MAutoVolume beta available - need opinions! :)

[MeldaProduction]

Hi Vojtech,

Is it possible to emulate Vocal Rider with a simple one band compressor ?
Maybe with slow attack/release and rms detection ?

Well, I think it is partly possible, but it would be quite hard to create such a shape I believe.

[MeldaProduction]

Greetings!
Great fun to play with this, thank you!
Possibly suggest default sensitivity could be 50% rather than 100%.
Default setup with 100% sensitivity and normal input levels is a bit - um - intense.

Ok, done .

Range, speed and Noise floor work really well, particularly suited to bringing up low recorded levels which the plugin excels at. Background sensitivity didn't seem to behave as I might have expected. What is its design aim?

Background sensitivity works only with side-chain - did you try that?

Gain settings are quite critical and I found the plugin overall to be a bit fussy to adjust. Because there is the possibility of both gain and attenuation, I found it necessary to readjust both input and output gain settings after changing the sensitivity, range or speed.

The question is what to do about that. I mean I think you have to first adjust the sensitivity & input gain to make it stabilize the levels well, and then just use the output gain to bring your loudness to whatever level.

Once set up though, it sounds wucking fonderful! It is easily the best 'levelling' effect I have used. With a bit of tweaking of levels, and maybe control interactions, I think you have an outright winner here.

Perfect!

Please note that I have not tried it with sidechain yet. It took me two hours to really come to terms with it and the sidechain tests will have to wait until tomorrow.

Hope this helps,

Sir Ratty III

Sure , Let me know .

[MeldaProduction]

Hi Vojtech,

This could again be a very useful tool! I haven't tested it practically much yet, but the concept seems to make sense. I know one can probably achieve similar results with a slow compressor with a fitting processing shape, but I like special purpose plugins that are easy to use.

Out of interest: what is the range (ie milliseconds) of the speed parameter?

I'm not sure I use the plugin correctly, though. With the default settings I get some heavy spikes if there is a short silent part between words.

For example, here's a vocal sample I processed with MAutoVolume using only the default settings:


The upper wave form is the original file, the lower wave form is the processed file. See the spike at the end of the first part? I understand what could cause it: there is a short part before it that is rather quite compared to the rest. MAutoVolume tries to compensate for that and increases the gain. When the next word starts the gain is still very high and it takes some time (=> speed setting) to catch the now higher input level. This manifests into this spike.

Am I doing something wrong or is it just that the default settings are too extreme? I mean +/-24dB gain is a lot, right? Maybe +/- 6dB or a sensitivity of <100% would be a more sensible default value.

Maybe a two speed settings in place of one could be useful: one that controls the speed of gain increase and one that controls the decrease. A slower increase and faster decrease would reduce the spikes after inter-word gaps. Think attack/release wrt to gain decrease.

Regards,
Andre

Yej, ok, I think this is what you should do - decrease the input gain. You are trying to use it as a compressor - use high gain and let it decrease it. But it is not a compressor. It can as well increase gain, which is usually more natural, because you just loose a little attack (depending on the speed), but no spikes. Can you check it out?
I'd rather avoid additional settings if not necessary. I want this plugin to be as simple as possible.

[dickiefunk]

I'm very excited about the potential of this plugin. I've been waiting for a cheaper alternative (without dongle) to Waves Vocal Rider for ages!!

Will it be possible to buy this plugin individually or will I have to buy it as part of a bundle?

[MeldaProduction]

It will be available separately as usual

[henge]

Checked it out on bass and vocals and it sounded great.
Great tool in the toolbox!!

[bbaggins]

My initial results were similar to paterpeter's, with some transients ending up a little spikey. I bumped the speed setting up and lowered the input gain, and that resolved it.

This plugin doesn't negate the need for a compressor, and works best in conjunction with a compressor. I'd assumed MAutoVolume would be a bus effect, but my best results so far have been when I insert MAutoVolume on individual tracks going into a bus compressor. Sort of the reverse of the way you might normally use two-stage compression on a vox bus.

