Cytomic 'The Glue' Compressor

[saintjohnbaxter]

You won't regret it Welcome to the club

[Tp3]

WHAT A GREAT REVIEW ON SOUND ON SOUND !

Congrats, Andy !

pros
----
* Very convincing bus compression.
* Provides 'the glue' on a variety of instruments.
* Very affordable

cons
----
No support for VST3 side-chaining (Andy, you hear ?? )

summary
-------
The Glue is based on the legendary SSL bus compressor and makes a
mighty fine job of performing transparent bus compression.

Compared to similar plug-ins, it's more transparent but without sounding flat or boring.

It's kind of a 'more of everything' compressor, and at a great price too!


Cheers !

[andy-cytomic]

Thanks Tp3! Well it doesn't get much better than that I think, a thumbs up from Sound On Sound that The Glue out performs both the Waves and UAD plugins. The reviewer Frederick has excellent ears and knows the SSL Bus Comp sound inside out, and I think gave an really fair comparison to all (and not just because The Glue came out as the best plugin). He was also really excited to check out the latest version with full oversampling support as he is now hooked on The Glue and uses it in his productions! For the record his TK Audio BC1 was the best sounding compressor in the comparison - but I don't mind coming in second to an analog rack unit costing over 10 times the price of The Glue

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Good for you Andy. I have no doubt that The Glue is one of the best software compressors hands down, and then when one factors in the price there's absolutely no competition. I'm glad SOS found the same.

Now get to making some new plugins...I'm interested in the more "creative" project you're working on next, but I'm really dying to see you take on a new 1176 clone with the knowledge you've acquired since the BFD2 version. You clearly excel at making great sounding plugins based on existing hardware designs...more than anything else, I'd love to see some more compressors and EQ's get spawned from that knowledge.

[Tp3]

Andy, do you have ANY intentions in implementing a VST3 version (for the Side chain) or is it a No-Go ?

[Tp3]

For the record his TK Audio BC1 was the best sounding compressor in the comparison - but I don't mind coming in second to an analog rack unit costing over 10 times the price of The Glue

And to be exact : x13



So, maybe your next creation would be an TK Audio BC1 clone.... you could call it : the CLUE

Cheers !

[andy-cytomic]

Andy, do you have ANY intentions in implementing a VST3 version (for the Side chain) or is it a No-Go ?

Btw VST3 is as similar to VST2.4 as AU is to RTAS - ie not at all, it is a completely new plugin format.

I feel my time is best spent writing dsp code and guis, not the back end framework stuff - so for this I use I rely on the "Juce" framework to do all the grunt of various plugin formats and operating system differences - and to not just support them initially, but to update support for them continually as hosts change. This is a huge task which is why I have "outsourced" it.

Juce doesn't support VST3, so neither do I, but if it does in the future then I'll get support for it automatically and will pass this on to my customers for free. If it is just easier sidechain support you want then Steinberg can easily add this at their end for VST 2.x plugins just like every other host developer on the planet apart from them does - all it would take is to change the plugin menu from to: The Glue (Quadro), The Glue (2xStereo), they already have the rest of the plumbing under the hood to support it.

[andy-cytomic]

For the record his TK Audio BC1 was the best sounding compressor in the comparison - but I don't mind coming in second to an analog rack unit costing over 10 times the price of The Glue

And to be exact : x13



So, maybe your next creation would be an TK Audio BC1 clone.... you could call it : the CLUE

Cheers !

Hehe, it is interesting that the TK Audio BC1 did very similar updates to the original that I did, more attack times, more release times, a -6 dB sidechain highpas, and a mix knob! They added some extra ratios, and I added the Range knob.

Another interesting thing came out of the review. Frederick has an excellent audio setup, the best speakers, a really good room, a Mytek 192 ADC and Lavry DACs. In the blind A B examples I sent to him using a regular "pro" 8 in 8 out soundcard he actually preferred the sound of The Glue to the SSL G-Series bus comp, since the test signal had to be converted twice by the "pro" soundcard and it degraded the signal quality. So if you want to buy analog kit you had best first spend thousands on a good stereo DAC and ADC otherwise you may be worse off than just using The Glue ITB!

