Some Praise For U-He Presswerk!

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I've been trying Presswerk out a bit, particularly for mastering. I like the control over mid/side behaviour in terms of how linked the channels are, so one can dial in the amount of air/openness from that type of processing. I like the organic behaviour of the compression, i.e. it imparts a certain liveliness.
However, there's something I haven't figured out yet, there's a kind of 'rubberiness' in the mids, which feels like a slight mid-prominence/boxiness, that I'm not liking so much. I haven't yet traced it to a parameter, so I'm not sure if it's the saturation, or something else. Perhaps it's actually just the liveliness that I mentioned, a 'bouncy' feel that for some reason is noticeable more in the mid-range.
With regards to the saturation, does the indicator light off mean zero saturation, or is it a rough guide to there being a significant amount of saturation?

Maybe play around with the Saturation Pre/Post, "Amount" and "Warmth" knobs.

[chagzuki]

Maybe play around with the Saturation Pre/Post, "Amount" and "Warmth" knobs.

I'm getting the impression it's how it responds to transients. Whatever settings I try, I have a hard time getting the snare transients to sound really crisp. I think the roundness or rubberiness in the mid-range that I was hearing was a result of the body of the snare being emphasised and the transient not quite having the desired sharpness. I've played around with side chain timing and rms window, but it doesn't quite get there for me. Whereas it's super easy to get lovely opto smoothness with a big rms window; perhaps that's where Presswerk shines the most.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I wouldn't be surprised. What you're saying is basically why we end up with so many different compressors. They just have different strengths and weaknesses. Like, maybe just don't use Presswork on snare. Until you need that low-mid emphasis on something where it's lacking there.

[Ploki]

I've been trying Presswerk out a bit, particularly for mastering. I like the control over mid/side behaviour in terms of how linked the channels are, so one can dial in the amount of air/openness from that type of processing. I like the organic behaviour of the compression, i.e. it imparts a certain liveliness.
However, there's something I haven't figured out yet, there's a kind of 'rubberiness' in the mids, which feels like a slight mid-prominence/boxiness, that I'm not liking so much. I haven't yet traced it to a parameter, so I'm not sure if it's the saturation, or something else. Perhaps it's actually just the liveliness that I mentioned, a 'bouncy' feel that for some reason is noticeable more in the mid-range.
With regards to the saturation, does the indicator light off mean zero saturation, or is it a rough guide to there being a significant amount of saturation?

Download my skin (there's a free version)- it has a meter instead of a small led light so it shows you a bit more info on how much actual saturation is happening, because it lights up even when stock skin light is barely visible or not even visible.
Stock light has like 8 graphics and mine has 100 and it's been "linearized" like the level meters.
I find it easier to see how much i'm actually driving something.

https://ploki.gumroad.com/l/nitro

If you wish to retain snappiness in presswerk, use parallel compression or even expansion on the dry signal just barely mixed in! It can do wonders.
Also be sure you have DPR disabled - DPR is neat but it does smear the transients a bit.

[chagzuki]

I wouldn't be surprised. What you're saying is basically why we end up with so many different compressors. They just have different strengths and weaknesses. Like, maybe just don't use Presswork on snare. Until you need that low-mid emphasis on something where it's lacking there.

Yeah. I'm particularly keen on the mid/side options for mastering, where you have separate controls plus degree of detector linkage. What other compressors offer the same degree of control in that regard?

[chagzuki]

Download my skin (there's a free version)- it has a meter instead of a small led light so it shows you a bit more info on how much actual saturation is happening, because it lights up even when stock skin light is barely visible or not even visible.
Stock light has like 8 graphics and mine has 100 and it's been "linearized" like the level meters.
I find it easier to see how much i'm actually driving something.

https://ploki.gumroad.com/l/nitro

That's a great idea/improvement. Thanks, I'll give it a spin.

[Ploki]

I wouldn't be surprised. What you're saying is basically why we end up with so many different compressors. They just have different strengths and weaknesses. Like, maybe just don't use Presswork on snare. Until you need that low-mid emphasis on something where it's lacking there.

Yeah. I'm particularly keen on the mid/side options for mastering, where you have separate controls plus degree of detector linkage. What other compressors offer the same degree of control in that regard?

Tone Projects Unisum has channel split + detector linkage.
Also i think PA Amek Mastering compressor, although i wasn't blown away by it.
There's few with separate controls and either full link or full unlink.
and there's Pro-C2 with linked controls and gradual s/c link, but FabFilter m/s operation is different and sort of weird and not really intuitive.

Coincidentally, Unisum and Presswerk are my most used compressors on masters

[chagzuki]

Tone Projects Unisum has channel split + detector linkage.
Also i think PA Amek Mastering compressor, although i wasn't blown away by it.
There's few with separate controls and either full link or full unlink.
and there's Pro-C2 with linked controls and gradual s/c link, but FabFilter m/s operation is different and sort of weird and not really intuitive.

Coincidentally, Unisum and Presswerk are my most used compressors on masters

I'll take a look at Unisum.
Very nice skin, improved functionality over the original in several respects. If I was being nitpicky I'd suggest putting numerical values on both sides of the gain reduction meter, just so it's really fast to dial in make-up gain.
If I continue to use Presswerk I'll buy the full version.

[Raddler1]

Cool new theme out for Presswerk...

https://plugmon.jp/product/anya/#description

[MrJubbly]

Does anyone know if the CLAP version of Presswerk, fully "werking" yet?

Or is it still in development?

[Igelhaft]

Cool new theme out for Presswerk...

Their promo video has a custom song with vocals... for a skin? Now that's the kind of doing-too-much I can get behind!

[kmonkey]

Cool new theme out for Presswerk...

https://plugmon.jp/product/anya/#description

That is really good work on everything.

[Urs]

Does anyone know if the CLAP version of Presswerk, fully "werking" yet?

Or is it still in development?

We had one last bug in the CLAP version that was recently attended to, so we think we'll soonishly have a release candidate. Probably just waiting for a new Zebralette 3 beta to bring that up together.

[MrJubbly]

That's good news.

I've already switched to CLAP for most of the other available u-he plugins. Presswerk is one of the last remaining to switch over from VST3.

[Alexander_D]

That's good news.

I've already switched to CLAP for most of the other available u-he plugins. Presswerk is one of the last remaining to switch over from VST3.

Just interesting. Why you was switch to clap from Vst3? Which DAW you are using?