I've had the Buzz comps set in my folder for a while - played around with the comps, and still don't use them because I just can't trust the metering. Originally I thought it was the SSE thing on my old PC, but even on my new one, I still get metering that registers under what it should be by about 4 or 5 dBs - shame as they are decent comps, but I like to know dB reading accurately for alot of circumstances.
So............. the Buzz maximiser was also languishing in my plugin folder unused. Got it out on a recent mix, and found the later version to be accurate for the metering. I always loved the GUI on it...one of the best IMO. I A/B'ed the mix quite a few times and really listened closely, but couldn't really be sure, but thought maybe it was just a hint brighter. You know how you can convince yourself you're hearing something because you want it to be? Also recently I've gone back to using my BBE Sonic Maximiser h/w instead of s/w. There's a certain "something" that seems to be lacking in the s/w that initially I thought was there. Outboard h/w has slowly been drawing me back
So........I then flipped in the BBE and A/B'ed the mix with Tls and Buzz. It was definitely more noticeable. On a softclip setting, Buzz sounded marginally brighter. I double and triple checked all things like the output etc. All numbers matched up, all other master FX etc identical, no Eq settings on Tls, and there are none on the Buzz. Buzz maximiser sounded brighter
I had it set up so that it was mainly for clip control, with between 0.5 and 1 dB of makeup gain - no big limiting going on, just the occasional clip and very subtle boost.It really quite surprised me - I was more than content with Tls previously. I think I've found a new limiter of choice.
Anyone else hear any difference? Am I just fooling myself because I like the Buzz GUI or something sub-conscious? Remember I went into the testing assuming that Tls would win, and probably wanting it to win.
I like nice surprises like this.
