Are we close to getting plugin compressors that sound like real ones?

[dusted william]

Why don't you just make the adjustments I suggested? I'll shut up once you nail it!

Try this (one is Slate Dragon, one is mine):
www.electric-himalaya.com/stuff/Compression_match_e.wav

I think the first one sounded best, but only by a small amount.



dw

[frankjcc2003]

Has anyone else tried that free kingtao KT-C comp? I just played around with it a little on the dry.wav and thought it sounded surprisingly good. Plus the interface is nice, especially for free/donation-ware.

you're right, I just tried it and it sounds the closest yet! but it still clips the output when you get the level just right. With a soft clipper it's almost a match. Good enough for me.

[kvaca]

Has anyone else tried that free kingtao KT-C comp? I just played around with it a little on the dry.wav and thought it sounded surprisingly good. Plus the interface is nice, especially for free/donation-ware.

you're right, I just tried it and it sounds the closest yet! but it still clips the output when you get the level just right. With a soft clipper it's almost a match. Good enough for me.

closest to what...and compared with what - could you be more specific please?

[Agreed]

You know, what are we even doing here? There is no Slate Dragon emulation done by any of the good usual suspects. We're doing our best to make emulations of compressors, or non-emulating compressors with no design similarities at all to speak of, sound like AN EXTREME EXAMPLE of this one analog comp. Why is everyone, including me, just saying "oh, okay, time to try it!" instead of realizing that this is a horrible premise for a challenge?

There are a wealth of "real hardware vs. all the plugins" over at Gearslutz and they tell much more of a story than anything going on in this thread. What we've learned from this thread is that without an emulation of the specific behavior of a particular, peculiar, coloring compressor, surprise, you probably won't get exactly its sound at the extreme edges of its operation. It doesn't say anything about the quality of plugin compressors as such.

It's kind of a miracle that we've had useful discussion on analog vs. digital and the pros and cons, what factors are at work in pushing us forward and what factors are holding us back from software that behaves exactly like hardware in tracking, because that sure as heck wasn't the initial question, and I have to deny the premise its legitimacy on the grounds that it's malformed and illogical. In the purest sense, not attacking anything at all here, it just isn't internally coherent. Begging the question against plugins by setting up faulty test conditions and an impossible specific premise.

[Dean Aka Nekro]

Wrong old man: http://www.mediafire.com/?22391ogv12uh11t

Wow! Very nice! Great lines and some beautifully articulate playing! When did you get into film composing?

Oh you know mate I dabble abit here and there. Really glad that you enjoyed that one as you are the first to tell me 'MEH' about all the usual noise racket output and yes it had some synth parts to, I must be mellowing as I do turn 29 this year.

Himalaya the latest version of your compression example (I don't have the best monitoring setup with a pair of ADAM AX8As the best I have, Room enviroment wise it is worlds apart to an ideal space by miles plus OTOT nor do I have that great an ear I fully admitt) through a pair of AKG K702 headphones and switching between those and my monitors its real close. Got alot more to download and listen to...Chasing the Dragon

Just for what its worth my ear's are still not fully recovered from a pretty horrible thing called labyrinthitis (Caused through stress and long term sinus problems and not something silly I did to bring it on myself via subjecting my ear's to anything that would or even could of caused it).

I sincerely hope nobody at all ever gets such a problem as it is bloody awful and makes one feel as if they are not on terra firma (seasick and wierd sense of balance going all over the show), Can't explain it really, Just the stuff of nightmares for anybody especially those whom work with audio or in the audio world. Worse of all simply a humble fan of music that needs it daily like myself. As I've said a few times already, Luck just seems to follow me around

All the best to all as always, Take it easy & take care

Dean

[Ah Xoc Kin]

Agree Agreed
For me it's not about analog vs. digital, but an exercise in recreating a sound and learning more about compression. I have no problem choosing digital over analog. I would have done the same exercise with analog gear, just as a learning experience.

