Toneboosters 3.x!

[digitalboytn]

Bmanic...Maybe you didn't really understand my comment because I have nothing but praise for the Tonebooster's plugins...

This is what I meant by "the pig" comment...

Some developers might code a plugin that is meant to emulate a Fairchild 670 and it might be in the ballpark,but not really that close...

So they make a sexy GUI that is a photo image of the Fairchild and then many punters who buy that plugin think,"Wow - I've got a Fairchild"...

Of course,they've never used the real thing,so they wouldn't really know...

But it looks like a pig,so it must be a pig

With the Toneboosters plugins,there's no attempt to give you photoshop GUI's..

All of the controls are laid out very logically and if you know what you're doing,you can really get all of the results you need out of those tools...

They would be at the top of my desert island tool box

[bmanic]

Ah I see!

Cheers!

[milosh_]

The new Bus Compressor is ridiculously awesome! I highly recommend it (I didn't last more than 15 minutes with the demo until I made a purchase). What's unique about it is the newly added Transient control. What this does is it can squash the initial transient by the set amount (it's in %) even if you are using huge attack values like 500ms. It's a very good compressor to tighten things up. You can even squash bass frequencies really effectively without getting severe pumping.

It's currently one of my favorite compressors but I'm still learning it's use. It's a very complex beast even if it has only a few parameters.. due to it's program dependent nature.

The only critique I have is that it seems to be hard-linked stereo compression which means I can't get dual-mono operation from it without running two instances in Reaper and linking each instance to it's own channel. In dual-mono mode it sounds absolutely wicked on stereo material!

Cheers!
bManic

Transient comp is great improvement as you say... and it is intuitive to use and sounds good,
I still don't know what dynamic release slider is doing...

cheers
milosh

[Tp3]

The only critique I have is that it seems to be hard-linked stereo compression which means I can't get dual-mono operation from it without running two instances in Reaper and linking each instance to it's own channel. In dual-mono mode it sounds absolutely wicked on stereo material!

Cheers!
bManic

Can you elaborate on the merits of dual-mono vs stereo, in regards to the final sound itself ? are the differences subtle or prominent ?

[dasdeck]

The only critique I have is that it seems to be hard-linked stereo compression which means I can't get dual-mono operation from it without running two instances in Reaper and linking each instance to it's own channel. In dual-mono mode it sounds absolutely wicked on stereo material!

Cheers!
bManic

Can you elaborate on the merits of dual-mono vs stereo, in regards to the final sound itself ? are the differences subtle or prominent ?

depending on the "stereo width" of the mix the difference can be anything from non existent to absolutely obvious/obnoxious.

edit: i never got anything useful out of unlinked "stereo" compression btw. any tips on what to try it on?

edit2: oh, i sometimes do some gradual unlinking while limiting (TB_Barricade). that can indeed sound good in small doses. so i guess the compressor should have adjustable linking too (if at all).

[DuX]

There's also benefit from dual mono mode in Reaper that you can process two different mono sounds with one instance of the compressor, like kick on the left channel and snare on the right. With Voxengo plugins it's easy to have 8 channels of separate mono compression with one instance of a plugin since his plugins support 8 audio channels.

[dasdeck]

There's also benefit from dual mono mode in Reaper that you can process two different mono sounds with one instance of the compressor, like kick on the left channel and snare on the right. With Voxengo plugins it's easy to have 8 channels of separate mono compression with one instance of a plugin since his plugins support 8 audio channels.

hmm...its a possiblitiy, yes, but a benefit? at least not to me . .. with hardware this si great, but with virtually "unlimited" instances...i mean having seperate tracks costs almost nothing and is way more convenient for what you aiming for... or do you mean that its and advantage to apply same settings to kick and snare for example?

[Tricky-Loops]

There's also benefit from dual mono mode in Reaper that you can process two different mono sounds with one instance of the compressor, like kick on the left channel and snare on the right. With Voxengo plugins it's easy to have 8 channels of separate mono compression with one instance of a plugin since his plugins support 8 audio channels.

"Kick on the left channel and snare on the right"



What sense does this make, do you want to hardpan kick & snare? While I could imagine this for guitars, I wouldn't use it for kick & snare...

[fluffy_little_something]

Do those plugins come with presets? I never really knew how to set compressor parameters. I only have the old Kjaerhus Audio Classic compressor because it was included in my DAW, and it has presets for bass, drums, voices, etc., which is cool. Unfortunately it adds some noise, so I was thinking of getting the TB bundle.
What is the difference between the bus compressor and the track compressor? They look the same to me

[fese]

Do those plugins come with presets? I never really knew how to set compressor parameters. I only have the old Kjaerhus Audio Classic compressor because it was included in my DAW, and it has presets for bass, drums, voices, etc., which is cool. Unfortunately it adds some noise, so I was thinking of getting the TB bundle.
What is the difference between the bus compressor and the track compressor? They look the same to me

Well, as the names say, one is mainly targeted for usage on single tracks, the other on on buses or the master bus. That's not mandatory of course. The track compressor has less features but has four different modes that offer different compression characteristics: smooth, punchy, vintage and modern, I forgot the exact names. It is a good compressor to learn how to set up parameters for compression, but it comes with no presets.
Bus compressor is a very transparent compressor with some special features, not so great for compression beginners I think.
The TB track essentials is the best choice if one wants an alternative to the DAW built in effects IMHO, as it offers great sound, great usability and flexibility for an insane price. Not for pure preset users though, as there aren't many... But then they are mix tools, not synths or special FX.

