Best channel strip plugin that's NOT emulation of SSL, Neve, API, Amek, etc.

[ghettosynth]

...I find my self using my DAW’s built-in channel strips more and more these days

Which is?

Primarily Logic, but I also still use Studio One and Cubase a bit. Sonar/Cakewalk has a great built-in channel strip, and that was my main DAW for years. But, I was really talking more in generalities. In the past, I used RenChannel on almost every track or buss because it was so light on the CPU and gave me instant access to EQ, dynamics, and gain/level, and mostly because I was just used to working with it as part of my core workflow. But, over time, most DAWs starting improving their own channel strips so much that it because unnecessary to use a third-party channel strip for general purpose processing.

where is the channel strip in logic hidden? haven't found it so far...

Logic's is nice, Reaper is better than it used to be, Cubase's is excellent. I still prefer Live over all of them in terms of not needing a channel strip. Reason's built in mixer feels the most like a classic analog mixer.

However, Some environments, e.g., Maschine, don't have anything worthwhile built in that is fast to use. I like to have track templates for all of the DAWs that I use that contains the "one" channel strip that I like to use. This makes the process rapid and DAW independent. Right now, it's still Neutron.

Having a channel strip on each channel, whether you are using it or not, gives you the same efficiency in terms of workflow that you get with an analog mixer. I didn't go out of my way with my analog mixer to use inputs that didn't have an EQ on them when I didn't need to use the EQ. I just plugged everything into a channel.

[Electric Mayhem]

TBProAudio CS-5501 - https://www.tbproaudio.de/products/cs-5501
Think that one is ace!

It' definitely full featured, but the workflow is terrible - drop-down menus everywhere, many things are hidden from view in secondary and tertiary panels. I wish it was simpler: with just once instance of everything, everything on screen and drag & drop for reordering the modules.

The "lower" version of that strip was very close to that, but they don't even sell it anymore

I agree with you 100% on this

I have the CS-3301 and I still use it * a lot * in Studio One except for on vocals. It's great for things like bass, guitars, drums etc. Simple and effective, with low CPU hit. It's a shame it's no longer available.

When the CS-5501 came out, I tried it out and hated it. It's as if the dev decided to throw everything plus the kitchen sink into the plug.

Try DDMF 'The Strip' https://ddmf.eu/thestrip-channel-strip-plugin/
It was a very close call between the TB Pro Audio CS-3301 and the DDMF one for me

[antic604]

Try DDMF 'The Strip' https://ddmf.eu/thestrip-channel-strip-plugin/
It was a very close call between the TB Pro Audio CS-3301 and the DDMF one for me

Yeah, I've seen this one but it's almost too simple. The CS-3301 really seems like the ideal compromise. I've mailed them if they could still sell me a license, even though it's not supported anymore

[Electric Mayhem]

Yeah, I've seen this one but it's almost too simple. The CS-3301 really seems like the ideal compromise. I've mailed them if they could still sell me a license, even though it's not supported anymore

I hope that TB Pro Audio sell you the license.
The CS-3301 has a couple of extra features over the DDMF strip. IIRC there is a saturation feature and a couple of extra EQ bands, but both are basically gate, HP / LP, EQ and Compression.

It was the extra EQ bands that clinched the 3301 for me.

[jens]

So do you use this on every, single track or just here and there where something needs a boost? Studio One has this kind of krap built into its mixer, if you want it.

LIke Kritikon you seem to confuse channel strip with console emulation.

The former may include elements of the latter, but it's not in any way part of its core-concept.

[jens]

but the dev passed away IIRC, and it never got further developed which was really a shame, as it was a brilliant channel strip.

No, he didn't - he only faked his own death, plus he was not even the coder - Michael Olsen of Sonic Timeworks fame was.

[jens]

In my opinion that woud easily be Flux Evo Channel.

Thanks for the tip! I wasn't aware of EVO producats at all

You mean Flux, I guess? They only have two Evo products: Evo Channel and Evo In, which is basically a subset of Evo Channel.