Last night I decided I could not get a sound close enough for my liking, but thanks to this exercise I got some wonderful sounds out of the Summit Grand Channel, even combined it with UBK-1, and for the first time used Melda's Auto Eq.

It's been mentioned a few times that this should not reflect on the perceived quality of a specific plugin.

[Fritze]

Wrong old man: http://www.mediafire.com/?22391ogv12uh11t

Wow! Very nice! Great lines and some beautifully articulate playing! When did you get into film composing?

Oh you know mate I dabble abit here and there. Really glad that you enjoyed that one as you are the first to tell me 'MEH' about all the usual noise racket output and yes it had some synth parts to, I must be mellowing as I do turn 29 this year.

Dean

Hehe, old fart! Getting mellow, hm? (Hit and run...)








I'm 45. And like that piece of music, too.

[Fritze]

On topic: I've got nothing substantial to add to the Dragon challenge at the moment, sorry. We had some interesting talk about compressors here at u-he today. Sascha is so deep into this stuff it's amazing. I learned a lot today. Exciting times we live in.

[frankjcc2003]

Has anyone else tried that free kingtao KT-C comp? I just played around with it a little on the dry.wav and thought it sounded surprisingly good. Plus the interface is nice, especially for free/donation-ware.

you're right, I just tried it and it sounds the closest yet! but it still clips the output when you get the level just right. With a soft clipper it's almost a match. Good enough for me.

closest to what...and compared with what - could you be more specific please?

This compressor was closest in the behavior of the slate compared to all the other examples when listening on my mackie hr624 mk1, but when I put on my sennheiser HD 380 pro, I must apologize, now I see what all the fuss is about, I wonder if we all have such different rooms and cans that we can't even hear what the other person is hearing, even different pro setups.

[Ah Xoc Kin]

This compressor was closest in the behavior of the slate compared to all the other examples when listening on my mackie hr624 mk1, but when I put on my sennheiser HD 380 pro, I must apologize, now I see what all the fuss is about, I wonder if we all have such different rooms and cans that we can't even hear what the other person is hearing, even different pro setups.

Indeed. Unfortunately I don't have my studio monitors at the moment. I borrowed a couple of Auratones and got a sound that was very close to the Slate. When I listened through my Grado SR225 I noticed many differences. That being said, I doubt any listener would say: "That sounds awful, like a digital compressor."

[frankjcc2003]

This compressor was closest in the behavior of the slate compared to all the other examples when listening on my mackie hr624 mk1, but when I put on my sennheiser HD 380 pro, I must apologize, now I see what all the fuss is about, I wonder if we all have such different rooms and cans that we can't even hear what the other person is hearing, even different pro setups.

Indeed. Unfortunately I don't have my studio monitors at the moment. I borrowed a couple of Auratones and got a sound that was very close to the Slate. When I listened through my Grado SR225 I noticed many differences. That being said, I doubt any listener would say: "That sounds awful, like a digital compressor."

OK THATS IT! NEW RULE everybody must post waterfall plots before making anymore comments on sound.':D'

[Dean Aka Nekro]

This compressor was closest in the behavior of the slate compared to all the other examples when listening on my mackie hr624 mk1, but when I put on my sennheiser HD 380 pro, I must apologize, now I see what all the fuss is about, I wonder if we all have such different rooms and cans that we can't even hear what the other person is hearing, even different pro setups.

Indeed. Unfortunately I don't have my studio monitors at the moment. I borrowed a couple of Auratones and got a sound that was very close to the Slate. When I listened through my Grado SR225 I noticed many differences. That being said, I doubt any listener would say: "That sounds awful, like a digital compressor."

