Cytomic The Glue or Waves SSL G-Master Bus compressor?

[mothra]

Neither.

Softube Bus Comp was closest to my hardware G clone, so I retired the SSL bus comp v2.

I ended up going from the PA Townhouse, to the SSL, to the Softube, back to the SSL, and now the UADx.

[I_Am_Become_KVR]

I thinking about buying a new bus compressor for my synth busses and my master chain.
Any recommendations or experience with The Glue or the Waves SSL master bus compressor? Other recommendations are welcome as well!

The Waves sounds like a tin can. Avoid.

The Glue is fine for the compression, but don't expect any vibe from it.

The official SSL one is like the Glue (digital sounding), but more aggressive/punchier.

The Sonimus (it's part of their Satson CS) has pretty nice compressor action.

The PA Townhouse is extremely colored. It's very cool, but it'd be a rare mix where you'd want that extreme harmonic sludge pasted all over it. But it's good once in awhile, on individual instruments or subgroups, for an over-the-top saturated effect.

The NI one doesn't compress in the manner of an SSL bus comp. I'd skip it, though maybe it's good in it's own way... I prefer to stay close to the traditional SSL behavior.

The UAD is stellar. Big and warm.

[vitocorleone123]

I thinking about buying a new bus compressor for my synth busses and my master chain.
Any recommendations or experience with The Glue or the Waves SSL master bus compressor? Other recommendations are welcome as well!

The Waves sounds like a tin can. Avoid.

The Glue is fine for the compression, but don't expect any vibe from it.

The official SSL one is like the Glue (digital sounding), but more aggressive/punchier.

The Sonimus (it's part of their Satson CS) has pretty nice compressor action.

The PA Townhouse is extremely colored. It's very cool, but it'd be a rare mix where you'd want that extreme harmonic sludge pasted all over it. But it's good once in awhile, on individual instruments or subgroups, for an over-the-top saturated effect.

The NI one doesn't compress in the manner of an SSL bus comp. I'd skip it, though maybe it's good in it's own way... I prefer to stay close to the traditional SSL behavior.

The UAD is stellar. Big and warm.

I wanted one that sounds like my SSL G clone (which matches up very closely to the original) so that it could stand in as I only have 1 hardware unit. The SSL Native v2 was the second closest to my ears after the Softube. I was able to get very close compressor action - albeit with different settings - using PluginDoctor to match the Softube with the hardware.

UAD offers a thing... but not a thing I wanted for my purposes.

[I_Am_Become_KVR]

I thinking about buying a new bus compressor for my synth busses and my master chain.
Any recommendations or experience with The Glue or the Waves SSL master bus compressor? Other recommendations are welcome as well!

The Waves sounds like a tin can. Avoid.

The Glue is fine for the compression, but don't expect any vibe from it.

The official SSL one is like the Glue (digital sounding), but more aggressive/punchier.

The Sonimus (it's part of their Satson CS) has pretty nice compressor action.

The PA Townhouse is extremely colored. It's very cool, but it'd be a rare mix where you'd want that extreme harmonic sludge pasted all over it. But it's good once in awhile, on individual instruments or subgroups, for an over-the-top saturated effect.

The NI one doesn't compress in the manner of an SSL bus comp. I'd skip it, though maybe it's good in it's own way... I prefer to stay close to the traditional SSL behavior.

The UAD is stellar. Big and warm.

I wanted one that sounds like my SSL G clone (which matches up very closely to the original) so that it could stand in as I only have 1 hardware unit. The SSL Native v2 was the second closest to my ears after the Softube. I was able to get very close compressor action - albeit with different settings - using PluginDoctor to match the Softube with the hardware.

UAD offers a thing... but not a thing I wanted for my purposes.

Interesting observations. I haven't used your clone, but I'm intimately familiar with a couple different official SSL models.

The SSL Native 2 doesn't sound like hardware at all to me--it's digital sound (which isn't a bad thing, just an observation). Nor does it compress especially like it (it compresses nicely, but it's a lot more aggressive sounding than the HW, which for some things actually might make it better than the HW).

The old Waves one is actually rather close to SSL hardware, in it's compression action. The problem with that plugin, is that it sounds like a tin can... harsh and thin.

UAD V2 compresses very similar to the SSL hardware, so in that respect it's like the Waves, except it sounds good, unlike the Waves. The UAD is definitely the beefiest sounding of all the SSL bus comp plugins I've heard (again, not saying that's good or bad, just an observation)... it can be forced to clamp the bass, but it lets a lot through at lighter settings, which sounds pretty darn good actually... it just depends on the material.

Interestingly, the older UAD V1 sounds a lot like the SSL Native bus--very aggressive. I could put those two on a drum bus if I had to, whereas usually an SSL bus type comp doesn't do anything to improve a drum bus, for my taste.

Haven't tried the Softube. I'm not in the market for any SSL bus plugins, so I haven't tried any of the latest ones.

[art&sound]

Townhouse is better than both and you get get it for less.

I love the townhouse compressor too

[Ah_Dziz]

The softube via NI ssl is my favorite plugin. I don't know which exact model they were going for but I find it quite handy on busses. I use the Glue on masters a decent amount. I don't particularly like how it sounds with the meters going past about 4-6DB on extremely loud bits. The waves sounds better to me at more extreme settings, but those are all "check out how compressed this is" type settings. Like most things, I just ended up with many many ssl type compressors that can all do things I like and don't work so well in other circumstances.