Airwindows BussColors 4: AU, Mac and PC VST

[jinxtigr]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubfMpMyq-og

TL;DW: The Airwindows console emulations, now working up to 192K correctly.

BussColors4

I'm very pleased to bring you the latest version of BussColors

This plugin's a pretty huge deal: it's been around since before console emulations were a thing, and I've been steadily working on it year after year. There's not been much to do: my original algorithms, once I moved past the earliest incarnation as the 'Character' plugins, were so solid that it left little to do. BussColors has sold $22,445 of plugins over the years, as Audio Units alone, in spite of the fact that it has always been a 44.1K plug (due to being based on a convolution model).

The story there is, a guy at NoiseVault always wanted someone to make a plugin which used his sets of hardware convolution kernels, which he'd done at all different levels. Sort of the Nebula thing (Giancarlo has been a great help when I was getting the VST thing going, check out Nebula)

I'm not that. I'm Chris from Airwindows… so I set out to make my own version of this sort of thing, with hardcoded algorithms generated on-the-fly, as raw and close to the metal as I could get it. And I got some pretty respectable CPU efficiency with all of the tone quality I wanted, limited to 44.1K.

UNTIL NOW

Try it. BussColors4 is the newest version of BussColors, and it works at any sample rate and gets you the same sound. Better, in fact: I like what it does a lot better at 96K and 192K. It also doesn't greatly expand processing and CPU hit at higher sample rates. I think this one's a real highlight of the Airwindows arsenal. It would definitely be worth your $50, like its predecessors (well, I always did give existing BussColors users free updates for life, I mean for new buyers). Feel free to shoot it out against the most expensive and/or CPU-hungry options and I think it will clobber all comers.

And since it's a Patreon supported plugin, it is AU and Mac/PC VST, and it is free. Now, if you LIKE me bringing the industry tools like this to use, you might find it in your best interest to throw me a buck a month using the Patreon so I continue to make and upgrade these plugins. BussColors didn't used to be 'all sample rates', until I worked out how to do it properly, and now it is. I think if you look at the stuff I've done, and the stuff I'm preparing to do, you'll see the point of supporting the Patreon.

It's a long video. Feel free to just download and start using the plugin, and I hope you like it.

Also, it's my birthday tomorrow, so it pleases me to give YOU a present. Must be Backwards Day!

[Tp3]

Although there are input/output sliders, this plugs really shines when sandwiched between two level matching plugs (and experimenting with the amount of feed to it)

The colour to be had is immense

[nineofkings]

Wow. This is super impressive. "Lush" is instant round, blooming bass. Again surprised by how well defined and crisp the "tube" sound is, like in TubeDesk. Doesn't roll off high end at all.

[mcbpete]

AMAZING - Thanks jinxtigr. And a very happy birthday for tomorrow

[Tearing Riots]

Sounds awesome, thanks!

Could you expand on the interaction with console4 though, i didnt really understand it from your video.

[cprompt]

Could you expand on the interaction with console4 though, i didnt really understand it from your video.

Yeah, me neither especially as Chris put the BussColors logo panel right over the important bit

I think he said that you can replace Console4Channel with BussColors and feed that in to Console4Buss but I could be wrong. Or maybe he said you can run BussColors after Console4Buss. I got confused too. I know I could experiment and see what sounds best, but I would like to at least start using it the way it was designed.

[jinxtigr]

I said both

You can just use it (no Console) or you can put it on channels and feed it to Console4Buss, or you can do that and then also put another BussColors after Console4Buss too, for lots of color and saturation. Experiment, it's designed for all this

[cprompt]

I said both

You can just use it (no Console) or you can put it on channels and feed it to Console4Buss, or you can do that and then also put another BussColors after Console4Buss too, for lots of color and saturation. Experiment, it's designed for all this

Thank you. I ended up replacing Console4Channel with BussColors and loved the result. I didn't try leaving Console4Channel feeding Console4Buss and then add BussColors after the pair, but to be honest, I love being able to adjust BussColors for each channel - one guitar really liked Steel, another came alive with Lush and yet another responded well to Vibe. This, along with the IronOxide duo, is really a very special plugin.

