Need Instructions for MModernCompressor?

[nettydrown]

Hi, Anyone know of any instructions to use the MModernCompressor? I can't find any, thanks - reading the .pdf doesn't really say how to use it, but perhaps all the controls are pretty much self explanatory, for non-newbies. It seems the tutorial on Melda web pages is general for all their compressors, and barely mentions MModernCompressor, same for the tutorials that I found.

[dakkra]

If you don't have a decent understanding of how dynamics work, you may want to brush up on that before trying your hand with MModernCompressor.

The rough idea behind the plugin is to target a specific dynamic range, analyse an input audio, and let the plugin adjust the settings automatically to get to that target dynamic range (bottom panel). You can then fine tune the compressors settings to your liking (the top of the plugin).

It's essentially a compressor with an "auto configure" function that targets a dynamic range. I don't tend to use it as I prefer to do my dynamic processing manually.

[nettydrown]

Thanks for your reply! -
There is pretty much nil out there on this plugin. One thing that kinda confused me was that the auto settings on my monitor buss did not do ANY compression till I manually increased the compression up. Not yet sure if that means my mix was already spot on on what? Interestingly for such a simple plug in it is confoundedly difficult to use. Have used all kinds of compressors without difficulty. And Recently have been learning much more about loudness and dynamics. Have known the meaning and a working knowledge of these for many years, but not how to quantify and measure loudness and dynamics. And have NEVER considered or known what freakin dynamic range was my target, lol! Actually important for audio engineering, eh? humm - but I guess you said that MModernComp will tell me that, right? SO the really good thing about the darn thing, it is forcing me to a deeper level and higher understanding. I think I knew that would happen with this plug, and glad I bought it for those reasons, but that graph is bizarre to me - looks exactly like some other loudness meters displays I have seen and can not read YET! There is also the MLoudnessAnalyzer that so far is enigmatic as well. Would like to find a coherent tutorial. The ONLY one on YouTube the narrator actually "says his tutorial is silly"...aaaaah
ThankX!

[jmg8]

Hey, I wrote this a few years ago. I thought it would be useful to you.



Firstly I recommend that you forget about the auto feature.
It always sets the threshold at the bottom of the dynamic range, so really all it actually does is set the ratio to achieve the requested dynamic range.
Sometimes this might be useful. But I would never really know already what I would want the dynamic range to be, I find that a little strange.
From what I have read from your comments, it seams that you already have a great understanding of compression.
You already know how to use the threshold and ratio to achieve the sound you want. So forget about the auto compression it is not very useful.

So why bother with MModernCompressor then?

Well I mostly use MTurboCompressor, but often open MModernCompressor for its "Level Distribution Graph"
I find it the most useful way to analyse my audio when using compression. Specifically it shows me where to set my threshold.
So sometimes I need my threshold set quite high to only catch the very peaks, maybe with a relatively fast attack, this behaviour is closer to a limiter.
Or other times I want the threshold set quite low with a slower attack to gently massage the dynamics to get a more consistent level.
When you fully understand what the level distribution graph is showing you, it will become very insightful for setting the threshold in the perfect spot.

When I compress I (mostly) do the following:

1. Apply too much compression to more easily hear what the attack and release are going to do. With loads of compression you can hear the transient clearly.

2. Set the attack and release to taste. Attack is usually set depending on what I'm trying to achieve (catching peaks or gluing things together etc)
Release is often set to be rhythmical so it sounds quite musical.

3. Now set the ratio to 1:1 (no compression)

4. Use the level distribution graph to decide where to set my threshold.

5. Now the ratio simply becomes the amount of compression. Just try too much then too little and fine tune somewhere in the middle until it sounds good
(keep an eye on the gain reduction meter)

6. Finally output gain. Do you want to make up for the reduction in loudness? If so I personally use the AGC set button.


So how do we use the "Level Distribution Graph"?

Y axis on the graph is easy to understand, it is simply db.
X axis is measured in percentage (I know there are no values written along the bottom, but if you move the vertical bar, you will see the % value appear)

Imagine freezing the audio in time. What level is it right now? lets say -3db, now unfreeze the audio and then freeze again, what level is it now? lets say -6db.
Let the audio play and then freeze again, this time the level is -6db again.

How would this look on the graph?
So you would see that -6db would be at 100% (to the right) as it is the most commonly measured level.
-3db would be at 50% as half of the time the audio was measured at this level.
0db and -12db would obviously be at 0% as the audio was never measured at this level.