Yep that has to be the biggest factor of all and as kvaca listed an overview/rough characteristics/loose specs and agreed pointed out the Slate Dragon is real beastly (and to my tastes thats a good thing) mixture of agressive 1176-ish compression with all the kinds of modern bells and whistles which makes it a deserable device (Well im really keen to use one if/when I can to try on snare (and anything else obviously)). Shy is a keen gearhound and there would only be very good reason that Shy would drop that sort of money on something

The most disheartening part in the grand scheme of things was inadvertently laid down by Jens when he said "why would I or I won't whatever whatever WASTE THAT MUCH BANDWIDTH downloading yada yada yada" even though it was totally OT it does sum up how John and Jane Doe would view things whom could not give a flying f**k what quality they are listening to on their handy little 'smart' phones or whatever where (presuming they actually bother to pay for the music they have on thier computers and/'smart' things) are getting shit in terms of quality for fitting as much as they are able to do instead of probably even knowing the difference between uncompressed PCM audio file and whatever (s)i(hite)Tunes gives them for however much a track costs, f**k knows they probably like those ear raping white things that comes with any iThing as it matches/looks good plus use those horrific built-in factory EQ curves Yep there are those whom have an alright quality setup (the BOSE brigade) except they are most of the time docking a piece a crap onto a plenty decent hi-fi that fits neatly aesthetically, BOSE do real nice iDock things but they are still being fed AAC at shit quality bottom line. Then the rarer inbetween sort of audio lover who's setup is good and they still buy compact discs and know what an ALBUM is (usually found reviewing albums on youtube along with some of more informed BOSE brigade). After that then its pretty much those audiophiles/audiophools that drop more than a hefty morgage would set most people back on a decent property on some damned cable in some cases and end up with two compact discs which makes up thier entire collection; One disc which contains test/calibration tones/material and the other is Pink Floyd's DSOTM, The majority of those lot won't even entertain listening to anything that has been released post 1980 except re-issues perhaps (Which, They always say never sound as good as the original vinyl!), I wouldn't mind that lot so much if they were just to openly admitt that after a point its all simply because it looks so nice and is simply an extension of thier taste in furniture. A real gem the other week my collegue found after treating himself to an issue of hi-fi+ magazine which is bought half to laugh at and half to wind himself up with to get into noise making mood, He is an electronics engineer so all the pseudo-scientific claims and plain bullcrap they pen about nothing special is a real treat for Him and his fellow electronics chums: http://paulinthelab.blogspot.co.uk/2012 ... nkery.html

I mean have you ever noticed that its similar to listening to whatever is in your record collection with a jackhammer less than a few inches away unless there are builders/construction work going on inside your place or outside if you live in a really busy ubran city?

No me neither but I'm dying to hear the difference their snake oil material

Still that said, No matter where any musician/audio engineer's work may end up the best efforts should and does go into capturing, mixing and mastering audio regardless of anyone but one's self giving a f**k or people will begin to 'mix and master for MP3' and then that is where it will all begin to go to the dogs

please ignore the awful grammer and spelling mistakes plus attempts at humour, I am not the sharpest guy the world has seen by light years.

All the best to all as always

Dean




























Oh SHIT they have been doing that and even doing features in most audio magazines on it for at the very least a year and half or two its all f**ked already. Compression? Well I could use a nice powerful one to go with my pneumatic drill plua other POWER TOOLS

[Ah Xoc Kin]

Thanks to this thread I read the Slate manual, tried a few 1176-type compressors, and found this http://arpjournal.com/1868/all-buttons- ... roduction/

Speaking of DSOTM, IIRC there was a DVD audio version posted in some forums years ago. Interesting to hear a different mix.

And I totally agree, we should set high standards regardless of whether those listening can hear a difference. I really hear nothing wrong with some of the digital plugins I use, and there are others that I simply don't use because I don't like their sound, but without a doubt digital has evolved greatly in the past decade.

[Fritze]

And I totally agree, we should set high standards regardless of whether those listening can hear a difference.

I guess you don't mean that without any given context, right? If so, what context? Someone should hear the difference you want to make, right? Who?

[Fritze]

Thanks to this thread I read the Slate manual, tried a few 1176-type compressors, and found this http://arpjournal.com/1868/all-buttons- ... roduction/

Thanx for posting that paper. Interesting read so far.