Best channel strip plugin that's NOT emulation of SSL, Neve, API, Amek, etc.

[digitalboytn]

IZotope Alloy 2...

[Captain]

Some time ago I googled & compared a bunch of plugins to find a new go to channel strip. The first channel strip plugin I used was probably RChannel many years ago, then Waves SSL, then PA SSL. Nothing wrong with any of them, I have mixed and produced a lot of songs and albums with them, but I just felt there must be something even better and modern (or should I say, less restricted and conventional) out there.

If I could design my dream channel strip, it would be something like this:

1. A modern, resizable interface that doesn't try to be too skeuomorphic or copy the look of some hardware console. ​Console emulations are nice... but there's really no need to try to copy them any more, at least not in the GUI and functionality. We are talking about software on a computer screen, there's no restrictions or conventions we absolutely need to follow. Of course many tried and tested methods still make sense even in the software world, and there's no need to fix what ain't broken, but it's good to have a clean slate as a starting point when designing the GUI.

​2. Able to see and adjust everything on a single page. This is kind of the point of a channel strip. It's still OK to "zoom in" to a specific element and possibly expose more controls, but there still should be a single view where you can do 97% of everything you need to do.

3. A selection of different EQ's, compressors and saturation types, selectable with a simple switch, but all of them behind a unified interface, so that the controls stay mostly the same when switching. The processors themselves can be analog modelled, based on some famous hardware, strictly digital, whatever... the more the better, as long as it's easy to compare them and choose the one that works best for the current channel.

4. All the basic mixing tools, plus some extras: EQ, compressor, saturation, de-esser (or simple dynamic EQ and/or multiband compressor), transient shaper, limiter, etc. And since this is 2021, also some intelligent resonance suppression thingies etc. I don't care much for any AI-based "wizard" type stuff, I know they can do amazing things, but they still feel a little too unpredictable and uncontrollable for any real world use. Oh and the ability to insert any 3rd party plugin at any point in the signal flow wouldn't hurt either.

5. Goes without saying, but of course everything needs to sound great. While this is a big and important part of the channel strip, somehow I'm least worried about this. There's so much great sounding plugins today that the biggest question is not if great algorithms exist, it's how they can be combined into a single usable package. And also goes without saying, CPU usage should be within reasonable limits.

I don't think anything exactly like this exists yet? I finally ended up with Omni channel, which ticks many of the boxes, but the GUI still feels a little oldschool. And while they fortunately made it resizable, it looks like crap in larger sizes. Anyway, I have now been using it for over half a year, and it works just like it should: I open it, I immediately know what I need to do without thinking too much, I do it, I move on.

Another one I liked was Izotope Neutron, which in many ways is exactly like the super modern channel strip I have been dreaming of, but the lack of a single "overview" page is a big minus. I really want to give it another go at some point, but Omni just feels so much easier to open...

Flux Evo Channel actually looks pretty good, somehow I missed it when I was looking for a new channel strip, need to give it a closer look. Thanks for the tip!

Like many others, I believe that Fabfilter would be the perfect company to make the perfect modern channel strip. Hope they are on it!

[jasonekratz]

Personally enjoy Omni Channel. Andrew and the Waves folks seemed to put a lot of usability thought into it and it sounds good.

I tried to like it, but it's too large for my tastes. I've found that I really prefer a more modern non-skeuomorphic U/I.

Really too large? I can easily fit two alongside each other on a single monitor to EQ two parts at the same time.

I also think the GUI keeps out of the way pretty well on this one.

Load it up next to Neutron V1 and you will see what I mean by too big. Someone above called it a "steampunk U/I" Yeah, that too.

Yeah I can see not liking Omni for those two reasons. The size doesn’t bother me and I like the way they rendered it. But I think the main reason I buy the damned channel strips is I love the eye candy. Always buy them cheap because of this.

That said I still like the usability features in Omni.

Ghettosynth your comment about wanting to dial things in with your ears reminds me of the Dan Worrall vid on the new AMEK strip from PA. He’s used to using Fabfilter stuff because the way they handle things even with the fancy UI is closer for him to the “old” way of knobs and ears. He seemed to enjoy doing it that way with the AMEK.

