Cleanest most transparent vst compressor?

[MeldaProduction]

Overall, I would say that Maximus is probably the most transparent compressor I use in any given situation. It's design and flexibility allow it to be tuned and restricted to allow a broad range of compression. Unfortunately it's only cheap if you have FL Studio.

Ok, sorry, but Maximus is the WORST multiband compressor and is definitely NOT transparent!!! I really don't understand you folks, is it really all that shiny graphics that make you think it is good??? You are musicians, use your ears!

If you don't believe me, just make the middle band narrow! You will hear it even on the worst headphones your grandma uses... This is called a crossover design, and what imageline did is pittyful example of how bad it can be if you don't know what you are doing. Btw. did you ever think about why maximus has only 3 bands? Now you have the answer...

[thankyou]

DISCLAIMER: I.M.O.

not to burst the bubble, but compressors affect the volume of the signal, and therefore they are neither transparent or opaque.

this is solely a matter of how you set the compressor, because unless the software developer is lying, they should and do respond exactly the way the controls describe. its processing numbers, and some compressors might be adding 'mojo' or saturation, so don't use those.

no compressor sounds better than any other because they dont make any sound, your source audio is whats doing that.

if you as the engineer don't notice anything being done by the compressor, it's not being done. a compressor that is 'transparent' is bypassed.

the one exception i will make at the moment is for multiband compressors. if they are not linear phase, then there will be 'coloration' (phase smearing) caused by the crossover, which isn't 'transparent'

this sounds more like a mixing issue and relevant to production technique.

[thankyou]

If you don't believe me, just make the middle band narrow! You will hear it even on the worst headphones your grandma uses... This is called a crossover design, and what imageline did is pittyful example of how bad it can be if you don't know what you are doing. Btw. did you ever think about why maximus has only 3 bands? Now you have the answer...

ouch! a scathing attack. but... what if people want to turn their material into garbage as a production technique?

[MeldaProduction]

If you don't believe me, just make the middle band narrow! You will hear it even on the worst headphones your grandma uses... This is called a crossover design, and what imageline did is pittyful example of how bad it can be if you don't know what you are doing. Btw. did you ever think about why maximus has only 3 bands? Now you have the answer...

ouch! a scathing attack. but... what if people want to turn their material into garbage as a production technique?

yes in that case, Maximus is great ...

[MeldaProduction]

Well, it's not that simple. The so-called mojo is usually harmonics, which means new frequencies. They are based on original audio, but it was not present in the original audio. If there is more harmonics, then it is not transparent.

"Compressors are not transparent, because they manipulate audio." - As you have said, with this explanation the word "transparent" would basically have no meaning, so why would everyone be using it? Transparent usually means it does not alter frequency content, particularly magnitudes. And that's exactly what Maximus does. A lot! Unacceptable! Just image it creates a nice +6dB peak filter... You can start equalizing from scratch...

Btw. don't be afraid of "phase smearing". It's only a propaganda. In fact, most engineers do NOT recommend linear-phase crossovers. And LP eqs should used only if necessary as well. One of the reasons is the pre-ringing, which is in most cases much louder artifact, than phase alteration caused by minimum (hence analog) filters.

[Tren]

Waves C1

[Cordelia]

Ok, sorry, but Maximus is the WORST multiband compressor and is definitely NOT transparent!!! I really don't understand you folks, is it really all that shiny graphics that make you think it is good??? You are musicians, use your ears!

If you represent MeldaProductions, I am never buying a thing from your company. This is the second time I've witnessed you slinging crap at other developers. It's childish, unprofessional, an ugly business style.

[futurefields]

Ok, sorry, but Maximus is the WORST multiband compressor and is definitely NOT transparent!!! I really don't understand you folks, is it really all that shiny graphics that make you think it is good??? You are musicians, use your ears!

If you represent MeldaProductions, I am never buying a thing from your company. This is the second time I've witnessed you slinging crap at other developers. It's childish, unprofessional, an ugly business style.

No. Image Line's junk is garbage compared to anything by like fabfilter, softube, stillwell, cytomic basically any of the companies doing good analog modeling.

I think it has something to do with their lead programmer working in some antique programming language (it's not c++ i know that) and refusing to change that.

[Cordelia]

Ok, sorry, but Maximus is the WORST multiband compressor and is definitely NOT transparent!!! I really don't understand you folks, is it really all that shiny graphics that make you think it is good??? You are musicians, use your ears!

If you represent MeldaProductions, I am never buying a thing from your company. This is the second time I've witnessed you slinging crap at other developers. It's childish, unprofessional, an ugly business style.

No. Image Line's junk is garbage compared to anything by like fabfilter, softube, stillwell, cytomic basically any of the companies doing good analog modeling.

