Coming Soon: The Relab 176 (Retro 175) Tube Compressor/ Limiter

[Aloysius]

How about SSL Blitzer?

[HcDoom]

How about SSL Blitzer?

Its amazing SSLs take on the Distressor, one of the most used compressors over here, love it. But 176 is in different league.

[chagzuki]

It does sound very good. I've never owned a hardware compressor, but generally never quite gelled with most commercial software offerings due to a perceived lack of liveliness, UAD perhaps being a slight level above the competition. I didn't like Unisum at first but once I figured out some of the inner workings I started preferring it over more typical choices for e.g. drum bus compression, since I can tailor the way it reacts to the source in detail and inject a bit of dynamism.

This sounds good with no effort at all; always sounds organic. Problem is, with the price tag and likelihood of Relab releasing a whole suite of similar emulations I'd probably end up spending a small fortune over time.

I'm not having trouble running two instances within projects and could probably get away with 3 or 4 on an M4 Mac.

[Aloysius]

How about SSL Blitzer?

Its amazing SSLs take on the Distressor, one of the most used compressors over here, love it. But 176 is in different league.

It's a whole lot more. As they say ... ''Blitzer offers 10 unique compression curves across 10 ratios — each with a unique shape and tone inspired by some of the rarest and sought-after analogue dynamics processors. Harness the distinct response of vintage tube, VCA, FET and optical compressors, all within a single easy-to-use interface. ''

[jens]

How about SSL Blitzer?

Its amazing SSLs take on the Distressor, one of the most used compressors over here, love it. But 176 is in different league.

It's a whole lot more. As they say ... ''Blitzer offers 10 unique compression curves across 10 ratios — each with a unique shape and tone inspired by some of the rarest and sought-after analogue dynamics processors. Harness the distinct response of vintage tube, VCA, FET and optical compressors, all within a single easy-to-use interface. ''

And a Distressor doesn't do that, or what?

[bmanic]

Idk, i really think this one is special. I havent seen an itb analog emu respond in such manner to source

Did you try MixWave's Hazelrigg VNE yet?

aaa i tried it but i can't say i find it unique honestly - i find the response somewhat similar to Voxengo Marquis (and i got reminded of it almost immediately, iirc marquis is a "tube" comp right?).

For the same amount of GR, it doesn't make the source pop out as much as the 176. It's also much more predictable, and doesn't have the tasty nasty grit of the Relab.
(I like that you can actually break the 176, like, make it malfunction)

I mean, i find the VNE nice, but unlike 176, i don't find it does anything i can already do with what i have

Yeah, like I said, the VNE is "super soft".. no matter what you do with it. It's basically 1 half of a DW Fearn VT7, the hardware compressor that has impressed me the most of all time.. and I've played with pretty much all the heavy hitters (except a real fairchild.. only some recreations).

MixWave absolutely nails the compression action of the DW Fearn / VNE. I'm really hoping they emulate the full VT7 or add the knee control to the VNE.

It's a completely different compressor and has a very different character to the 176, but in terms of compression action and accuracy to the original, I'd say it's almost on par and uses a fraction of the CPU resources of the Relab plugin. The only thing I think the Relab 176 does more convincingly is the mojo part. And I do suspect that's where a lot of the resources went. Then again, it's super impressive how MixWave has been able to fully re-create the pulse width modulation system of the VNE. That's no small task as the PWM circuit operates at something like 5Ghz.

[Ploki]

Yeah, like I said, the VNE is "super soft".. no matter what you do with it. It's basically 1 half of a DW Fearn VT7, the hardware compressor that has impressed me the most of all time.. and I've played with pretty much all the heavy hitters (except a real fairchild.. only some recreations).

MixWave absolutely nails the compression action of the DW Fearn / VNE. I'm really hoping they emulate the full VT7 or add the knee control to the VNE.

It's a completely different compressor and has a very different character to the 176, but in terms of compression action and accuracy to the original, I'd say it's almost on par and uses a fraction of the CPU resources of the Relab plugin. The only thing I think the Relab 176 does more convincingly is the mojo part. And I do suspect that's where a lot of the resources went. Then again, it's super impressive how MixWave has been able to fully re-create the pulse width modulation system of the VNE. That's no small task as the PWM circuit operates at something like 5Ghz.

I mean, isn't the mojo part the crux of Analog vs Digital usually?

[kraster]

It's a big word though. I think "mojo" is useful in trying to capture something that isn't readily reducible to some single characteristic (mainly because it's a collection of characteristics)

What's blowing me away with the 176 is how you can mess around with how the compressor behaves. It's mojo all over.

When you click the label you get access to the 4 extra pots. The first controls the bias of the 6BC8 (which sits in the detector circuit) which changes things like sensitivity the second pot which is the anode balance of the 6BC8 affects the gain onset characteristics. I find this has an effect on the knee. The third pot is the 12ax7 control that adds or reduces more even harmonics/distortion.

The calibration control on the front is effectively a macro for the three pots.

Pushing it up gives you more distortion and more compression.

The asymmetry control can give transients a kick in the ass depending on the phase direction of the signal. So kick with a positive excursion get a nice bump.

The interstage control tends to add even more colour and has even more of an effect on transients.

There is so much going on here but what amazes me about it is it's just all one big sweet spot.

I've been trying it on drum loops and every setting seems to sound good in different ways.