Now obviously in normal use it doesn't just take only 3 measurements, it takes thousands.

So the simplest way to put it is that the right part of the graph displays levels that are often happening.
The left part of the graph shows levels that rarely or never happen.

How can we use this info to set the threshold?

So if you want the compressor to be working where all the action is happening, you would set the threshold to where the signal has the most commonly measured level.
So basically where the graph is most on the right.
You will nicely be able to see the peaks too. The very highest peak might only happen just once, so it will be all the way over to the left of the graph.
Maybe you don't want to only catch just this one peak as your compressor would only actually work just one time.
The more you lower the threshold the more the compressor works and you can clearly see on the graph which levels the compressor will catch and how often it will catch them.

I find it very useful.

Finally just forget about the vertical red dynamic threshold line.
Basically it is only relevant to tell the compressor the current dynamic range so then it can set the new dynamic range.
This is for the auto compression (I don't use it. You will be much better at making the decisions than an algorithm trust me. How would it even know what you wish achieve?)
But if you wish to know, I will explain:
If the level at one point in time is measured at -80db or silence but this only happen just once.
Well the dynamic range would be huge! all the way from -80db up to say 0db, a dynamic range of 80db!
this is not useful as the quite part happened just once and is not really relevant or meaningful.
This is where the dynamic threshold comes in, it basically ignores the rare level measurement and only counts the common ones.
Everything to the left of the line is not counted as part of the dynamic range,
everything to the right is and also shaded dark to give you an easy to see overview of your dynamic range.

[nettydrown]

Hey, I wrote this a few years ago. I thought it would be useful to you.

Oh Wow EXCELLENT! Your info is of great help! It is coming together in a big way now. Another thing I figured out was causing me major confusion, was that I had put another compressor on that channel, upstream and it was crushing it, did not remember doing that, did it to look at its Meters, and forgot, so it help alot to get that shut off. And your info is super helpful. I have always compressed by ear, probably not an all bad thing - huh? Once I turned Ozone Dynamics off the level distribution graph readings made a whole lot more sense, and as you say the graph is a gem of MMComp to visualize where to put the threshold - I also think another really useful feature is going to be the sidechain EQ to target specific freqs for triggering compression.

So when you set up compression as you were saying. You put MMComp and watch its meters and use MTurboComp to do the actual compression? Cool. So I have many of the compressors MTurboComp emulates, so I can compress with those using them. But I am going to take a deep dive on using MMComps EQ for ducking and targeting freqs too. Also been reading about Melda's Dynamic EQs, very interesting. So I wasn't all that interested in the AGC, but you made me rethink that. I really appreciate you breaking down how the level distribution graph translates to dB cause I had not worked that out yet, been looking for a meter with both on it. Thinking maybe the MLoudnessAnalyzer could contribute, maybe an Ozone meter or something else I have in the bag. So thanks for those helpful bits, your descriptions are very understandable and helpful. I did read through all Melda's documentation too, it helped me understand the way you put it as well. One thing to still understand is the green line that is very barely visible in the level distribution graph? OK so I just moved it up/down and the threshold control in the panel above turned correspondingly, so they are the same. Cheers!

[nettydrown]

I DO - I DO like - Green Eggs & Ham... er uh... I mean the Level Distribution Graph!

Dang thing IS really useful!

[jmg8]

Haha, nice. I love it too. I asked Vojtech to add it to the other compressors and he said yes, but not priority. It's been a while since then, so I will give him a gentle reminder.

[Starship Krupa]

Yay, I'm glad that jmg8 reposted the excellent and kind tutorial he wrote up for me when I was struggling to get a handle on the features of this compressor. His first bit of advice saved me a lot of time: don't worry about the auto settings feature. The rest really opened it up.

Unlike seemingly anyone else on this forum, I use MModern Compressor as, y'know, a compressor, which it's actually pretty good at, IMO.

Unless you are only interested in what a "character" compressor brings to the table, MModern's inherent features as a compressor are worth exploring. It has lots of interesting options in the detector section, different attack modes, including a "psychoacoustic" one that I particularly like on snare, and on vocals to make them float. A 6-band EQ for pre-filtering, some interesting things under the hood, showing its heritage as a being subset of MDynamics with the histogram and auto-set features added on. It has much more going for it than just a neato analysis tool, although I can understand why if someone already had MDynamics they wouldn't bother with it.

Maybe not one of Meldaproduction's greatest hits, but if like me you don't have MTurboComp or MDynamics, it can be useful in a mix. (You won't find much on the Preset Exchange, though!)