KVR Audio

Shy · Post by **Shy** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:32 am

I think it works very well for that as well as "squeezing" individual sounds. Its release flexibility is something else. Its sound is hardly ever "wobbly" though, and there's no special distortion/"coloration", and I think they did well by not trying to get into a territory where they can't possibly compete with analog. Where they could (which is everything else), they did excellently and I'd say win compared to by far most. So you may very well prefer an analog compressor for character, or limiter/preamp/whatever for transparently taming sharp peaks instead of with the included optional soft/hard saturation or look-ahead delay (which I personally think rarely works well with transient-rich content).

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:03 pm

As I've always been a huge fan of the Weiss DS1 units I'm sure I'll like the Algorithmix compressor as well. So far everything I've read and your simple audio example makes it even harder to resist trying the demo.

Any thoughts on the Flux Solera/The Alchemist? I had some hard time with these. Took me literally 3 months to figure them out. Before that, all I could achieve was a first 5 minute "wow!" then later realizing I had compressed much too aggressively or with the wrong time constants. Now I've finally found out how to use it (gentle ratios, 1.01 to 1.20 works very well, or then harder ratios but with very long attack (200-300ms) and short release, in the CL modes).

Cheers!
bManic

Shy · Post by **Shy** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:22 pm

I'm sure some people may have great uses for Flux's plugins, and they certainly are very advanced, but personally I'm a very "less is more" person when it comes to compressors. When it comes to effects, I could happily tweak dozens of parameters for hours until I achieve my favorite, most suitable result, but when I need to mess with volume/dynamics I'm really careful not to suck the life out of the sound

or modify it so much that the balance becomes weird.

So, I like a compressor that can do more with less and can't do the kind of more which I prefer not to make use of anyway. With the Flux plugins, I couldn't get the kind of "simple" tight/solid response I was looking for.

Shy · Post by **Shy** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 3:39 pm

By the way, here is a "riding" example. Slow attack, fast release.

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:10 pm

Very interesting sound example. It seems quite tight and snappy even with longer attack (what was the value?). Would be nice still to hear it on a complete mix of some kind.

Anyhow, keep the examples coming if you have time.

Cheers!
bManic

Shy · Post by **Shy** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 1:14 am

Attack at 50ms, release at 40ms (with "normal" release mode).

Here is a little complete mix of mine from ~5 years ago. 3 files: unprocessed track, splitcomp-processed track, and analog-processed splitcomp-processed track. I suggest you listen to it in the opposite order.

I set SplitComp to 100% "limiter" characteristic, with fastest attack, 70ms release at "quick" mode. At that setting it's able to "rebound" very quickly (and without distortion) and thus not cause too major volume tilting, of the snares especially. It has a fine slow pumping effect. I couldn't get that kind of tight "limiting" with any other compressor or limiter, especially not without ruining the attacks and smearing everything. The main reason I even did such a process with SplitComp is to tame the drum transients before my analog compressor and preamp, or otherwise I'd get very emphasized attacks and much less room for everything else. It turns out to be an optimal match.

SWAN808 · Post by **SWAN808** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 9:52 am

bManic - have you (or anyone else around here whos into compressors) checked out the Powercore Tubetech?

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:03 pm

@Shy: very impressive stuff. Damn it! I see 1300 euros less on my bank account in the near future. DAMN IT!

@Swan800: I've tried the Tubetech CL1B plugin and compared it directly in an A/B setup to the real deal, at the Amsterdam AES convention last year. I was pretty impressed. Softube did a really good job on the emulation. However, it did not manage to have the same "mojo" and "effortlessnes" as the real deal. It felt a bit more tight somehow which can either be a good or a bad thing, depending on the source. It was yet again good proof of how far we've come in emulating relatively complex hardware. Within a dense mix it would be most likely impossible to tell the difference. It's rather expensive at over 600 euros, that's the only negative. And it eats a fair amount of the powercore dsp resources.

Cheers!
bManic

SWAN808 · Post by **SWAN808** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:54 pm

bmanic wrote:@Shy: very impressive stuff. Damn it! I see 1300 euros less on my bank account in the near future. DAMN IT!

@Swan800: I've tried the Tubetech CL1B plugin and compared it directly in an A/B setup to the real deal, at the Amsterdam AES convention last year. I was pretty impressed. Softube did a really good job on the emulation. However, it did not manage to have the same "mojo" and "effortlessnes" as the real deal. It felt a bit more tight somehow which can either be a good or a bad thing, depending on the source. It was yet again good proof of how far we've come in emulating relatively complex hardware. Within a dense mix it would be most likely impossible to tell the difference. It's rather expensive at over 600 euros, that's the only negative. And it eats a fair amount of the powercore dsp resources.

Cheers!
bManic

cool - yeah I have been thinking about picking up a Powercore for reverb. The PC Tubetech is expensive - and seeing as I just do dance and electronic music - I think I may be better off spending that sort of money on a hardware clone....as I really could get by with UAD as channel compressors and use 1 hardware on the master or drum buss...then submit tracks for final treatment with a mastering engineer...Mmm choices choices. Maybe the new Analogue in the box Chandler compressor will be good....

milosh_ · Post by **milosh_** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:52 pm

I like bmanic's SSL clone's blind test alot.
For me the B - hardware SSL clone sounds best especially on the Cute Beat

.
I tried to tweak my software compessor that I use most often to get silmilar effect.
Check it out
Note that compressor I use is not any SSL emulation.

cheers
milo

bmanic · Post by **bmanic** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 8:35 pm

Looks like I lost my privileges at CMT or then the server is broken. This means that ALL links to files and sound examples that I've posted are broken. I hope they didn't simply delete everything because I don't have backups of every example created. Oh well..

Cheers!
bManic

.Parsec.audio.tron. · Post by **.Parsec.audio.tron.** » Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:12 pm

good deal! i own fabfilter volcano 2 and haven't realized its potential yet, especially didn't realize you could "build your own compressor" with its features that's really sorta awesome.

appreciate the work, dude.

andy-cytomic · Post by **andy-cytomic** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 9:45 pm

@bManic: Thanks for doing the tests, it's interesting reading what people think. Just wanted to let you know the release setting of 0.2 on The Glue is 0.3 on the hardware, it's actually around 2.5 so can be rounded to either for the user interface. Also what setting did you use for the Range knob?

Andrew Simper

andy-cytomic · Post by **andy-cytomic** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 10:52 pm

@bManic: Ahh, I was worried there for a second at how badly The Glue had gone in the tests, but I just noticed that was before I fixed the algorithm. Well done everyone for saying that the attacks sounded too dull, they were. This is now completely fixed since I have brought the side-chain filters in line with the 4000, and I have increased the precision of the solver so it will now be precise on the slowest of attacks. This was all done for v1.0.10, but is also in v1.0.11.

I know you are probably busy but there is a new version of trial available but I have just fixed a bug with the time check which would sometimes come up as zero days left. If this happens just run it again to fix the issue. The latest version will automatically reset your two week Trial limit.

http://cytomic.com/Beta/The_Glue_Beta_Info.html

Andrew Simper

xsys · Post by **xsys** » Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:00 am

andy_cytomic wrote:@bManic: Thanks for doing the tests, it's interesting reading what people think. Just wanted to let you know the release setting of 0.2 on The Glue is 0.3 on the hardware, it's actually around 2.5 so can be rounded to either for the user interface. Also what setting did you use for the Range knob?

Andrew Simper

Just what I was looking for! I am reviewing a Duende right now, and I was not too impressed...so far this sounds very good.

JR

All about compressors (links broken: sorry!)