Also in the review he only tested x2 oversampling. Now you can process x16 oversampling, which should get things sounding even closer to the analog hardware. Frederick now has the lastest version of The Glue, always a good sign when the reviewer uses things in their own productions after the review is done, so I'll find out off him if the extra oversampling has made any difference in quality.

I have even now added support for up to x256 oversampling on render, so you can use the peak clip as a distortion box with no audible aliasing Anyone want to hear some audio examples processed at over 12 MHz ?

[djanthonyw]

Andy, I have a general question on oversampling. What are your thoughts on using multiple plugins that offer support for oversampling? For example if I'm using The Glue with oversampling and then a separate limiter with oversampling, can going back an forth with the sample rates have a negative effect?

[risome]

Having had a UAD card im my last Mac i concur that the The Glue is equal if not better than the UAD compressors,
it has a transparent nature to full effect which just makes things sound better.

[Tp3]

Also in the review he only tested x2 oversampling

That was exactly my next question... but apparently you have the ability to read one's mind, other then
to read hardware schematics...

I may be wrong here, and I am, by all mean, NOT a pro (although I DO make music for many years now) but... I had
the feeling the bass section can stay "not broken" a lot better when you push the thing (ie. compress more with higher oversampling rate)... I hope I make sense

I have even now added support for up to x256 oversampling on render

Is it implemented ?
Is it on beta ?
Can we try it ?

so you can use the peak clip as a distortion box with no audible aliasing

Or, in other words

so you can use the peak clip as a limiter with no audible aliasing

?

[andy-cytomic]

Andy, I have a general question on oversampling. What are you thoughts on using multiple plugins that offer support for oversampling? For example if I'm using The Glue with oversampling and then a separate limiter with oversampling, can going back an forth with the sample rates have a negative effect?

If the oversampling is "done well" then the only problem will be extra cpu and latency. The oversampling is "done well" in The Glue.

I define "done well" as being linear phase, leaving the "passband" of 0-20kHz within +-0.01 dB of the original, and having at least -120 dB rejection of reflected energy in the same 0-20kHz range, ie your 0-20 kHz is kept untouched. It needs to be linear phase if you do it multiple times otherwise each time you oversample you smear the phase more and more.

[djanthonyw]

Awesome, thank you for clarifying that. Looking forward to trying the insane new x256 oversampling!

[andy-cytomic]

I may be wrong here, and I am, by all mean, NOT a pro (although I DO make music for many years now) but... I had the feeling the bass section can stay "not broken" a lot better when you push the thing (ie. compress more with higher oversampling rate)... I hope I make sense

It's mainly high frequencies that benefit from oversampling.

Is it implemented ?
Is it on beta ?
Can we try it ?

When it is ready I will release it for everyone to use. I'm still fine tuning it right now.

so you can use the peak clip as a distortion box with no audible aliasing

Or, in other words

so you can use the peak clip as a limiter with no audible aliasing

?

The peak clip is not a limiter in the normal sense, it is just a waveshaper. Normally limiters try to be "transparent". The Peak Clip on The Glue is straight out soft clipper and not transparent unless you use it carefully on transients. How much you want to distort you signal is up to you, but with x16 oversampling it is already cleaner than most distortion plugins on the market. Anything higher is really only useful for extreme processing

[Tp3]

I may be wrong here, and I am, by all mean, NOT a pro (although I DO make music for many years now) but... I had the feeling the bass section can stay "not broken" a lot better when you push the thing (ie. compress more with higher oversampling rate)... I hope I make sense

It's mainly high frequencies that benefit from oversampling.

Yes I know that but that was just the feeling that I got

Is it implemented ?
Is it on beta ?
Can we try it ?

When it is ready I will release it for everyone to use. I'm still fine tuning it right now.

Well, no rush

so you can use the peak clip as a distortion box with no audible aliasing

Or, in other words

so you can use the peak clip as a limiter with no audible aliasing

?

The peak clip is not a limiter in the normal sense, it is just a waveshaper. Normally limiters try to be "transparent". The Peak Clip on The Glue is straight out soft clipper and not transparent unless you use it carefully on transients. How much you want to distort you signal is up to you, but with x16 oversampling it is already cleaner than most distortion plugins on the market. Anything higher is really only useful for extreme processing

"unless you use it carefully on transients"... I'd like to translate that into audio... ie. what is - in your
opinion - the start point of transients deterioration