[jens]

but the dev passed away IIRC, and it never got further developed which was really a shame, as it was a brilliant channel strip.

No, he didn't - he only faked his own death, plus he was not even the coder - Michael Olsen of Sonic Timeworks fame was.

Really ? So was it updated and continued or just died when he fake died ?

Actually it had already died before Reason Lahalla pulled that stunt - according to him he couldn't reach Michael Olsen anymore to even just get him to fix/improve stuff, so he wanted to disctontinue it and announced a V2, which was supposed to get coded by someone else - yet that never saw the light of day because Reason "died" shortly after. I seem to remember DNR having had to mourn further deaths too and some severe illnesses or stuff?

Weirdly enough most everything that Michael Olsen ever touched got discontinued in strange or even bizarre ways, with at least two developers/companies having taken the money and run (Keytosound and DNR Collaborative). Talented a coder he is, I don't think even just a single plugin he ever coded survived until today - odd fella himself, I would guess.

[ghettosynth]

Ghettosynth your comment about wanting to dial things in with your ears reminds me of the Dan Worrall vid on the new AMEK strip from PA.

That was I believe antic who said that. Not that I disagree, but I find visual analyzers to be helpful.

[jasonekratz]

Ghettosynth your comment about wanting to dial things in with your ears reminds me of the Dan Worrall vid on the new AMEK strip from PA.

That was I believe antic who said that. Not that I disagree, but I find visual analyzers to be helpful.

Oh sorry. I should have gone back further

[antic604]

Ghettosynth your comment about wanting to dial things in with your ears reminds me of the Dan Worrall vid on the new AMEK strip from PA.

That was I believe antic who said that. Not that I disagree, but I find visual analyzers to be helpful.

It wasn't a comment with regards to Dan's video, but indeed I'm of the opinion that strength of channel strips is having to use your ears. Like Dan, I often tweak the EQ or compressor because I don't like the filtering or transfer curve respectively

Actually it's even better if the channel strip has notched knobs, i.e. ones where the designer decided a limited number of fixed, sweet spot values. That's one of the reasons I like Reason, because you can't type exact values for majority of parameters and knobs move in a non-continuous manner.

[jasonekratz]

Ghettosynth your comment about wanting to dial things in with your ears reminds me of the Dan Worrall vid on the new AMEK strip from PA.

That was I believe antic who said that. Not that I disagree, but I find visual analyzers to be helpful.

It wasn't a comment with regards to Dan's video, but indeed I'm of the opinion that strength of channel strips is having to use your ears. Like Dan, I often tweak the EQ or compressor because I don't like the filtering or transfer curve respectively

Yeah sorry wasn't implying anything other than your comment reminded me of what he said in that video. Had just watched it and it was just something that stuck out for me and then you mentioned the same thing here.

[sl1200mk2]

If I could design my dream channel strip, it would be something like this...

If you add in a physical device to control the whole thing then you're really close to describing Softube's Console 1. It aligns well with most if not all of your wish list. My hesitation with mentioning it in this thread the much of it is trying to 'emulate' something though, so it's not sticking to that mantra.

[nIGhT-SoN]

Waves Scheps Omni Channel is really great, but what keeps me from buying it is the fact that after 1 year, I can use it only on one machine. For me it's really important to be able to use it on at least 2 machines, without paying the annual thing. That's what keeps me away from many of their plugins.

From my testing, I tend to mix better on channel strips and I think it's because I'm more focused, no graphs to show you what you are doing to the spectrum, you just listen. That works really well for me and I tend to use PA bx_focusrite and bx_ssl 9000j. I do have Eventide Ultrachannel too and it's really great, but somehow it doesn't feel fast to use and eq graph sometimes it gets in my way. I know, I have to learn to listen more than looking, but sometimes it's easy for me to forget.

[jens]

You can use Waves plugins on as many machines as you like - just not at the same time (without some tweaking)...

[_leras]

Personally enjoy Omni Channel. Andrew and the Waves folks seemed to put a lot of usability thought into it and it sounds good.

I tried to like it, but it's too large for my tastes. I've found that I really prefer a more modern non-skeuomorphic U/I.

Really too large? I can easily fit two alongside each other on a single monitor to EQ two parts at the same time.

I also think the GUI keeps out of the way pretty well on this one.

