KVR Audio

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:02 am

dickiefunk wrote:Hi. I am using freeware compressors at the moment and am wondering if I would see much of an increase in quality if I bought Voxengo Marquis or Blue Cat Dynamics?
These are the compressors I have at the moment :-

ReaComp
Kjaerhus Classic Compressor
Jeroen Breebaart PC-2
Blockfish
Compressive
C3 Multiband
BuzComp

I'm not sure you can call it "increase in quality" but perhaps "increase in versatility" instead. Voxengo Marquis is pretty much unique and has a distinct sound of it's own as it messes with the phase slightly.

Blue Cat Dynamics is one of my go-to compressor that I use (FabFilter Pro-C and Sonalksis 315 mk2 being the others) so I'm highly biased when I say: It is superb!! The control you get with that thing is just insane. I frequently use it as a low-level expander and to gently ride the vocals. However, be warned, that you really need to understand how to tweak a compressor to get the most out of it.

Cheers!
bManic

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:11 am

bmanic wrote:Bduffy, samples from the TC compressor would be awesome!! Feel free to use any of the dry examples in the main thread as your source. New source sounds would be good as well!

Will do, my friend, in a couple days; I'm away from my rig once again.

kizm · Post by **kizm** » Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:21 pm

I do very much like the Sound and feeling of the 1176LN from the UAD DSP. It just fits so well with my vocals

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 10:50 am

hi there

some pages above, there is a suggestion on wich particular one use for vocals, this rise the idea of using a specific compressor for a particular task. i think it will be good to add in this post, some ideas of wich compressor you'll use for other tasks, at least for bass, kick drums, guitars, sharp synth sounds, etc.

more tips about compressors please!

dave

crimsontider · Post by **crimsontider** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 4:53 pm

bduffy wrote:I would want to say that I think Vintage Warmer is a great-sounding compressor/saturator/whatever-the-hell-it-is, if you're looking for an agressive, "tape"-like, smeared-out sound. I love the thing, but generally regard it as more of a sound design tool than a day-to-day compressor. Can be just the right thing at just the right time, especially on drums, bass and guitar.

Seems like Vintage Warmer has a lot more latency than compared to early versions.

bduffy · Post by **bduffy** » Fri Apr 11, 2008 5:03 pm

crimsontider wrote:
bduffy wrote:I would want to say that I think Vintage Warmer is a great-sounding compressor/saturator/whatever-the-hell-it-is, if you're looking for an agressive, "tape"-like, smeared-out sound. I love the thing, but generally regard it as more of a sound design tool than a day-to-day compressor. Can be just the right thing at just the right time, especially on drums, bass and guitar.
Seems like Vintage Warmer has a lot more latency than compared to early versions.

Does it? I noticed a big change after the first few v1/x updates (v1.5?); it became smoother-sounding and seemed "lighter" overall, but I don't notice latency too much, as I mix at high latencies with full PDC. I recall the newer one uses more resources, IIRC. There's some reason why I stick with the 1.6.5 one. I'm not sure it ever needs an update, I consider it finished.

(Shoot, I gotta get some TC Compressor/De-esser examples up. I'll do that later.

)

neaimepas · Post by **neaimepas** » Tue May 13, 2008 10:29 pm

cheers

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Mon May 26, 2008 7:59 pm

Nananananana! My filter plugin can do things that none of your compressors can!

"Huh? What? Did he just say filter plugin? Huh?"

You bet I did!! And it just so happens that it's perhaps the best drum bus squasher I've ever heard in plugin form, once you've tweaked it to suite the song! I'm NOT kidding!!!

Check this pumping smooth loveliness out!! It's a friggin' filter plugin. Made for crazy filtering. It just so happens that it has an envelope follower that can be freely routed to everything.. including global output volume! The envelope follower can even be routed to each other, controlling the attack and release settings of each! This makes it possible to do some extremely complex compression and a lot of crazy stuff!! Check it out!

Original drumloop

FabFilter Volcano 2, compressing like there's no tomorrow! And it's smoooooth but still aggressive as hell! Pro-C can't even get close to this kind of action (probably because it's just too high-fidelity so it leaves no "chunks" left).

Oh, and did I mention that it also works as a gate and an expander?

Volcano2 as a gate, on the above drumloop.

