MTurboComp why so few reviews?
- KVRian
- 1074 posts since 26 Nov, 2007
imo all of the melda stuff is overly convoluted for no real need for it (yes... tedious is a good word for it) and as for the GUI according to the developer... you can like it or lump it. myself i prefer to lump it and from what i have read in the past many feel the same as i do. most developers that want to further the use of their product DO tend to take the user base into account and try to compromise but the developer of melda apparently thinks they know better than anyone else. this pompous attitude only turns folks away. i have a few things by the company that i bought before i really got a taste of their mindset. i can say i don't bother using the ones i own and i am not gonna try and sell them because their resale/transfer policy is absurd so you can easily see why most are not even interested in melda for the most part if you do a bit of reading and folks are even less interested in reviewing any of their product. word travels fast. cheers
"There is no strength in numbers... have no such misconception... but when you need me be assured I won't be far away."
- KVRist
- 237 posts since 18 Mar, 2007 from London
I just posted my opinion in the "Is the Melda MTurboComp the last Compressor you will need?" topic, perhaps it's helpful for some of you so I just copied it here:
Melda MTurboComp is a great sounding compressor no question about that. Whether the workflow, the controls like ratio/attack/release using % instead of x:y or ms values, the rather broad range of those controls, the GUI etc suits you or annoys you will depend largely on your previous experiences with other VSTs/compressors. As I own and regularly use loads of melda plugins, I can understand and I really like the developers "vision" to use a GUI that's pretty much identical on all melda products. For example I only had to learn the modulation section once, and than I found the same modulation section on all other melda plugins which for me was a major advantage (+ I think the metering section is phenomenal on all melda products).
About the pricing:
The full price I think is fair but buying it as part of a bundle or on a 50% eternal madness discount it's a phenomenal deal. (You need to keep in mind a few things about Melda product pricing:
1. Selling melda products: "Licence can be transferred for a fee of 20% of the current full price";
2. Free for life updates/upgrades: "When you purchase any software, you will be granted free upgrades forever";
3. New softwares are regularly added to a bundle for free: "Every time we release a new software product and add it to a bundle, we give it to all current owners of the bundle for free";
4. Every licence key can be activated on all your machines: melda uses "to-person licences and you can activate it on any number of computers".
For further info see: https://www.meldaproduction.com/about/licencing)
Finally to answer your original question: "Is the Melda MTurboComp the last Compressor you will need?"
My personal answer is no, but let me further elaborate it a bit. MTurboComp is not the only compressor I use, but I use it regularly, and I think it's a great compressor even compared to the most well known and loved ones, so I think it well deserves a try. Could I survive and do all my mixing using only this compressor if I was limited to only MTurboComp: 100% yes.
Here is a review: https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/meld ... mturbocomp
Here is a brief introduction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugot7j8JrSc
And here is a short video comparing melda compressors (I know it's off topic, but MSpectralDynamics is easily one of the most future proof plugins I've ever seen/used, it's capabilities and it's applications are insanely versatile) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZF9-YYuvAg
Melda MTurboComp is a great sounding compressor no question about that. Whether the workflow, the controls like ratio/attack/release using % instead of x:y or ms values, the rather broad range of those controls, the GUI etc suits you or annoys you will depend largely on your previous experiences with other VSTs/compressors. As I own and regularly use loads of melda plugins, I can understand and I really like the developers "vision" to use a GUI that's pretty much identical on all melda products. For example I only had to learn the modulation section once, and than I found the same modulation section on all other melda plugins which for me was a major advantage (+ I think the metering section is phenomenal on all melda products).
About the pricing:
The full price I think is fair but buying it as part of a bundle or on a 50% eternal madness discount it's a phenomenal deal. (You need to keep in mind a few things about Melda product pricing:
1. Selling melda products: "Licence can be transferred for a fee of 20% of the current full price";
2. Free for life updates/upgrades: "When you purchase any software, you will be granted free upgrades forever";
3. New softwares are regularly added to a bundle for free: "Every time we release a new software product and add it to a bundle, we give it to all current owners of the bundle for free";
4. Every licence key can be activated on all your machines: melda uses "to-person licences and you can activate it on any number of computers".