Either way, it's really great - it's pretty complete and versatile, super-fast to use with a modern, easy-on-the-eyes interface, sounds great and is relatively light on the CPU.

For me personally they succeeded in achieving something that the makers of all the other channel-strips didn't. I tend to find them either to complicated to use (so that I tend to prefer to use individual plugins instead) or too limited (so that I tend to prefer to use individual plugins instead) - or both.

I got it heftily discounted during a sale though.

[ghettosynth]

I got it heftily discounted during a sale though.

I like Flux stuff, especially Solera, but they are expensive, wait for a sale. I passed on Evo Channel, it lacks features for me. However, that video hits the mark in terms of how to use channel strips. They get most of the work done on channels and busses. I find that by using the same strip everywhere I get consistency and familiarity. I can see why, by that, someone would want to use, e.g., an SSL strip.

I do use other strips from time to time when I want character, but that's different than basic mixing.

[kritikon]

Still don't get it. Channel strips have been explained - and almost every DAW has them already. Even free crap like Cakewalk has them. Not sure any DAW released in the last 10 years hasn't got complete channel strips in them - many are even configurable and you can save your own preferred setup. I don't even use Pro Cubase and it has Eq, gate, comp, saturator/grungelizer/shititalluperuzer,limiter,maximizer and f**k knows what else all in its own channel strips and several ways of looking at them with basic and/or knobby GUIs with flashy VU meter graphics to make them look like real ones. In almost every mixing or arranging page I can get lost in.

Still seems to me the holy grail is being chased simply because people spend a sizeable sum on a DAW but won't believe it does what it says it does. And they all do it. The grass is greener over the fence....only it isn't, you're just spending money on a toy you already have.

[BONES]

LIke Kritikon you seem to confuse channel strip with console emulation.

The very name describes it, surely? If it's not just a plugin with all the features of a channel strip in a mixer, why call it a "channel strip"?

[jens]

Still don't get it. Channel strips have been explained - and almost every DAW has them already. Even free crap like Cakewalk has them. Not sure any DAW released in the last 10 years hasn't got complete channel strips in them - many are even configurable and you can save your own preferred setup. I don't even use Pro Cubase and it has Eq, gate, comp, saturator/grungelizer/shititalluperuzer,limiter,maximizer and f**k knows what else all in its own channel strips and several ways of looking at them with basic and/or knobby GUIs with flashy VU meter graphics to make them look like real ones. In almost every mixing or arranging page I can get lost in.

Still seems to me the holy grail is being chased simply because people spend a sizeable sum on a DAW but won't believe it does what it says it does. And they all do it. The grass is greener over the fence....only it isn't, you're just spending money on a toy you already have.

What could be so hard to get about it? It's a convenient and highly conventional too where you have EQ, compressor, saturation plus perhaps some other helpers (phase, transient, de-esser and what not) in one plugin to do the bulk of the main mixing there rapidly and painlessly. Most professional mixers/producers use them, I would guess - and why should they not?

And yet here you are to tell us how daft, clueless, nonsensical and deluded we all are. Priceless!

[jens]

edit: hit quote instead of edit...

[bundoo]

well done 4 pages...threads over now.

[jens]

LIke Kritikon you seem to confuse channel strip with console emulation.

The very name describes it, surely? If it's not just a plugin with all the features of a channel strip in a mixer, why call it a "channel strip"?

Pardon? How does this question relate to what was being said?
´


Here is what you wrote:

So do you use this on every, single track or just here and there where something needs a boost? Studio One has this kind of krap built into its mixer, if you want it.

So a compressor is just used to get "a boost"?

EQ is used to get "a boost"?

Phase alignment is used to get "a boost"?

And what "kind of krap[sic!]" is built into Studio One's mixer?

Seriously: what are you talking about?

This thread slowly but surely turns (typically for a KVR thread, I am inclined to think) into a nice illustration of the Dunning Kruger effect, me thinks.

[antic604]

well done 4 pages...threads over now.

Very constructive contribution!