KVR Audio

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 11:50 pm

Hey Michael, what can you tell us about RetroBand? The GUI is very striking. I continue to run stuff out of my computer and back into it through my Hamptone tube and FET pres because of what they can do with gain staging...is that the kind of thing you are trying to replicate?

Kingston · Post by **Kingston** » Sun Sep 03, 2006 11:59 pm

inverseroom wrote:Hey Michael, what can you tell us about RetroBand? The GUI is very striking. I continue to run stuff out of my computer and back into it through my Hamptone tube and FET pres because of what they can do with gain staging...is that the kind of thing you are trying to replicate?

Sort of, but none of the gain staging saturation in its traditional form is modelled, plenty of those around as it is.

What retroband does is (and this is from the blurb of the forthcoming website):

"several aspects of the interaction between gain stages and transformers of analogue gear, referred to as intra-modulation (IM), ie. Class A/B gain stage switching distortion. It also features several forms of transient shaping in-between the stages."

...main concept in bold letters above. Know that it's a rather subtle effect in the real world (can be abused in RetroBand though). It's one of the non-linear distortions that accumulate over a lot of channels resulting in, ummm, niceness when used correctly. With luck one can achieve some of the sought after "analog sheen" with it. I shy away of saying it sounds analog, but you can certainly achieve part of the things that go nicely wrong in the analog world. (instead of the sterile perfection of digital things)

inverseroom · Post by **inverseroom** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:17 am

I hear you. Buying nice pres didn't make a huge difference in individual tracks, but stack sixteen together and you can actually HEAR things. Let's hope you're on that track! Do you have a delivery date?

Kingston · Post by **Kingston** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:24 am

inverseroom wrote:I hear you. Buying nice pres didn't make a huge difference in individual tracks, but stack sixteen together and you can actually HEAR things. Let's hope you're on that track! Do you have a delivery date?

A few last bug fixes to beta test and site management related issues, but a realistically it's out sometime next week. (just hope I didn't talk out of my arse again)

nick at artsacoustic · Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:27 am

not of matter, sorry ...

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:30 am

Kingston wrote:
inverseroom wrote:I hear you. Buying nice pres didn't make a huge difference in individual tracks, but stack sixteen together and you can actually HEAR things. Let's hope you're on that track! Do you have a delivery date?
A few last bug fixes to beta test and site management related issues, but a realistically it's out sometime next week. (just hope I didn't talk out of my arse again)

hey, thats great news actually ...
michael, would you please let me know asap when this thing is out?

mammath · Post by **mammath** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:32 am

Kingston,

I've asked you about Retroband months back. Now that you've actually exposed the window for delivery, I've grown 30 degrees more impatient!

Kingston · Post by **Kingston** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:36 am

argh. the pressure!

I'll let you all know when it's available.

Sorry about the thread hi-jack again. I tried to exit so many times already!

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 2:36 am

No pressure, Kingston; something worth having is worth waiting for! It's going to be popular, that's for sure.

My God, this thread is way hijacked; should we start a new thread on gain-staging, etc?

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Mon Sep 04, 2006 11:44 am

well, also my apologize, again ...
megahijacking ...
but i think topicwise it was not too interessted for compressor lovers, who maybe observed this thread ...
so it was not an ashole-hijack with no sense ...
well, lets get back on the topic ...
alexey ... after this thread you _must_ know, why a lot of users need a limiter/saturator in the gainstage after the compressor ...
i really would like to have a statement on this ...
what do you think?

Aleksey Vaneev · Post by **Aleksey Vaneev** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:21 am

brok landers wrote:alexey ... after this thread you _must_ know, why a lot of users need a limiter/saturator in the gainstage after the compressor ...
i really would like to have a statement on this ...
what do you think?

Actually, I have "add saturator as standard option to most plug-ins" line in my "to do" list. However, what makes me think twice is the necessity to add 2 knobs and 1 on/off switch to support this feature. This looks like a bit of a burden to me. What do you think?

bool · Post by **bool** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:14 am

In my humble op. saturator would be logical in channel/buss insert plugins.

Other opinions may differ.

Kingston · Post by **Kingston** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 11:16 am

Aleksey Vaneev wrote:
brok landers wrote:alexey ... after this thread you _must_ know, why a lot of users need a limiter/saturator in the gainstage after the compressor ...
i really would like to have a statement on this ...
what do you think?
Actually, I have "add saturator as standard option to most plug-ins" line in my "to do" list. However, what makes me think twice is the necessity to add 2 knobs and 1 on/off switch to support this feature. This looks like a bit of a burden to me. What do you think?

Not a bad idea for beginners and such alike, but I would personally still choose to use an external plugin for the task (wether yours or something else). One has to consider the fact the saturator could also be use pre-plugin, instead of post-plugin process like lots of these people have in mind.

With the sheer number of inserts available to us all, the ease of use of todays hosts, on this end external plugin makes more sense.

bool · Post by **bool** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 11:39 am

the saturator could also be use pre-plugin

And someone was bitchin about letting converter do the same a couple pages before.

Kingston · Post by **Kingston** » Tue Sep 05, 2006 12:29 pm

bool wrote:
the saturator could also be use pre-plugin
And someone was bitchin about letting converter do the same a couple pages before.

eh? clipping the converters is completely destructive. You do it once and there's no removing it. Although I admit my RME can do it rather transparently, I'd rather leave the choice for later and also get the flexibility of the *type* of clipping/saturation. I'll destructively EQ or compress things while recording if I have the choice, but clipping the converters is not what I would call a desirable effect.

(many disagree and you're free to do so also)

Voxengo needs a freeware compressor.