For further info see: https://www.meldaproduction.com/about/licencing)
Finally to answer your original question: "Is the Melda MTurboComp the last Compressor you will need?"
My personal answer is no, but let me further elaborate it a bit. MTurboComp is not the only compressor I use, but I use it regularly, and I think it's a great compressor even compared to the most well known and loved ones, so I think it well deserves a try. Could I survive and do all my mixing using only this compressor if I was limited to only MTurboComp: 100% yes.
Here is a review: https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/meld ... mturbocomp
Here is a brief introduction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ugot7j8JrSc
And here is a short video comparing melda compressors (I know it's off topic, but MSpectralDynamics is easily one of the most future proof plugins I've ever seen/used, it's capabilities and it's applications are insanely versatile) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZF9-YYuvAg
- KVRist
- 237 posts since 18 Mar, 2007 from London
I respectfully disagree. Melda plugins are regularly receiving positive reviews. Pretty much all online reviews are very positive when it comes to sound quality, usually they criticize the uninspiring GUI and the fact that there are too many options (which I don't really get as you can use these plugins with the "easy screen" mode, no one is forced to use the "edit screen".)MadDogE134 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:24 am ...for the most part if you do a bit of reading and folks are even less interested in reviewing any of their product. word travels fast.
eg. see two of the latest reviews:
https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/meld ... ctraldelay
https://www.musictech.net/reviews/melda ... rb-review/
MTurboReverb is even mentioned as one of the best products of 2017:
https://www.musictech.net/features/best-of-2017/
or see all future music/computer music magazine reviews on Melda products here on musicradar:
https://www.musicradar.com/search?searc ... production
or see all music tech magazine reviews here:
https://www.musictech.net/?s=meldaproduction
- KVRAF
- 1731 posts since 28 Dec, 2007
a little black friday bump for this compressor....I didnt know about it and I have to say I like it a lot...although I may just get the LE version for £44...honestly, I have a lot of plugin compressors including DMG Trackcomp....I think a lot of DMG but I have to be honest in that I find Trackcomp a bit clinical and sterile...perhaps it is the lack of incorporated saturation (Dave always said he viewed them seperately - perhaps so - but in reality compression and saturation go together as a musical tool IMO...)...
Anyways, this is a suprise Black Friday nugget for me...seems to have a great character in all the models. Musical fun sounding and easily capable of handling ITB compression duties...so rather than recommending Trackcomp I may have to recommend this now going fwd....(not withstanding a few days to get over the honeymoon stage....)
Anyways, this is a suprise Black Friday nugget for me...seems to have a great character in all the models. Musical fun sounding and easily capable of handling ITB compression duties...so rather than recommending Trackcomp I may have to recommend this now going fwd....(not withstanding a few days to get over the honeymoon stage....)
Presets for u-he Diva -> http://swanaudio.co.uk/
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- KVRist
- 53 posts since 26 Sep, 2019
If you haven't purchased this yet, MTurboCompLE was just released as one of the free plugin giveaways with any purchase in December at Plugin Boutique. So spend about $5 on some cheap plugin or sample pack and get LE for free!SWAN808 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:50 pm a little black friday bump for this compressor....I didnt know about it and I have to say I like it a lot...although I may just get the LE version for £44...honestly, I have a lot of plugin compressors including DMG Trackcomp....I think a lot of DMG but I have to be honest in that I find Trackcomp a bit clinical and sterile...perhaps it is the lack of incorporated saturation (Dave always said he viewed them seperately - perhaps so - but in reality compression and saturation go together as a musical tool IMO...)...
Anyways, this is a suprise Black Friday nugget for me...seems to have a great character in all the models. Musical fun sounding and easily capable of handling ITB compression duties...so rather than recommending Trackcomp I may have to recommend this now going fwd....(not withstanding a few days to get over the honeymoon stage....)
