement a fully linear-phase mode (like in Warmifier), but that will add at least 1024 sample latency.
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soulkraka wrote:you may wanna try Blockfish, which is free and does wonderful things to drums (switch on complex mode)
ditto

actually the 'saturation' is all i use sometimes.

it also works nicely as a limiter of sorts.

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Hmm, I think it would be nice to have an option to disable the phasy thing but a phase linear mode with that much latency seems a bit too much for me lol ... I'd probably never use it that way since the realtime aspect of my tracks will be lost.

If the Sonalksis compressor could have another mode added to it which is more like the 1176 ... now that would be sweet.

The thing that I like about the sonalksis compressor is that it sounds big, the bass end seems enhanced in some way. I might write to the Sonalksis guys and ask them more about this.

I think it's about time I just buy a UAD-1 ... :D

Cheers
Fots

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JeffSanders wrote:So you have duplicate tracks and are smashing one of them?
You don't need to do this with the Marquis. The "mix" knob serves up very efficient parallel compression with no phase issues. You can mix in your untouched track this way.
I'm afraid the mix is much more complex that simply a duplicate. I create a group and send only the bass and snare drum to it and then smash that mix. I then mix that with the full drum kit including overheads .etc.

In real life situations I do something similar to bmanic on drums...

Compressor on the kick drum
Compressor on the snare drum mics (top and bottom)
Then I do 1 of 2 things...
- Use parallel compression on the kick and snare as described above
- Run an additional compressor on both the bass drum and snare
The final drum mix without overheads is then usually run through another compressor to glue the sound together.

And this is where it gets complex, even if my CPU cuuld handle the load of 100 Marquis compressors, it would be FAR too confusing keeping up with where to add compressors to correct phase issues lol :D But then again, it is THAT sound that I love about the Marquis in the first place so I would never want to lose it on my vocals, guitars and bass.

Cheers
Fots

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I swear there are many plugins that do a good job at destoroying the transients...how about these?

Dry Drums

GVST GComp

GVST GComp2

If I think of some others, I'll post them.

EDIT: Vanilla Compressor This really crunched the peaks...

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I LIKE ! :D Will try those compresors again tonight :D

Vanilla did an AWESOME job !

Cheers
Fots

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soundpalace wrote:I LIKE ! :D Will try those compresors again tonight :D

Vanilla did an AWESOME job !

Cheers
Fots
Great, glad I got you in the ballpark! That Vanilla compressor is really nice; I hope he gets around to finishing it some day.

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Totally, I checked out Chunkware's site and they seem to have some great things planned.

I installed the Waves demo last night to retry the Renaissance Bundle since I remember the RComp smashes things well. Well ... I restarted as requested and then the installer started and as soon as it finished, BAM, blue screen of death ! :D lol

I would much prefer to go with Vanilla compressor but as you mentioned mate, it's just not complete yet, it may not be compatible with future versions .etc

I'll keep a close eye on Chunkware's website.

Cheers
Fots

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vanilla compressor is an awesome freebie, in whatever alpha/beta form it is in.
Hopefully the chunkware guys will complete it at some point, GUI etc. - although it is a well rounded & versatile compressor as is.

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totally ! I tried it more tonight and was very impressed. Regardless of the fact that they haven't tried to make it analog sounding, it seems to have the warm soft analog sound due to its gentleness ... compared to say ... the Waves C1 which is also considered a no-frills digital compressor.

Most impressed. After toying with the following...

- Sonalksis
- Marquis
- Neodynamin
- GCO-1
- GPP1-
- MixPressor

I actually like MixPressor and Marquis the most for smashing things down. For me, the mixpressor feels a little awkward to use but it sounds excellent imho.

The main problem I find with Sonalksis is that even on the most smashed settings, I get peaks coming through at loud volumes. I thought this is what their anti-breathe technology was all about ? If the Sonalksis compressor didn't do this, I think I would have bought it a long time ago :( I just love its sound.

Truth is that the GCO-1 does this too so I guess what I need to do is grab myself a good track limiter to place after it, such as the GPP or TBs Pocket Limiter.

The Marquis compressor and the PSP one can tame those peaks easily, I never have to worry about getting very loud peaks when using short attack times on drums.

Cheers
Fots

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Pocket limiter is an amazing freebie also.
Simple to use & it does what it says on the tin with aplomb.

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bduffy, using your sample, I have played with the Marquis compressor and you gotta hear this...

http://www.users.on.net/~djbros/DrumsMarquis.mp3

Note that it retains a little more of its punch yet there are no peaks. I find that this sounds less boxy than the vanilla compressor for this particular track.

I used the sidechain EQ to boost the highs and thus you'll notice how smooth the hihats sound even though I'm smashing the bass and snare drums :D

If only there was no phase problem, I think I'd switch to the Marquis for everything FO SURE ! :D

Cheers
Fots

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soundpalace, I'm working on a 'less phasy' mode. I still do not see a problem with it given you'll use Marquis on everything, but I'll add such 'less phasing' switch for more flexibility.
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hey Aleksey, when I say everything, I meant it in a general context lol my apologies. Often on a drumkit I don't apply compression on the overheads and room mics.

Currently I use the Marquis for non-drum related tasks, and thus, if the phasing limitation could somehow be addressed, then I would be able to use it for drum mixes too, which would be ideal ! :D

Thus, the less phasy mode would be very much appreciated. With the less phasy mode, does this mean that we should be able to apply compression to say, the snare drum and it will still phase align with the drum mix ?

Thanks a lot
Fots

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Aleksey Vaneev wrote:On the other hand I may implement a fully linear-phase mode (like in Warmifier), but that will add at least 1024 sample latency.
Yes please! :D

- bManic
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot

"They don't ban hate speech; they ban speech they hate." -an oracle

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