Slate Virtual Console Plugin is now available

[Compyfox]

My studio maintenance teacher at Berklee said, shoot for a peak to rms ratio of -14dbm.

You're sure your teacher ment -14dBm? (dB milliwatt)

Not only is this value not used in Audio Engineering, it would make no sense converted if we assume 600ohm as impedance (hi Z input).

Here:

What is dBm?
A logarithmic ratio with a reference power of P0 = 1.000 milliwatt ≡ 0 dBm.
The dBm is not used in audio engineering. With the known impedance value you
can convert voltage V to level dBm (power) and vice versa.

For radio frequency systems (RF), impedance matching or power matching
is absolutely essential.

And what does he mean by "peak to rms ratio"?
Either you have a rms (average signal level/loudness) or peak (maximum volume) of a signal. Unless he meant the "crest factor", which lies on a whole different ballpark..

In a forum discussion on the loudness wars a couple years ago, someone
said, the number 1 pop album at the time had an rms level of -7db.

Let's see...
K-12 from the K-Meter would mean -12dB reference point at 600ms integration time while measuring - so -12dB = 0VU.

-7dB RMS would resemble +5 on the VU, therefore we have K-12 RZ+1 (Red Zone +1). Out of the standards, mastered too loud. Upper limit I saw so far was -5dB RMS, which was a metal production (not Metallica).

Remember, there is no K-10 to "bend the rules".

another Berklee teacher said When You compress the entire mix,the vca turns everything down when the signal crosses the threshold.

In what relation? What threshold are we talking about? What attack/release times? A VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplifier) is basically a full-band compressor. Of course it will compress the entire mix if you put it on a summing bus/group channel. That's what compressors do.

I wonder how VCC compares to these $2000 + summing amps?

I can't tell you that - you have to do your own comparision.

But I want to remind the users of this thread, that Steven Slate once made a comparision here on KVR with a copied Da'Vinci painting. It went something along the lines of:

"On first look, it does indeed look like a Leonardo. But if you get closer, you see that it's a (good) copy. Though you miss out on all layers which made up the original painting, but the essence (the picture) is there."

VCC was a similar approach which got a little more enhanced over time.

[bill45]

Yeah, He did say, dbm was an old standard, used by the phone company.He also used dbu as a reference. As far as peak/rms ratio, crest factor would apply.
as far as compressing the entire mix, it seemed they where against us doing it.
This was in the1980's.

[loopdon]

Bought it yesterday. Can't wait.

[jjsr]

Yeah. Adjusting the Calibration did it exactly: Driving the source material hotter AND equals the output within normal levels (without going over 0dBFS / Channel Faders @ 0dB)

Other Question:
How do you set up your full mix? I know that the Channel is like its called - for channels and the mixbuss for the master chain. But what about aux-returns/sends? Do you use here also the channel or the mixbuss?
The same for Groups: Channel or mixbus version?

And why? what are the differencies between these two?

Thanks

[Lenticular]

Yeah. Adjusting the Calibration did it exactly: Driving the source material hotter AND equals the output within normal levels (without going over 0dBFS / Channel Faders @ 0dB)

Other Question:
How do you set up your full mix? I know that the Channel is like its called - for channels and the mixbuss for the master chain. But what about aux-returns/sends? Do you use here also the channel or the mixbuss?
The same for Groups: Channel or mixbus version?

And why? what are the differencies between these two?

Thanks

Since the cpu is too high in 1.06 vI can't mix an entire project in one go.
I bounce to stem submixes using groups - gtrs/ vox/ main instruments/ orchestra with an instance of the mixbuss on each group buss.

Any fx's that need to be used or shared by different groups I route the outs to a separate buss with an instance of the mixbuss on. Since the vcc channel is on individual tracks already I don't need one for every fx buss.


Then if I want I can put an instance of a vcc channel on each stem track then route those to a stems buss with an instance of the mixbuss on that.

[Slate]

Folks!!!!
Go to the USERS area and download the new 1.1 VCC!

This plugin is still 32bit.. but fixes... EVERYTHING. Guys who had problems should now be smoooooth sailing.

Go get it.

[metamorphosis]

It's worse, unfortunately Slate.
The random volume dropouts that were occurring with 1.06 in discrete modes are gone, but the random pauses with virtual channels are still there, and now the virtual mixbuss slows the entire system to a crawl when adjusting parameters in realtime.
In tracktion 3.0.48 (beta works fine).

[Spitfire31]

It's worse, unfortunately Slate.
The random volume dropouts that were occurring with 1.06 in discrete modes are gone, but the random pauses with virtual channels are still there, and now the virtual mixbuss slows the entire system to a crawl when adjusting parameters in realtime.
In tracktion 3.0.48 (beta works fine).

Not to hijack this thread into a Tracktion bitch fest, but really…

Tracktion 3 (which I abandoned on the Mac years ago since it wouldn't handle mainstream plug-ins gracefully) is an unsupported DAW which was left by Mackie in a bug ridden state. IMHO, it's an open question whether it can be regarded as a fully professional editing environment. On the Mac, the answer is clear, at least.

Are you really sure that the problems you are seeing are not, in fact, due to inconsistencies in the way Tracktion handles plug-ins? It wouldn't be the first time.

/Joachim

[metamorphosis]

As I said in the last post, The Beta Worked Fine.
As for reliability, I have experienced only 2 plugins out of the 300 I currently have in my plugins folder which have had any issues in tracktion.
Yes, it's the 1.1 ver's fault entirely. If you used the mac version of tracktion, which it was never originally designed for, you would've got a skewed view of it's reliability. I've never had these -particular- problems with other plugins btw.
Cheers-

[Compyfox]

Folks!!!!
Go to the USERS area and download the new 1.1 VCC!

Steven, was the +/-24dB Input Gain FR adressed?
What about the "drift" mode?


And did you folks (Fabrice and you) get my mail?

[penguinfromdeep]

Actually I'm experiencing the problem Metamorphosis is describing but on OS X and Ableton Live.. When the gui is open and I'm fiddling the controls I get small drop outs or glitching in the audio

[metamorphosis]

With a normal project and the amount of virtual channels and mixbusses needed to complete it, playback often freezes for up to 5 seconds at a time; even saw 30 seconds once.

ps. Love your sig

[penguinfromdeep]

There's definitely some kind of gui related issue here; only by inserting one mixbus plug-in I get drop outs and glitching .. Also cpu usage shoots right up. It works fine when the gui is closed.

[FrankT]

This plugin is still 32bit.. but fixes... EVERYTHING.

Why did I invest three years in an MBA reading all this stuff from so called Business Gurus if Marketing actually is so easy !

[Slate]

Hey guys! We wanna fix any last remaining bugs.. We've even invested in more systems to try to recreate more configurations.. Please send us support tickets so we can fix stuff!