I think it has something to do with their lead programmer working in some antique programming language (it's not c++ i know that) and refusing to change that.

Gol codes in Delphi, I believe. How would that effect the sound?
I own Maximus. I would never describe it as "transparent". I use it to FSU.

I was just expressing a personal dislike of Melda's advertising style- dirty.

[lateks]

Overall, I would say that Maximus is probably the most transparent compressor I use in any given situation. It's design and flexibility allow it to be tuned and restricted to allow a broad range of compression. Unfortunately it's only cheap if you have FL Studio.

Ok, sorry, but Maximus is the WORST multiband compressor and is definitely NOT transparent!!! I really don't understand you folks, is it really all that shiny graphics that make you think it is good??? You are musicians, use your ears!

If you don't believe me, just make the middle band narrow! You will hear it even on the worst headphones your grandma uses... This is called a crossover design, and what imageline did is pittyful example of how bad it can be if you don't know what you are doing. Btw. did you ever think about why maximus has only 3 bands? Now you have the answer...

I'm worried because I own and use Maximus a lot. Is it really that messed up? Can anyone verify that this multiband compressor is junk? What should I use instead?

[Cordelia]

I'm worried because I own and use Maximus a lot. Is it really that messed up? Can anyone verify that this multiband compressor is junk? What should I use instead?

This is why this hit and run style of promoting your own products "casually" in threads by trashing other devs is ugly business. Keep in mind Melda sell a multiband compressor of their own.

I don't know enough about the technical side of compression to answer you. I wish Gol would show up.

I use Maximus a lot, too. It can sound amazing and unlike any other compressor.

When it was first released there was a thread (you should really try to do a search) about low level noise at the crossovers- after stacking 10 instances something was heard. Gol addressed it, I think before the actual release, in what way I don't know. I remember linear phase filters were added...

So sorry I am just not in a position to really answer. Try to start another thread in the Image-Line forum maybe? Link back to this one?

[oneshotdeal]

I'm worried because I own and use Maximus a lot. Is it really that messed up? Can anyone verify that this multiband compressor is junk? What should I use instead?

If it works for you and does what you want to do, it really doesn't matter how objectively good something is. That should be rule #1. Make your own experiences. Don't listen to others if you like how something sounds, much less shameless self promoters who hijack every "best xy?" thread to claim their product equivalents to be the best.

[lateks]

I'm worried because I own and use Maximus a lot. Is it really that messed up? Can anyone verify that this multiband compressor is junk? What should I use instead?

This is why this hit and run style of promoting your own products "casually" in threads by trashing other devs is ugly business. Keep in mind Melda sell a multiband compressor of their own.

Okay I did not know that Melda sells multiband plugins too. That's not very nice.

I found a Sound On Sound article about maximus and they good things about it
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct08/a ... aximus.htm

But I would like to know what Melda means by crossover design is bad.

[tony tony chopper]

Ok, sorry, but Maximus is the WORST multiband compressor and is definitely NOT transparent!!!

It is definitely not transparent, never claimed to be (well, it can be, in single-band mode), one would be stupid to claim that a multiband compressor is transparent. The only time a multiband compressor could be transparent is when it's not compressing anything, but then why use it? As soon as it's gonna do something, there, it's not transparent anymore, because it was made not to be.

Btw. don't be afraid of "phase smearing". It's only a propaganda.

I'll be the first to back this up. Really, phase smearing is less evil than the huge latency required for narrow FIRs (and pre-ringing is indeed worse, however that's only if your FIRs are really narrow, which wouldn't apply to a multiband compressor for musical use anyway).
So yes, phase smearing isn't evil, but how can YOU write this after a speech about transparency? You know like me what a non-linear phase crossover will do to synthetic tones.. & that's "worse" than what you pointed out. & by "worse" I mean not transparent at all, even though it doesn't matter anyway.

If you represent MeldaProductions, I am never buying a thing from your company. This is the second time I've witnessed you slinging crap at other developers.

He doesn't like me because I didn't wanna change something in FL for one of his plugins to work in it.

Gol codes in Delphi, I believe. How would that effect the sound?

It's well known that Delphi sounds inferior..

[pheeleep]

Oh no! My 2 favorite audio software companies at war against each other?!?! Okay, war is a big word...

Maximus is not advertised as being transparent. It's a Multiband maximizer. It supposed to add (and does add) magic sparkle. It's the absolute opposite to "transparent". However, used subtly, it does significantly raise the overall volume without adding a large amount of "sparkle". Maximus works wonders on some of my tracks, but it's not a one trick pony to us on everything all the time. Sometimes the fruity multiband compressor (for example) will make my track sound as loud as Maximus, and better than Maximus. Other times, Maximus makes the sound 10 times better than anything else I try....