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- KVRist
- 299 posts since 2 Nov, 2020
TrackComp models the original hardware on a component level, meaning it absolutely includes the saturation. This is opposite to the DMG EQs, which are are all clean and not based on SPICE circuit emulation.SWAN808 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:50 pm I think a lot of DMG but I have to be honest in that I find Trackcomp a bit clinical and sterile...perhaps it is the lack of incorporated saturation (Dave always said he viewed them seperately - perhaps so - but in reality compression and saturation go together as a musical tool IMO...)
To me TrackComp feels sterile because of its UI.
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- KVRian
- 986 posts since 8 Mar, 2009
ScrLk wrote: ↑Tue Dec 01, 2020 4:12 pmTrackComp models the original hardware on a component level, meaning it absolutely includes the saturation. This is opposite to the DMG EQs, which are are all clean and not based on SPICE circuit emulation.SWAN808 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:50 pm I think a lot of DMG but I have to be honest in that I find Trackcomp a bit clinical and sterile...perhaps it is the lack of incorporated saturation (Dave always said he viewed them seperately - perhaps so - but in reality compression and saturation go together as a musical tool IMO...)
To me TrackComp feels sterile because of its UI.
Was just about to say this. he mustn't have TrackComp2 as most of the models have the amp stage built into the makeup gain of most of the compressors and the Zener Limiter has a separate THD model. i think the G and E buss comps might be the exception but i don't know why cause i have a G buss comp here and the makeup gain definitely drives into some non-linear stage. it's a clone but not sure that matters as its based on the same circuit
I
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- KVRist
- 172 posts since 9 Jun, 2018
Get both. Just buy 2 separate things. I'm gonna spring first for the melda...seems like it's the most premium one. The royal has free version if you Google it. WA bass will be 5 bucks next week! but it actually looks kinda like a cool plugin since bassmint costs as much as a video game console. Lol
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midi_transmission midi_transmission https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=298730
- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 988 posts since 13 Feb, 2013
SWAN808 wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:50 pm a little black friday bump for this compressor....I didnt know about it and I have to say I like it a lot...although I may just get the LE version for £44...honestly, I have a lot of plugin compressors including DMG Trackcomp....I think a lot of DMG but I have to be honest in that I find Trackcomp a bit clinical and sterile...perhaps it is the lack of incorporated saturation (Dave always said he viewed them seperately - perhaps so - but in reality compression and saturation go together as a musical tool IMO...)...
Anyways, this is a suprise Black Friday nugget for me...seems to have a great character in all the models. Musical fun sounding and easily capable of handling ITB compression duties...so rather than recommending Trackcomp I may have to recommend this now going fwd....(not withstanding a few days to get over the honeymoon stage....)
Exactly my problem. The idea to separate compression and saturation is not bad, but the way how it's done is super complicated. I imagine it as a saturation control that is at 0% to get the real amount of distortion and than you can make it larger than life or reduce it.
But every compressor behaves differently in TrackComp and sometimes you have to use makup gain to add saturation sometimes not. A bit confusing. You have to spend a lot of time to get every model and your never sure if the sound is true to the emulated compressor or if you have modified it too much.
Otherwise I like the interface and trackComp a lot.
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- KVRist
- 103 posts since 21 May, 2018
And we all know how much we should care about reviews from "befriended" magazines which only live from that and would not like to lose any nfr for the plugins, not to mention the advertisement these devs pay for... I remember reviews for plugins which crashed immediately when being released or reviews from the Genesis which all were highly praised but failed so miserably (without a slight warning or notice from the reviewer).ozonepaul wrote: ↑Sat Feb 16, 2019 9:56 amI respectfully disagree. Melda plugins are regularly receiving positive reviews. Pretty much all online reviews are very positiveMadDogE134 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:24 am ...for the most part if you do a bit of reading and folks are even less interested in reviewing any of their product. word travels fast.
