Black Rooster Audio releases the VLA-FET

[gentleclockdivider]

Added DMGAudio Track Comp to the mix. It's crazy good

This
You get all the famous compressors , coded by a true legend and for only 150 euro

[midi_transmission]

I have and like TrackComp quite a bit, but it's not making other compressors superfluous for me. Some models are too complicated to set up compared to other emulations. Sometimes I prefer set and forget simplicity of the original hardware without the need of tweaking. Nothing is better, just a different workflow.

I think the set and forget ability is a strength of the VLAs. It's hard to create a bad sound with them.

[Ploki]

My fav FET emus by far, by sound and similarity to hardware, in no particular order:
- VLA FET
It's great. It behaves amazingly like hardware, but needs to be pushed very hard. It's on the slowest end of the spectrum. Release at 6.5 equals Softubes release at ~25% (9 o clock)

- Softube FET
It's great. At the faster end of the spectrum it becomes too agitated for 100% wet mode. With Softube and VLA you have the whole FET spectrum covered to all extremes.

- Pulsar Smasher
Similar to Softube, except it's always in "crazy agitated" mode. Great for parallel, a bit too much for anything else.

- DMG Audio
Great FET, also very good LA-2A imo. If you don't have any other comps, this is the one to go, very versatile and great sounding, great oversampling options.

On the other hand, BRA bundle right now is 85€ so half the price of DMGaudio and you get plenty of good compressors and a a great EQ.

This weird concave release is what hardware does at all button in:

Screenshot 2020-04-24 at 13.42.53.png

Honorable mentions:
- Unisum and Presswerk, despite not being FET emus, sound better to me than i.e. Arturia in this test.

Overloud GEM, NI VC76 and Purple MC77 all have the concave thing going on, but didn't particularly click with me.
Overloud appeared "dim", Purple is a bit all over the place and too agressive, Softube/NI VC76 is good but i prefer the original Softube FET.

I have and like TrackComp quite a bit, but it's not making other compressors superfluous for me. Some models are too complicated to set up compared to other emulations. Sometimes I prefere set and forget simplicity of the orgiginal hadware without the need of tweaking. Nothing is better, just a different workflow.

I think the set and forget ability is a strength of the VLAs. It's hard to create a bad sound with them.

Very valid point. And the lack of those limitations in the TrackComp are as much of a blessing as they are a curse.

I.e. in the case of LA-XA models, i much prefer the "peak reduction" knob with nothing else. It either works or it doesn't, that's why i use it. If i have 5 parameters to try, it defeats the point of an LA-2A in my opinion.

However, if i didn't already have a lot of good very flexible compressors (FabFilter, Presswerk, Unisum, even logic's built in) I'd definitely get it.
As it stands, for me, 150€ is too much for yet another workhorse compressor.

[fese]

Added DMGAudio Track Comp to the mix. It's crazy good

This
You get all the famous compressors , coded by a true legend and for only 150 euro

huh? When I go to dmgaudio.com, it costs 116€.
Still glad that I bought version one for like 75€, got the great v2 update for free!

[Ploki]

119 for me. VAT thing i guess

[dirtysnow]

Also don't understand BRA FET having a slower fastest release. On an 1176 it is only ~50ms which by modern DAW standards is not fast so why make it slower when the intent is clearly a take on the 1176? If its circuitry is modeled why limit its capability with respect to the original(s)? If it is not modeled why choose minimum release time as the place to get creative?

[Ploki]

Also don't understand BRA FET having a slower fastest release. On an 1176 it is only ~50ms which by modern DAW standards is not fast so why make it slower when the intent is clearly a take on the 1176? If its circuitry is modeled why limit its capability with respect to the original(s)? If it is not modeled why choose minimum release time as the place to get creative?

supposedly its modelled after rev. E (or F?) which was the slowest of all revisions

[midi_transmission]

Very valid point. And the lack of those limitations in the TrackComp are as much of a blessing as they are a curse.

very well said.

[dirtysnow]

supposedly its modelled after rev. E (or F?) which was the slowest of all revisions

Appreciate it! I also checked the manual and since this is a thread on the BRA FET we should note that its stated release time is in fact 50ms.

[escalona]

supposedly its modelled after rev. E (or F?) which was the slowest of all revisions

Appreciate it! I also checked the manual and since this is a thread on the BRA FET we should note that its stated release time is in fact 50ms.

@dirtysnow, starting on page 2 of this thread André explained quite transparently was his intent was with this plugin (and the whole deal with the slow release). You can read the whole discussion about it.

[Ploki]

bottom line, since it's a VLA-FET thread:
All the hours i've spent with FETs in the last days made me appreciate it nonetheless. You need to push it harder to make it chomp down like i.e. Softube, but it definitely behaves a lot like hardware and sounds very pleasant and musical.

[midi_transmission]

I agree Ploki, I think one great quality from the VLA-FET is that it doesn't make something wrong to the sound. I like it a lot too. You also see this in my blind test protocol. Beside the known slow release I had no complain. A lot of compressors often have one aspect I didn't like and one thing I like. Therefore I end in endless tweaking sessions.

That said, as also mentioned again and again. The slow release prevents a lot of things so I still need other FET emulations.

I don't want to beat a dead horse again and again, therefore the last time. I like and understand the BRA idea to model maybe a bit special models, but at the same time it prevent the VLA-FET for me to become THE one 1176 I use. So in this case I still questioning the chosen model a bit and still wondering what is particular great with this special 1176 compared to the more usual units (@escalona I read page 2 again and that was not been answered, or did I miss something?) that it's worth to have such a slow release.

@BRA: The point is, I don't want to use BRA plugins as special tools often. I think they are often so great that I want to use them as the main tool because they are so good. In this case I want the 20th version of a 1176 that finally nails the typical 1176 usage so I can reduce the amounts of tools I use.

[Ploki]

I actually agree with you.
I really love the LA-2A, LA-3A and Blackface SC-5 and use them in pretty much every mix.

VLA-FET, not as often as i'd like.
I can appreciate the slow mode, but i think the emulation itself is so good, that an additional "model switch" that would chuck the unit into a faster mode would be EXTREMELY welcome on it.

You could keep the special flavour of what it is now - but also have a more traditional and expected FET destruction flavour.

If it had that, i wouldn't even consider another FET compressor. Right now i'm getting by with Smasher, if i didn't have it i'd probably get Softube.

[fese]

I don’t really understand why you seem to be looking for THE one FET compressor. If one uses analog emulations, wouldn’t it stand to reason to use different emulations even of the same device in the same track, to emulate an analog mixing workflow, where no two devices are exactly the same? I admit I’m not a hardware guy, but from what I’ve heard/read from the big studios and mix engineers, they’d have several 1176 and each one of them dedicated for a special task.
Might even be interesting , as a challenge, to limit yourself to exactly one instance of each FET comp emu you have in your arsenal:p

[Ploki]

I don't want to emulate analog mixing workflow i want a plugin that emulates the topology of an analog compressor and apply that to all benefits of digital workflow