Because I am accustomed to achieving this effect through volume automation I'm not yet convinced that I even need something like MAutoVolume. It could turn out to be one of those effects that's too complicated for beginners but redundant for experienced users, thus missing any significant market. Dunno yet.

[henge]

My initial results were similar to paterpeter's, with some transients ending up a little spikey. I bumped the speed setting up and lowered the input gain, and that resolved it.

This plugin doesn't negate the need for a compressor, and works best in conjunction with a compressor. I'd assumed MAutoVolume would be a bus effect, but my best results so far have been when I insert MAutoVolume on individual tracks going into a bus compressor. Sort of the reverse of the way you might normally use two-stage compression on a vox bus.

Because I am accustomed to achieving this effect through volume automation I'm not yet convinced that I even need something like MAutoVolume. It could turn out to be one of those effects that's too complicated for beginners but redundant for experienced users, thus missing any significant market. Dunno yet.

Agreed, you still need a comp in the chain but...I just put it on a lead vocal that had volume automation. I bypassed the automation, dialed in MAutoVolume and it rode the vox beautifully. Cut down the automation by about 90% in this case. If it saves me time and the client money, I'm a happy guy!

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[MeldaProduction]

Thanks folks!

And yes, it doesn't mean you shouldn't use a compressor. But it does exactly what you said - it virtually moves the volume fader, but it can be way quicker than you would . Then if you want to do some compression, sure, put it after. Personally I'm not a fan of too much compression (as this plugin technically decreases the dynamic range as well), but that depends on the situation.

[camsr]

Sounds good so far. The meters are actually very unintuitive. This could have been executed much better. I have no idea what the 'background sensitivity' control is for.

One bug, in FL, if "Don't Allow Keyboard Focus" is selected, the editor would not release the mouse and clicking on anything and moving the mouse will only resize the editor...

CPU usage is great. Only 3 percent on my quad core.

Sidechain isn't working. ???

EDIT: Got sidechain working, should have read first

It could use a MIX knob.

If you wanted to use look ahead and make it toggleable, I don't think anyone would mind.

[MeldaProduction]

Sounds good so far. The meters are actually very unintuitive. This could have been executed much better. I have no idea what the 'background sensitivity' control is for.

Background sens is for side-chain only, check the help . With the meters - well, any ideas?

One bug, in FL, if "Don't Allow Keyboard Focus" is selected, the editor would not release the mouse and clicking on anything and moving the mouse will only resize the editor...

I have honestly no idea what that option is and I'm not really sure if this really matters, 'cos it's probably only FL's experiment and the plugin can benefit from the keyboard focus of course. I'll check though...

It could use a MIX knob.

What do you mean by that?

If you wanted to use look ahead and make it toggleable, I don't think anyone would mind.

Noted, probably a good idea, will check.

[highkoo]

Yep, this thing is going to print you money.
Whatever you were going to charge- Double it.

I think he means Wet/Dry knob for 'MIX', but I dont know why. "NYC Fader Riding"?

[keel]

One bug, in FL, if "Don't Allow Keyboard Focus" is selected, the editor would not release the mouse and clicking on anything and moving the mouse will only resize the editor...

I have honestly no idea what that option is and I'm not really sure if this really matters, 'cos it's probably only FL's experiment and the plugin can benefit from the keyboard focus of course. I'll check though...

FYI, this happens on your all plugins. I can't even click back to the wrapper settings. Only way is, to quit FL, load empty project, load up your plugin and go to the wrapper settings and untick that "dont allow keyboard shortcut" thing.

Once, I asked you to fix your plugins to not steal space, but you said something like "I wont". This is too bad, cause if plugin steal space in FL = no buy from me. I wish every developers would be like fabfilters.. I asked them to fix their plugins, and they did..

Sorry ot and sorry for my bad english..

[Rathead]

Yep, this thing is going to print you money.
Whatever you were going to charge- Double it.
<snip>

Have you taken leave of your senses, Sir!

Let us get a good intro deal first, THEN double the price!