Probably doesn't matter because it is the same meldaproduction framework running in the backround. Better demo and compare if Royal Compressor is not just a preset within MTurboComp.
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- KVRist
- 299 posts since 2 Nov, 2020
I don't believe this is how it works. It is a SPICE model based on the real hardware and saturation was not separated. How the gain staging affects saturation is how you would achieve the same result with real hardware as well.midi_transmission wrote: ↑Thu Dec 03, 2020 12:20 pmBut every compressor behaves differently in TrackComp and sometimes you have to use makup gain to add saturation sometimes not. A bit confusing. You have to spend a lot of time to get every model and your never sure if the sound is true to the emulated compressor or if you have modified it too much.
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- KVRAF
- 35262 posts since 11 Apr, 2010 from Germany
Not everyone might need every feature in those plugins, but... let's take MPhaser for example: I really wished some other phaser plugins would have that feature set. I've yet to see the phaser which not only lets you change the LFO's waveform, but also lets you shape the waveform, the min/max frequency choice is pretty genius too (again, not many phasers do have something like that... most only let you choose the center frequency), let's you sync the LFO, gives you options to saturate the signal etc. I wouldn't use MPhaser per se, because, actually, I prefer other phaser's sound, but, the feature set is grand, and, I wished my other phasers would have that. Same with many of the other Melda effects. Some are pretty limited in comparison though, like the MOscilloscope. But, again, I love the auto pitch detection, and that it can merely show the single waveform. Those are really nice features which are not present in a lot of other, rather respected plugins.MadDogE134 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 16, 2019 7:24 am imo all of the melda stuff is overly convoluted for no real need for it (yes... tedious is a good word for it)
So, yeah, feature wise, IMO, the Melda plugins are very well thought out, which takes them above other plugins. They are not perfect, nothing is, but, especially feature wise, I really can't complain about them. The GUI is a matter of taste. I have no problem with it. It's absolutely bearable, and you can work nicely with the plugins.
I can only recommend the MFreeFXBundle which is only 25 € at the moment, BTW. I don't any other plugin bundle with such a nice price/performance ratio. Worth every cent really.
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mike_the_ranger mike_the_ranger https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=393922
- KVRist
- 262 posts since 16 Feb, 2017
I don't think so. He just puts anything in he can think of. It's technical fancyness, just "coding sugar" as someone said. I remember the beginnings were there were even more parameter and every little fance thing exposed as parameter to the host as well, until he realized it was purely a mess. Well thought imo is if a plugins doesn't need popups and many tabs for basic things. Well thought imo is if a dev decided how to give the user max control to get the sound he's after quick with as less options as possible.
Which is a contradiction in itself but that has been brought up often
Back to topic: I've tested MTurboComp back then. Wouldn't it have been advertised as emulation/simulation then it would have gotten better user reviews imo. I could see a price to pay for the abstraction which were workflow issues as well as more CPU usage.
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- KVRAF
- 35262 posts since 11 Apr, 2010 from Germany
I don't agree with that at all, but, hey.mike_the_ranger wrote: ↑Thu Dec 03, 2020 1:50 pmI don't think so. He just puts anything in he can think of. It's technical fancyness, just "coding sugar" as someone said. I remember the beginnings were there were even more parameter and every little fance thing exposed as parameter to the host as well, until he realized it was purely a mess. Well thought imo is if a plugins doesn't need popups and many tabs for basic things. Well thought imo is if a dev decided how to give the user max control to get the sound he's after quick with as less options as possible.
It would be completely nuts if that bundle would be free. But then, you can use it free, you just gotta live with some limitations, which is fair enough IMO.mike_the_ranger wrote: ↑Thu Dec 03, 2020 1:50 pmWhich is a contradiction in itself but that has been brought up often
Maybe he should split it up, and make one free bundle with the limited versions of the plugins, and call the paid one "Basic", to make the people happy who always want everything for free.