Kjaerhus, Voxengo or T Racks?

[grotman]

But in answer to the topic hehehehehe.
I use finalplug (wavearts) very nice piece of 01010101010101010101010101

[kritikon]

hmmmmmmmmmm.now,now kiddies your not just putting compression on everything just because you think its there to use willynilly are u. Lets just loook at what a compressor is really needed for(taming inconsistency) . What woud you do if these tools weren't available to you. Everything i hear on these topics always seems to point to abuse of these audioslaves. Why don't you firstly think about practising your art be it playing an instrument (try to be consistent)or studying your levels on your peenieweeniekeyboardeenie/arpeggiator/..lol kaoss pad if thats your thing. You only need compression if these elements have been sorted to an otherwise acceptable result.....i.e. the track is still belying all tameable transient overload. If you can't master this for whatever reason(there are many) use your automation in your sequencer....... it will sound better(used properly, if not it will sound like s"+t, though probably better than bad and ill educated use of compression) if that doesn't work..... well the answer is simple....
Go and practise till it does...

If a chef overcooks a steak burning it irreparibly(i.e.bad performance/levels/the all too common overhot guitar with extreme boost and bad preamp use) does putting a beautifully cooked sauce on top make that steak taste better(or is it just good sauce).

I don't play any realworld instruments in my music, so that is not at all what compression is all about. It never has been. There are many fine reasons to use compression even on electronic instruments that don't even use velocity as a parameter.
You'll find many an accomplished engineer using compression liberally on just such instruments.
I'll often use compression as a specialFX just as much as a thickener or a frequency adjuster...as you should be well aware, a decent frequency-conscious comp may be used not even with the intent of taming transients in mind.

I eat my steak blue usually - but it's still just a piece of almost raw meat without a decent red-wine jus on top.

[grotman]

oh well .... good for you..my velocity devoid friend,seems to be a different approach, hope it works for you. Does it?

[Forever Sun]

If a chef overcooks a steak burning it irreparibly... does putting a beautifully cooked sauce on top make that steak taste better(or is it just good sauce).

It does ! I even pour molases... And honey...

[AndrewSimon]

I try to use as little compression as possible in my music but it really depends on the material.

I you create a high energy dance beat you would probably need to compress the hell out of everything.

But if you create an accoustical instrument piece
gentle compression on some of the instruments will do just fine.

I love the UAD-1 plugs and I use TRacks as well on almost every project.
Not familiar with the others but heard very good comments about them.

I guess you can never have too many compressors in your arsenal.

[Z]

I love the UAD-1 plugs and I use TRacks as well on almost every project.
Not familiar with the others but heard very good comments about them.

One of the things I dislike about T-rackS is that it seems to insert what does not sounds like clipping, but artifacts at certain points in a wave file. This happens when all meters are way below 0dB and even on 32-bit files too.
I haven't found out what causes this, but after some tweaking I managed to get rid of it; I think after tweaking the EQ it went away.

Oh well, I guess I should propably dig out the manual again...