Alternatives to Neodymium?

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[kvaca]

I'm not sure that the plugs you guys are mentioning do the same. I mean, they'd have to have at least two threshold and two or three ratio knobs.

Here's what I used on that flute track:



1. Compress peaks
2. Leave middle loudness alone
3. Expand soft sounds down

Neodynium can have 4 loudness bands, and set attack release separately on each, but I didn't use that here.

Victor.

you can do the same trick with almost any decent comp /if you know how to handle it/ and if not possible with one instance you can always use as many instances of the same plugin as you need for the same 4 bands trick...maybe not as easy to setup but still possible to do

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

you can do the same trick with almost any decent comp /if you know how to handle it/ and if not possible with one instance you can always use as many instances of the same plugin as you need for the same 4 bands trick...maybe not as easy to setup but still possible to do

These bands however are not split up into frequency ranges, they're split up into volume ranges.

I don't know how you'd use multiple instances of a compressor to compress the room noise on a set of mics, bringing that up, without effecting the middle and loud portions of the track. That's what Neodynium could do.

[VicDiesel]

you can do the same trick with almost any decent comp /if you know how to handle it/ and if not possible with one instance you can always use as many instances of the same plugin as you need for the same 4 bands trick..

How do you set up an instance to compress only the sounds between -20 and -30 db?

Victor.

[kvaca]

you can do the same trick with almost any decent comp /if you know how to handle it/ and if not possible with one instance you can always use as many instances of the same plugin as you need for the same 4 bands trick...maybe not as easy to setup but still possible to do

These bands however are not split up into frequency ranges, they're split up into volume ranges.

I don't know how you'd use multiple instances of a compressor to compress the room noise on a set of mics, bringing that up, without effecting the middle and loud portions of the track. That's what Neodynium could do.

any decent comp I use have threshold and range settings which used simultaneously give you at least one middle band...also many comps /like MDynamics,Compassion etc/ contain separate expander for lowering noise and separate peak comp or limiter or clipper to tame peaks,too...and if not you can always use another instance of the same comp with appropriate settings /for expanding or limiting etc/ as I have suggested before

[kylen]

Actually if we look at part of kvaca's comment it makes me think of the range control some comps have. Granted that only gives you 2 volume zones, but I think if you set a low threshold, then set a low range, you should be able to affect a lower passage without affecting stuff above it.

I haven't tried it - just a thought.

Oops: posted same time as kvaca who already had this thought...

[kvaca]

you can do the same trick with almost any decent comp /if you know how to handle it/ and if not possible with one instance you can always use as many instances of the same plugin as you need for the same 4 bands trick..

How do you set up an instance to compress only the sounds between -20 and -30 db?

Victor.

threshold set to -30 and range to 10 db
are you completely new to compressors or only testing me,Victor?

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

you can do the same trick with almost any decent comp /if you know how to handle it/ and if not possible with one instance you can always use as many instances of the same plugin as you need for the same 4 bands trick..

How do you set up an instance to compress only the sounds between -20 and -30 db?

Victor.

threshold set to -30 and range to 10 db
are you completely new to compressors or only testing me,Victor?

That will compress ALL sounds above -30db by up to 10db (at least this is how the Range knob works in The Glue). That's a lot different that ONLY compressing sounds between -20 and -30db which is what Neodynium was capable of.

[AKJ]

il maximus should be able to do all what neodynium did (plus more, since it has 3 - frequency - bands and lets you draw a free curve vs. only 4 - dynamic - bands in neodynium):

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/maximus_by_image_line

Once you understand how the drawing of the curve works you will never want to miss this flexibility.

Another option would be TB FlX: http://www.kvraudio.com/product/tb-flx-by-toneboosters

or there is vene the free medla compressor:

http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/ ... =MDynamics

(however, for me it did not work as expected since when you let the line end in a flat line below 0 db you still may get strong distortion, which should not occur since that settings equals to a brickwall limiter)

cheers, akj

[kvaca]

you can do the same trick with almost any decent comp /if you know how to handle it/ and if not possible with one instance you can always use as many instances of the same plugin as you need for the same 4 bands trick..

