KVR Audio

airborne · Post by **airborne** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:11 am

I am in a situation that I have the final mix of a song and I want to compress it before I send it to the limiter in order to tame the peaks so that the limiter has only to raise the overall level and make sure it does not clip.
I do not want to use multi-band compression for I like the way the song sounds and I am afraid that in this case it may lose its strength(even Bob Katz discourages the use of multiband compression).

So,which do you consider the "best" compressor for mastering?I would prefer a transparent one.
So,Sonalksis?Kjaerhus?Waves?

chagzuki · Post by **chagzuki** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:20 am

By far I prefer Sonalksis on entire mixes, and it's transparent in the sense that it has no saturation emulation.

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:24 am

I'd say Voxengo Polysquasher for transparency. The sonalksis has some "character" that is most definately not transparent. Polysquasher at the mode 1 settings is transparent like none other.

Cheers!
bManic

airborne · Post by **airborne** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:37 am

Thanx guys!
So nobody suggests Waves I suppose?I have RComp but have not used it for mastering up to now.I love it when mixing in individual channels but on mastering,I don't know.I have a feeling that it will colour the sound...

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:42 am

I wouldn't use Rcomp in mastering. It's not very transparent, like you said. Give the voxengo polysquasher demo a go, also the Kjaerhus Golden compressor though it can be a bit hard to get a transparent sound at first. The sonalksis compressor demo is fully working for 30 days so give that a go too.

Cheers!
bManic

brianbrian · Post by **brianbrian** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:53 am

Voxengo Polysquasher.

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:00 am

A mastering limiter will tame the peaks. If that's all you want to accomplish, I'm not sure that a compressor is the tool for the job. Then again, I'm no expert!

My understanding is that a compressor will also affect the valleys and not just the peaks. If you want the 'valleys' to be changed as well, then you ARE after the right tool after all.

Greg

warp x · Post by **warp x** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:05 am

as far as I can tell, T-Racks

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 1:09 am

The t-racks compressor is very coloured and easily pumps. I strongly advice against it in this situations.

Cheers!
bManic

kylen · Post by **kylen** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 3:36 am

Well - I'm not Bob Katz or bmanic - but I did get a good night's sleep last night (hehe) so I'd suggest Voxengo Polysquasher too. It is transparant can be made to do whatever you like to peaks or body using its very deep knee slope (0-40dB) and high resolution ratio (1.01:1, 1:02:1, etc up to 10:1) and dry/mix knob to dial back in some uncompressed signal if you're into the parallel-comp sound.

Kjaerhus has his Golden Peak Pressor which I'm learning to get to sound smooth and might be a choice also - not as transparent though yet (for me).

JackDark · Post by **JackDark** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 6:12 am

Endorphin by Digital Fish Phones

It is a specialist for complex sources like a mixdown, after having made minor sonic adjustments and right before burning the track to CD.
Furthermore, it can help to increase depth, definition and loudness of a track.
I call it an 'analog-style' compressor: endorphin uses models like frequency-dependent nonlinear operation, different harmonics creation stages as well as two basic compressor circuits taken from the analog realm.

http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.p ... &subItem=3

-It's free and fandamntastic.

BONES · Post by **BONES** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 6:37 am

A second for endorphin. I just finished mastering our album using it and I found it very transparant. In fact, if it wasn't for the overall increase in volume I may not have thought it wasn't doing anything half the time. We got word back from the label today that they are very happy with the sound so I suppose I did a decent job.

herodotus · Post by **herodotus** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 6:49 am

And a big third for Endorphin. Why this thing is free is beyond me.

brianbrian · Post by **brianbrian** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:22 am

That's odd. Endorphin is cool, but I definately don't think it is transparent.

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 7:40 am

I agree, endorphin is definately not transparent. It's very cool that's for sure but it might not be suitable in this situation. Also, it easily messes with the frequency balance if you are not careful as it's a multiband (2 band) compressor.

Cheers!
bManic

Transparent Mastering Compressor