overall 'best' mastering compressor?

[kilroy]

...I still think that for punchy, totally controlled bass and that modern pop sound there is little choise but to use some kind of multiband processing unless the mix is very good to begin with. I think that bass can be gotten under control with certain high end outboard compressors but so far I have found no software, single-band compressor that can do it adequately without pumping the whole mix in a non-musical fashion.

Hmmmm...

Right then..let me throw this out.

One thing that that works well is holding off the onset of the release phase. This can also be made to have some program dependancy, such as would a good PDR implementation, and done well can be very effective. Even when provided as a manually set variable control the advantages are significant in terms of lowend control. It would appear possible to tie such a control to other elements in order to achieve even greater improvements in overall transparency of operation.

You know, in order to design truly great software tools there must come a time for developers to focus on what analog *cannot* do, rather than expending too much energy trying to emulate what it can do. Math is necessary to the accurate modelling of physics...but it is capable of describing something for which we have no ready physical prototype in place.



Sometimes it is, that the evidence of things distracts us from the reality of possibilty.

[SuperMax]

Wave Arts MultiDynamics sounds very nice with 18 dB/oct or 30 dB/oct crossovers.
http://www.wavearts.com/MultiDynamics5.html

There is probably some phase shift on crossover transitions but it is better than a single band compressor with intermodulation (pumping).

[aMUSEd]

The PSP one seems to be winning but I've not seen many people saying why they voted for it - just wondered?

[.jon]

More of a method/workflow question I guess, but does multiband compression actually have any place in my one-man VST studio?

I mean isn't it better for me to just compress the tracks individually (and tbh not many VST tracks need compressing), and then apply just a little bit of single-band comp on the master, to tie them together?

Multiband is cool on full techno mixes to make them pump even more, but aren't they generally meant to repair a bad mix, in situations where the original tracks aren't available?


sunny days,

.jon

[mastered]

Multiband is cool on full techno mixes to make them pump even more, but aren't they generally meant to repair a bad mix, in situations where the original tracks aren't available?


sunny days,

.jon

Yes.

YMMV

[mastered]

WRT to psp.


A friend of mine had a tune mastered by a guy.

A real renowned pro who used a 2500 pound pendulum compressor on the tune.

When he heard the results he tried to match only the compression.


He said the PSP mastercomp came awful close.

Be good if we could directly compare the mastercomp to high end outboard.

Plus, i know a lot of people frown upon it, but i feel the t-racks compressor is a damn good mastering compressor.

For me it ads wiked weight to the song when set properly.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

There is only particularly interesting fact about our human ear's physiology.. Our ears have small hairs in the ear canal (after the cochlea if I remember correctly). I've also read that these hairs have different physical sizes so that they resonate to different frequencies. There are about 40 of them in ears. So, this made me think that our ears also have bandsplitting process going on and that phase coloration also takes place there. Maybe some day we'll be able to plot an impulse response of that part of our ears.

[PeterL]

There is only particularly interesting fact about our human ear's physiology.. Our ears have small hairs in the ear canal (after the cochlea if I remember correctly). I've also read that these hairs have different physical sizes so that they resonate to different frequencies. There are about 40 of them in ears. So, this made me think that our ears also have bandsplitting process going on and that phase coloration also takes place there. Maybe some day we'll be able to plot an impulse response of that part of our ears.

...impulse response of different ears .
I want one from Bob Katz

[Aleksey Vaneev]

jon, there are no general advices.. You can reshape mix's sound with multiband compressor - mastering is an art after all. I guess Benassi Bros achieved their sound by pushing a good track into 'needs repair' condition. But this made them popular - at least for a couple of years. Next time when general populace's perception swings, some other 'quirk' will be popular. Mastering engineer can really shape things. I also remember listening year 2004 Grammy nominee tracks (popular ones released on a single CD) - so many different mastering approaches/sounds. Every one pretends to be unique and 'best'. It seems nobody likes vanilla sound recorded with the best mics, with the best preamps, mixed on the cleanest desk (a digital one).

[kilroy]

There is only particularly interesting fact about our human ear's physiology.. Our ears have small hairs in the ear canal (after the cochlea if I remember correctly). I've also read that these hairs have different physical sizes so that they resonate to different frequencies. There are about 40 of them in ears. So, this made me think that our ears also have bandsplitting process going on and that phase coloration also takes place there. Maybe some day we'll be able to plot an impulse response of that part of our ears.

Indeed.

*And*...our ears have sophisticated "compression mechanisms" in place. This has always caused me to wonder to what degree the human ear's "detection/transfer" functions vary from person to person, and just how much this would influence their subjective perceptions and judgments on sound.

I guess Benassi Bros achieved their sound by pushing a good track into 'needs repair' condition.

Actually, this would be alot funnier if it wasn't so sad...and true.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

kilroy, no, 'compression mechanism' of the ear/brain is pretty awful I would say... It is one of the reasons why we have 'loudness race' these days. Our ears make almost ANY good track listen like brickwalled track after a minute of listening: ears get accustomed to loudness swings, and dynamics are immediately lost. But if you leave too much dynamics in a track, you'll be faced to listening fatigue - when you need to devote too much attention to dynamics swing. Because, in fact, this 'compression mechanism' is controlled by our waking consiousness - if you are telling yourself 'this is a bit loud', 'signal gain' in the brain immediately lowers, if you say 'this is a bit quiet', signal gain increases. Every single person has some 'comfortable' gain level. So, it is better to have shrinked dynamics track in order to allow listeners devote less attention to dynamics swings.

Of course, audiophiles will argue with that - because they are happy to devote attention to dynamics swings.

Orchestral music is easier, of course, as its dynamics swings are usually prolonged: minute of quietness, minute of loudness, to put it simple - and audiophiles are happy only when loudness change happens.

[.jon]

Thanks Aleksey,

I'm not an engineer, however, just trying to establish a system and workflow that result in good sound. Big part of this is selecting right tools, and I'm still looking for suitable plugins to the end of chain.

kilroy,

Deliberate pumping has been around in club music long before Benassi, I don't think it's sad at all some excellent techno tracks could probably kill skilled and educated engineers by disgust.

That would probably make a good tune name: "Death by Sidechain Abuse"

[Rangtangtang]

Are you heading towards.....turning the speaker volume down for listening pleasure........I do..

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Rangtangtang, I think that speaker volume is irrelevant to listening pleasure. Trained ears contribute more to that. As a routine excercise I tend to lower TV volume a bit - after about a minute it seems OK. However, at daily time this can't be done with ease as ambient 'street' noise gets louder than TV - and so, attention swings from TV to street like mad giving psychological fatigue.

[bmanic]

*And*...our ears have sophisticated "compression mechanisms" in place. This has always caused me to wonder to what degree the human ear's "detection/transfer" functions vary from person to person, and just how much this would influence their subjective perceptions and judgments on sound.

*AND* even further the ear can detect overtones in the signal by means of distortion to further enhance the amount of information. There is apparently still quite a lot we do not know about the human ear. One thing is certain: It's by far the most sensitive sensory instrument/detector in our body.

Cheers!
bManic

PS. Thanks Kilroy for all the awesome thoughts and brainstormin!