How do you set up an instance to compress only the sounds between -20 and -30 db?

Victor.

threshold set to -30 and range to 10 db
are you completely new to compressors or only testing me,Victor?

That will compress ALL sounds above -30db by up to 10db (at least this is how the Range knob works in The Glue). That's a lot different that ONLY compressing sounds between -20 and -30db which is what Neodynium was capable of.

The Glue is maybe excellent modelling comp but is not the best for what OP is searching...and AFAIK it cannot do nor low level expansion nor peak limiting,too
and the clipper in glue is simply the worst imaginable...even old T Racks Clipper is infinitely better...
also-the gain reduction is dependent mostly on ratio and not on range settings...at least in comps I have mentioned above
also.2- its hardly imaginable for me you want even more than 10 db of GR on such low level threshold-the resulting sound will be awfully distorted or insanely pumping crap most of the time...

[Spitfire31]

… which is what Neodynium was capable of.

Er… what Neodynium is capable of.

It runs just fine on my Snow Leopard 10.6.8!

/Joachim

[kvaca]

http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/ ... =MDynamics

(however, for me it did not work as expected since when you let the line end in a flat line below 0 db you still may get strong distortion, which should not occur since that settings equals to a brickwall limiter)

its not possible...or you have bad settings /for limiting you need to set lookahead=attack=hold,peak detection,attack inbetween 1-5 ms and release around 100 ms to avoid any distortion and if your peaks go above digital zero use slightly shorter attack than lookahead+hold/
in any case MDynamics is highly usable compressor/expander but not any substitute for dedicated brickwall limiter

[AKJ]

http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/ ... =MDynamics

(however, for me it did not work as expected since when you let the line end in a flat line below 0 db you still may get strong distortion, which should not occur since that settings equals to a brickwall limiter)

its not possible...or you have bad settings /for brickwall you need to set lookahead=attack=hold,peak detection,attack inbetween 1-5 ms and release around 100 ms to avoid any distortion and if your peaks go above digital zero use slightly shorter attack than lookahead+hold/

maximus can do it, but you are right it has lookahead...

[kylen]

il maximus should be able to do all what neodynium did (plus more, since it has 3 - frequency - bands and lets you draw a free curve vs. only 4 - dynamic - bands in neodynium):

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/maximus_by_image_line

Once you understand how the drawing of the curve works you will never want to miss this flexibility.

Yes - I have this one also but always have had trouble getting down into the lower parts of the curve. I asked for a zoom but there are other techniques the dev suggested, I couldn't make it go as quick as the other one you mentioned FlX (which is still kind of in the oven) I have great ideas for using that one.

[bmanic]

you can do the same trick with almost any decent comp /if you know how to handle it/ and if not possible with one instance you can always use as many instances of the same plugin as you need for the same 4 bands trick...maybe not as easy to setup but still possible to do

These bands however are not split up into frequency ranges, they're split up into volume ranges.

I don't know how you'd use multiple instances of a compressor to compress the room noise on a set of mics, bringing that up, without effecting the middle and loud portions of the track. That's what Neodynium could do.

You need a compressor where you can modify the transfer curve, just like kylen said on page 1.

However, to exactly mimic this compressor you need to use 4 of them in series. That way you get individual attack and release controls too.

"Dividing up things into volume ranges" is exactly what an ordinary compressor or expander does. You're just stuck with the preset transfer function.

For serious transfer function tinkering I highly suggest one of the MeldaProductions compressors. Or you can get Image-Line Maximus and use it as a single band (frequency) compressor.

In-short: You CAN recreate what this compressor does but Neodynium is utterly unique in it's user interface and how it presents the compression. So taking this in mind, there are no alternatives. None.

Cheers!
bManic