This thing is remarkable. For my money it has the best ballistics of any compressor I've used. It's so damn musical. I think that's really a feature of the original design but it's definitely translated into the plugin.

[Ploki]

It's a big word though. I think "mojo" is useful in trying to capture something that isn't readily reducible to some characteristics (mainly because it's a collection of characteristics)

What's blowing me away with the 176 is how you can mess around with how the compressor behaves. It's mojo all over.

When you click the label you get access to the 4 extra pots. The first controls the bias of the 6BC8 (which sits in the detector circuit) which changes things like sensitivity the second pot which is the anode balance of the 6BC8 affects the gain characteristics. I find this has an effect on the knee. The third pot is the 12ax7 control that adds or reduces more even harmonics/distortion.

The calibration control on the front is effectively a macro for the three pots.

Pushing it up gives you more distortion and more compression.

The asymmetry control can give transients a kick in the ass depending on the phase direction of the signal. So kick with a positive excursion get a nice bump.

The insterdatge control tends to add even more colour and has even more of an effect on transients.

There is so much going on here but what amazes me about it is it's just all one big sweet spot.

I've been trying it on drum loops and every setting seems to sound good in different ways.

This thing is remarkable. For my money it has the best ballistics of any compressor I've used. It's so damn musical. I think that's really a feature of the original design but it's definitely translated into the plugin.

Spot on!

You can also decalibrate like hw so it starts dropping out lol, so like hw, if you do stupid shit you get stupid results.

I think this is one of the first compressor emulations that captures the elusive “nonlinearity” of analog hardware nearly perfectly.
By non linearity i mean that the whole circuit reacts to how it behaves, not some static waveshaper that adds harmonics as you push it. It sort of “breathes”, it doesn’t just smash when you push it.

I love it on vocals so so much

The dev behind it apparently spent more than a year dissecting the hw unit inside out

[kraster]

It's a big word though. I think "mojo" is useful in trying to capture something that isn't readily reducible to some characteristics (mainly because it's a collection of characteristics)

What's blowing me away with the 176 is how you can mess around with how the compressor behaves. It's mojo all over.

When you click the label you get access to the 4 extra pots. The first controls the bias of the 6BC8 (which sits in the detector circuit) which changes things like sensitivity the second pot which is the anode balance of the 6BC8 affects the gain characteristics. I find this has an effect on the knee. The third pot is the 12ax7 control that adds or reduces more even harmonics/distortion.

The calibration control on the front is effectively a macro for the three pots.

Pushing it up gives you more distortion and more compression.

The asymmetry control can give transients a kick in the ass depending on the phase direction of the signal. So kick with a positive excursion get a nice bump.

The insterdatge control tends to add even more colour and has even more of an effect on transients.

There is so much going on here but what amazes me about it is it's just all one big sweet spot.

I've been trying it on drum loops and every setting seems to sound good in different ways.

This thing is remarkable. For my money it has the best ballistics of any compressor I've used. It's so damn musical. I think that's really a feature of the original design but it's definitely translated into the plugin.

Spot on!

You can also decalibrate like hw so it starts dropping out lol, so like hw, if you do stupid shit you get stupid results.

I think this is one of the first compressor emulations that captures the elusive “nonlinearity” of analog hardware nearly perfectly.
By non linearity i mean that the whole circuit reacts to how it behaves, not some static waveshaper that adds harmonics as you push it. It sort of “breathes”, it doesn’t just smash when you push it.

I love it on vocals so so much

The dev behind it apparently spent more than a year dissecting the hw unit inside out

It's absolutely superb on vocals. I had a rough track of vocals that was recorded with much care and this just transformed it into something completely usable.

It absolutely kills on bass and drum overheads.

I think to use it on a master bus the tweakage settings behind the label can tame it down a lot. Turning the anode up gives it a more gradual onset and turning the bias down on the the first pot seem to make the compression more selective and less grabby. Also turning the 12ax7 bias down gives you a cleaner starting point. Watch out for the thump though!

I like it on the master bus with the interstage turned on. It's quite dark with it off.

It's incredibly versatile and as you say there's a real sense of interaction between all the different controls that make it feel a lot more interactive than other compressors.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

There is so much going on here but what amazes me about it is it's just all one big sweet spot.

I've been trying it on drum loops and every setting seems to sound good in different ways.

This thing is remarkable. For my money it has the best ballistics of any compressor I've used. It's so damn musical. I think that's really a feature of the original design but it's definitely translated into the plugin.

Yep.

The default settings just work on everything. But if you adjust settings, it typically still just works. It's hard to make this sound bad at all. It's just different degrees of good.

I ended up parting with the cash today and buying. Even after a week with some brutal home repair bills. But there's no way I'm not buying this.

Relab said over on Gearspace that the upcoming .8 beta should have some additional CPU optimizations. So that's good news.

[jamcat]

I dunno. It seems like a really cool proof-of-concept, but just not practical for actual audio production work.

[Ploki]

What’s not practical?

It’s pretty straightforward to dial in. You can fiddle with calibration and bias, but you don’t have to. Works fine if you don’t.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

The Windows CPU usage in the current state makes it impractical. So get that. But the sound is something else. Let's see how these optimizations go.

[VitaminD]

I ended up parting with the cash today and buying. Even after a week with some brutal home repair bills. But there's no way I'm not buying this.

How do you think Funkybot is going to take this news?