Load it up next to Neutron V1 and you will see what I mean by too big. Someone above called it a "steampunk U/I" Yeah, that too.

But Neutron is tabbed right, so in some ways not really a channel strip at all... in that you'd expect a channel strip to have all controls visible and hands on.

[ghettosynth]

Personally enjoy Omni Channel. Andrew and the Waves folks seemed to put a lot of usability thought into it and it sounds good.

I tried to like it, but it's too large for my tastes. I've found that I really prefer a more modern non-skeuomorphic U/I.

Really too large? I can easily fit two alongside each other on a single monitor to EQ two parts at the same time.

I also think the GUI keeps out of the way pretty well on this one.

Load it up next to Neutron V1 and you will see what I mean by too big. Someone above called it a "steampunk U/I" Yeah, that too.

But Neutron is tabbed right, so in some ways not really a channel strip at all... in that you'd expect a channel strip to have all controls visible and hands on.

That's not my definition at all. I get that's what some people want, I'm concerned only about ease of use and that includes speed of use. A channel strip to me is a plugin with the features of a mixer channel strip. Given that we are in the digital age I don't need them to be as simple as your typical analog mixer channel strip. Of course, there is a point at which complexity gets in the way of ease of use, but that is in the eye of the beholder. I like Neutron and that's the model of products that I'm looking at.

[_leras]

Waves Scheps Omni Channel is really great, but what keeps me from buying it is the fact that after 1 year, I can use it only on one machine. For me it's really important to be able to use it on at least 2 machines, without paying the annual thing. That's what keeps me away from many of their plugins.

From my testing, I tend to mix better on channel strips and I think it's because I'm more focused, no graphs to show you what you are doing to the spectrum, you just listen. That works really well for me and I tend to use PA bx_focusrite and bx_ssl 9000j. I do have Eventide Ultrachannel too and it's really great, but somehow it doesn't feel fast to use and eq graph sometimes it gets in my way. I know, I have to learn to listen more than looking, but sometimes it's easy for me to forget.

Well.... it's only $30... which is ridiculous value really.

I think this thread is a bit of a misleading... as it doesn't ask why a not emulated strip may be wanted. Emulated channel strips are copies of designs that were iterated over for many years. So there's no guarantee that a not emulated channel strip is going to be either better, or preferable.

I'm with you though an emulated strip, if used across many tracks gives some great results. That said the Waves Omni Channel is a really great tool, with options on pretty much every control on the strip. I'm sure this concept will get copied.

[BONES]

So a compressor is just used to get "a boost"?

"Boost" as in "make it better", not necessarily to "boost" the level.

EQ is used to get "a boost"?

Yes, you literally boost or cut frequencies.

Phase alignment is used to get "a boost"?

I honestly have no idea why you would bother doing that at all. Perhaps you could explain?

And what "kind of krap[sic!]" is built into Studio One's mixer?

Console emulation - cross-talk, noise and all that other stuff engineers spend their lives trying to eliminate from recordings. Plus there is Fat Channel that offers a suite of effects in one plugin, to do all that other shit. All covered inside Studio One at no extra cost and extremely light on CPU.

This thread slowly but surely turns (typically for a KVR thread, I am inclined to think) into a nice illustration of the Dunning Kruger effect, me thinks.

It is, in fact, the opposite of Dunning-Kruger, it's what happens when you ask legitimate questions but people lack any confidence in their workflows and so are afraid to answer. Its weird, because they are only too happy to give you their opinions on specific tools but ask a simple question like "are these tools you use on every channel or just on some channels?" and everyone suddenly gets defensive and won't answer, or they go way off-topic for no apparent reason, like you have. It was a simple question and the only follow-up would have been an even simpler "why?"

Anyway, the title of this thread isn't "why would anyone use channel strip plugins", so if you - and @BONES - can't see the point, just skip it

It's quite hard to see the point when no-one will answer a simple question or two. It makes it look like you actually don't know or, at the very least, you lack the confidence in what you are doing to explain it to others. The over-the-top defensiveness that you get instead of proper answers tends to reinforce this perception, too. Because if you ask me why I do something, I am more than happy to tell you in as much detail as you like. Is returning that simple courtesy really so hard?