[fese]

By the way, that new plugin TB Dither seems to be targeted at a very special audience, I wouldn't know what to do with it as Barricade has a dither option and Cubase has one and I totally fail to hear the difference between them, if there is one, but then I failed to hear the difference between a dithered and a non-dithered render when ABX-ing, so either my ears are bad (yep), my monitoring situation is suboptimal (yep) or the difference isn't just so big (maybe, depending on the material).
Personally, I would love to see JB's take on a (multiband) distortion unit...

[Tricky-Loops]

I never really knew how to set compressor parameters.

Do schaugst:

http://music.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the ... -audio-953

[fluffy_little_something]

Do those plugins come with presets? I never really knew how to set compressor parameters. I only have the old Kjaerhus Audio Classic compressor because it was included in my DAW, and it has presets for bass, drums, voices, etc., which is cool. Unfortunately it adds some noise, so I was thinking of getting the TB bundle.
What is the difference between the bus compressor and the track compressor? They look the same to me

Well, as the names say, one is mainly targeted for usage on single tracks, the other on on buses or the master bus. That's not mandatory of course. The track compressor has less features but has four different modes that offer different compression characteristics: smooth, punchy, vintage and modern, I forgot the exact names. It is a good compressor to learn how to set up parameters for compression, but it comes with no presets.
Bus compressor is a very transparent compressor with some special features, not so great for compression beginners I think.
The TB track essentials is the best choice if one wants an alternative to the DAW built in effects IMHO, as it offers great sound, great usability and flexibility for an insane price. Not for pure preset users though, as there aren't many... But then they are mix tools, not synths or special FX.

I guess those four presets would be enough for me. I hardly use a compressor at all, basically only for my electric bass emulation so that it sounds tighter. I don't want that modern power sound at all, it is irritating to me. Thus I use as few effects as possible. I have iZotope mixing essentials on the master, that does the trick usually.

Seems they have dropped the EZ compressor they used to offer, I liked that one, it worked well even for laymen like me

[codec_spurt]

Red Phatt pro is a frigging classic.
Theyll be making emulations of it in 10 years time

Red Phatt Pro is a drum killer. I remember all those praising it after buying it for the paltry 10 or 15 Euros - whatever it was - they were over the moon. Got to say, this is easy to dial in - instant results.

I have his normal compressor in the free pack, but am wondering how his new 'bus' compressor measures up. It has even less controls. I'm shallow like that. Plus, it's not red.

Anyone?

The new Bus Compressor is ridiculously awesome! I highly recommend it (I didn't last more than 15 minutes with the demo until I made a purchase). What's unique about it is the newly added Transient control. What this does is it can squash the initial transient by the set amount (it's in %) even if you are using huge attack values like 500ms. It's a very good compressor to tighten things up. You can even squash bass frequencies really effectively without getting severe pumping.

It's currently one of my favorite compressors but I'm still learning it's use. It's a very complex beast even if it has only a few parameters.. due to it's program dependent nature.

The only critique I have is that it seems to be hard-linked stereo compression which means I can't get dual-mono operation from it without running two instances in Reaper and linking each instance to it's own channel. In dual-mono mode it sounds absolutely wicked on stereo material!

Cheers!
bManic

Ah ah.

I thought it must have been doing some 'automagical' stuff like that otherwise he wouldn't have added it to the roster. I'm gonna have to get it then. It's the only one I don't have out of his entire collection, apart from EBU - but that is on my short list.

Thanks bmanic for the explanation. Kudos to you as always.



Oh and afore I go, the question about the reverb, this might sound silly but I'm sure it sounds better with the new GUI. I know, I know... who knows? Maybe it always was that good. I don't think it is insanely flexible, but the few things I have tried it on lately are very nice - subtle, sitting quietly in the mix, integrated into the sound source itself. Maybe Jeroen tweaked a bit of the source...

Most plugins seem to be eating less CPU too, which is another nice bonus. I run on old systems and the extra few percent either way makes a difference.

[DuX]

What sense does this make, do you want to hardpan kick & snare? While I could imagine this for guitars, I wouldn't use it for kick & snare...

It makes a lot of sense because in Reaper you can then send those separate mono channels wherever you want, pan them however you want etc. or just mono-ise the whole track so they stay in the centre. You think in stereo terms too much. Tell me, have you ever seen a recording engineer recording kick and snare drums with separate stereo mics? I haven't. That's because it's not the right way to do it and a waste of microphones. Unless you record the whole kit with just 4 mics - main stereo pair and a pair for overheads. That's not a bad technique at all, but you don't get separate stereo kick and snare either, just the recording of the whole kit. Anyway, my point is that using one instance of compressor with separate settings for left and right channel [like you can do with OverTone DSP FC70 for instance] spares you some CPU cycles and some time changing between the instances of the compressor.