What can I say? I'm in do-it-yourself dynamics heaven with this thing.. and it's a filter plugin! FILTER PLUGIN!!!

Cheers!
bManic

Klemperer · Post by **Klemperer** » Mon May 26, 2008 8:08 pm

absolutely stunning, bmanic! And it really is a filter plugin! A FILTER PLUGIN!!

(nice, have no clue how a filter plugin, just to mention it, can do this so nice - but then I am not bduffy and bmanic, the compressor-in-the-know-people

)

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Mon May 26, 2008 8:52 pm

Someone really should create a "compressor designer" plugin. Simply code a great, smooth envelope follower, a gain reduction element (basically a volume knob) and perhaps some variations on the envelope follower or even a fully controllable envelope which is triggered by the incoming audio. Now make all these blocks available to the user in a modular environment. Boom! Instant "compressor" creator. It just needs to be able to modulate everything with anything.

I know I can do this very same thing within SynthMaker, and I've actually been doing this quite a lot recently, but it's just so much more fun to do it "live" while tweaking the thing to your source sounds!

I still have not seen a compressor that lets you "draw" attack and release shapes/behavior like a drawable envelope in a lot of soft synths.

And before you ask, yes, I'm completely insane.. it would still be just a compressor!

Cheers!
bManic

mauseoleum · Post by **mauseoleum** » Mon May 26, 2008 8:57 pm

To some extent fruty peak controler can do similar: log curve + smoothing and modulate the volume on balance plugin. Cpu doesn't even know it's there.

S-N-S · Post by **S-N-S** » Mon May 26, 2008 9:03 pm

bmanic wrote:Someone really should create a "compressor designer" plugin. Simply code a great, smooth envelope follower, a gain reduction element (basically a volume knob) and perhaps some variations on the envelope follower or even a fully controllable envelope which is triggered by the incoming audio. Now make all these blocks available to the user in a modular environment. Boom! Instant "compressor" creator. It just needs to be able to modulate everything with anything.

I know I can do this very same thing within SynthMaker, and I've actually been doing this quite a lot recently, but it's just so much more fun to do it "live" while tweaking the thing to your source sounds!

I still have not seen a compressor that lets you "draw" attack and release shapes/behavior like a drawable envelope in a lot of soft synths.

And before you ask, yes, I'm completely insane.. it would still be just a compressor!

Cheers!
bManic

you could try and ask vieris to do it??

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Mon May 26, 2008 9:04 pm

mauseoleum wrote:To some extent fruty peak controler can do similar: log curve + smoothing and modulate the volume on balance plugin. Cpu doesn't even know it's there.

True. I've been using that for a while and I think the formula controller might be possible to create even more complex things.

However, I'm having seriously big problems getting the peak controller to be smooth enough. I'm not sure why. Is it somehow possible to filter the controller data to be smoother at fast settings or is the only option to use that "decay" knob?

Cheers!
bManic

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Mon May 26, 2008 9:06 pm

S-N-S wrote: you could try and ask vieris to do it??

I think it isn't easy within SynthEdit to create a modular thing. It's possible with a matrix but it would be a bit hard to get a nice overview. Hmm.. actually, now that I think about it, it could probably be done.

I'm not sure what envelope follower he is using within Synth Edit to create his compressors but as it all comes down to that one component, it kind of limits the possibilities of shaping the control signal a bit.

Vieris, you reading this?

Cheers!
bManic

Blue Cat Audio · Post by **Blue Cat Audio** » Tue May 27, 2008 5:22 am

bmanic wrote:Someone really should create a "compressor designer" plugin. Simply code a great, smooth envelope follower, a gain reduction element (basically a volume knob) and perhaps some variations on the envelope follower or even a fully controllable envelope which is triggered by the incoming audio. Now make all these blocks available to the user in a modular environment. Boom! Instant "compressor" creator. It just needs to be able to modulate everything with anything.

You do not necessarily need a modular environment for that: see our Digitial Peak Meter Pro and its associated tutorials. The good thing with MIDI CC as control is that you even get side chain for free (it works the same way as the Blue Cat's Dynamics plugin you own).

But the main difference between such a setup (envelope follower -> volume or filter control) is the fact that you do not have a threshold to trigger the volume reduction: volume control is continuous. It usually makes a difference in the sounds you can get.

All about compressors (links broken: sorry!)