[jinxtigr]

You can also replace Console4Channel with BussColors and THEN put BussColors again after the pair, and fiddle with the controls until you have a 'desk slam' you like. When you use it to feed Console4Buss only, it will be more dynamic. If you add it as a post-Console stage, you get more of its distorty/saturatey qualities. And of course if you're running through two instances of it, you'll get REALLY INTENSE coloration that's probably all you'd need for any purpose.

ToTape is next month, so I would say learn how to decide how much is too much. If you use all my plugins as much as possible you can get a very 'analog' sounding result that is a bucket of mud! Very vibey mud, but it's good to also leave dynamics and clarity too

[Tp3]

Just had to paste it here :

So, feeling somewhat smug about the superiority of analog summing, I listened to the mix processed with the
Airwindows plug-ins. When compared to the analog summed mix, the spatial dimension seemed to be very
similar. There was the same sort of feeling of the lateral sound stage being open and spacious. However, I
was surprised to find that I preferred the high-frequency clarity and detail of the Airwindows mix as
compared to the analog mix. Although the analog mix was great, it seemed to lose the top-end sheen that
was apparent on the Airwindows mix. I would have to say that given the choice, I would likely choose the
Airwindows approach due to the sonics of the final product.

...

Forgive my cheesy plagiarism, but...

"I don't always mix In The Box, but when I do, I use Airwindows."

http://tapeop.com/reviews/gear/104/console-plug-ins/

Chris... this may be an opportunity to ask for a small button that preserve current setting as default ones.
I find myself setting default values... and having to do it time and again.

is it hard to do ?

In the meantime I'll await ToTape

[Russell Grand]

Just had to paste it here :

So, feeling somewhat smug about the superiority of analog summing, I listened to the mix processed with the
Airwindows plug-ins. When compared to the analog summed mix, the spatial dimension seemed to be very
similar. There was the same sort of feeling of the lateral sound stage being open and spacious. However, I
was surprised to find that I preferred the high-frequency clarity and detail of the Airwindows mix as
compared to the analog mix. Although the analog mix was great, it seemed to lose the top-end sheen that
was apparent on the Airwindows mix. I would have to say that given the choice, I would likely choose the
Airwindows approach due to the sonics of the final product.

I'm sold!

[eytanmich123]

Interesting that the TapeOp guy also found the LUSH mode - the most pleasing to use.

I would also vote for a simple button to preserve default setting. for instance, for my type of music, the HP plug sets itself to too much low-end subtraction - I would have liked it being, for instance, 0.33 or even 0.25 . another two are Fraction (way too much default distortion upon loading) and IO5 (too much HP/LP dulling upon loading).

Loading an AW plug with MY preferred settings upon loading in really a bliss.

[jinxtigr]

I hear ya, but that's what I make templates for

I don't have the capacity to override what the DAW default is going to be. I mean, I do specify it, but I can do that only in one place, and I don't consult a set of user files to do it: that would be a potential point of failure and brokenness, plus absolutely none of my stuff creates files on your hard disk or tracks you in any way. That's important to me and I can't violate that principle, but it would be necessary if you had a button to 'default to this'. It would also run afoul of future Apple plans to sandbox AU plugins.

I really have to advise just using templates, and/or DAW shortcuts: like in Logic if I optiondrag a plugin around (possibly option-command-drag, I forget) I can duplicate it with whatever settings it's got. For instantiating the plugin for the first time, I kinda need a more generalized default, and with something like Iron Oxide 5, it's not supposed to be a 2-buss clarity whole-mix type plugin, it started out by emulating old school stuff that was a lot more obvious in use

[camsr]

The friendly way to instantiate a plugin is to have a default setting of, basically, no effect and lowest CPU use. Then you may load whatever preset afterwards. As for reading from a DLL-generated file, this may pose problems, but surely it's not impossible.

[jinxtigr]

The friendly way to instantiate a plugin is to have a default setting of, basically, no effect and lowest CPU use. Then you may load whatever preset afterwards. As for reading from a DLL-generated file, this may pose problems, but surely it's not impossible.

AUs aren't DLLs… but more importantly, I don't want to write files. I do tend to instantiate to lowest CPU use, though I would prefer not to instantiate to 'no effect': it's important to be able to show an example setting, if I instantiate to 'no effect' there will be very large numbers of users who get mad at me because it 'doesn't do anything' and won't know what control to move to get it to do something.

I need to avoid that