Kjaerhus, Voxengo or T Racks?

[J_A_Starner]

I was looking around the forums. I was wondering would you prefer Voxengo's plug ins, Kjaerhus Gold collection, or T racks by IK for Mastering? Also, I am a little confused about compression, before I throw a bit of compression on the whole song, I compress my drums and all, but should I compress my melody tracks also?

[M'Snah]

...

[kovacs]

I use GPP-1 on my guitar tracks a lot. Voxengo's Elephant on mixes in Ableton Live, and PSP VintageWarmer in FL Studio. Don't ask why...just the way it works for me.

Never tried T Racks though.

[Kim Lajoie]

I use T-RackS. It's definitely "coloured", so depending on what kind of music you make, you might now want to use it on everything. Fortunately, it's really useful for processing single channels and groups too, and the CPU hit is low enough that you can use it as a channel strip. So, T-RackS is really useful to have, but for the ultimate in flexibility, you can pair it with something more transparent, like the Kjaerhus plugins, or Quantum-FX.

Personally, I use it on everything.

Forever,




Kim.

[soulata]

I use crunchessor on bass and drums almost all of the time.

it didn't do such a good job on piano though.

k

[jekyll]

I've had T-Racks (stand alone DX version) for a couple of years. I used it off and on for different projects. I've recently begun playing with the "internal settings". These are text files which you drag and drop onto the main interface. These effect how the compressor and multiband limiter sections respond. (Attack, threshold, x-over, etc) This means you can make it as transparent as you want. For T-Racks users, there are several of these files you can download at the web site. It's very interesting to see the difference these different settings can make, compared to the default settings. This means you can personalize how T-Racks responds to yor tracks.

[Forever Sun]

Voxengo has an amazing range of plugs which do compression in various ways, simple compression, spectral, transient, coloured, transparent etc.

You really have to becareful and know what you're doing with these, but the results are worth it.
The new HarmoniEq is particularly nice.

I would just throw a word of caution regarding compression. Take it easy and don't over do things, unless you want to over-compress for a reason.

You mention melodies. I would want my melodies to preserve any dynamic expression, hence compress lightly. However, it all depends on material and the music style. There isn't any fast and hard rules. It's an art, after all.

[Kim Lajoie]

I've had T-Racks (stand alone DX version) for a couple of years. I used it off and on for different projects. I've recently begun playing with the "internal settings". These are text files which you drag and drop onto the main interface. These effect how the compressor and multiband limiter sections respond. (Attack, threshold, x-over, etc) This means you can make it as transparent as you want. For T-Racks users, there are several of these files you can download at the web site. It's very interesting to see the difference these different settings can make, compared to the default settings. This means you can personalize how T-Racks responds to yor tracks.

I'd like to point out that the plugin version has these extra settings on the front panel, so everything is right in front of you.

Forever,




Kim.

[Z]

I've recently begun playing with the "internal settings". These are text files which you drag and drop onto the main interface. These effect how the compressor and multiband limiter sections respond. (Attack, threshold, x-over, etc) This means you can make it as transparent as you want. For T-Racks users, there are several of these files you can download at the web site.

Where? I can't find them in the User Area section....

[Kim Lajoie]

Where? I can't find them in the User Area section....

Take a look here:

http://www.t-racks.com/TRProMaster.html

Remember that these are only useful if you have the standalone version of T-RackS. The plugin version doesn't need them.

Forever,




Kim.

[Z]

Where? I can't find them in the User Area section....

Take a look here:

http://www.t-racks.com/TRProMaster.html

Remember that these are only useful if you have the standalone version of T-RackS. The plugin version doesn't need them.

I have both T-rackS24 and 1.1 VSTi. I prefer to use the latter because it's 32bit and can be integrated in SL3 and Wavelab as a plugin so there's less switching between programs and file handling.

However, why didn't IK Multimedia let the plugin be able to import T-rackS24 presets? '24 had a lot of great mastering presets which aren't presets in the plugin version, and I did make some presets of my own which I'd like to use in the plugin version.

Granted, I can reinstall T-rackS24 and make a copy of all the settings, make an identical preset in the plugin, but who want to go through all the registration hassle involved with installing it?

[Kim Lajoie]

However, why didn't IK Multimedia let the plugin be able to import T-rackS24 presets? '24 had a lot of great mastering presets which aren't presets in the plugin version, and I did make some presets of my own which I'd like to use in the plugin version.

I don't have the standalone version of T-RackS, so that's news to me. The plugin does have quite a lot of presets though. I'm sorry to hear that you can't transfer standalone presets to the plugin version. That's really surprising to me.

Otherwise, there are plenty of great presets that come with the plugin that you can use straight, or as starting points for tweaking for your music.

Forever,




Kim.

[kritikon]

I wouldn't really choose to stick to just one plugin, or set of plugins for mastering at all.
Perhaps if I really had to, I would maybe plump for Kjaerhus.

But sometimes you just want clean, other times you want character. And no one set of plugins will cover all bases.

I use:
QuantumFX (tend to be on the clean transparent side)
T-Racks (character, but only works on certain types of material for me - I prefer it on sparser mixes rather than dense ones)
Endorphin (character, but not quite flexible enough for everything)

Other ones I will be acquiring very soon are
Kjaerhus GCO1 - probably more for channels and groups rather than mastering, but I can see myself mastering with it.
Otium Compadre - same reasons as GCO1. Definitely full of character.

Other plugins to be considered:
BBE Sonic Maximiser - personally I've gone back to using my h/w rather than the plugin, but the plugin is still very good.
PSP Vintage Warmer...I've never really got into this one, but I think it's one I'll buy soon.
PSP MixSat - was intended more for channels than mastering, but I find it excellent for adding some dirt and character to some final mixes or large subgroups.
SIR...worth getting hold of some impulses of Eqs, or mixer channels or preamps etc - can be used effectively on some masters.

Eqs I can't offer an opinion on - I never use them on masters any more, and I use them less and less on channels. But I would say that you need more than one Eq, as again they have different characters.

Voxengo...for some reason they just don't flop my mop at all - they're not bad by any means, I just can't get into them and I don't really know why.


So....no single one of the ones you mentioned is enough IMO.

Also don't forget h/w is also an option.
I have a couple of h/w comps that I will still occasionally use on a master, and definitely on subgroups. Apart from GCO1 and Compadre, most other s/e comps leave me cold compared to a decent h/w comp.

[kritikon]

Hmmm....I also forgot limiters - you don't even need to spend money on those.

I use Tls Maximiser and BuzMaxi which are both freebies, and I'm more than happy with them...they're both clean and almost transparent and both distort very little, even at heavy thresholds.

[grotman]

hmmmmmmmmmm.now,now kiddies your not just putting compression on everything just because you think its there to use willynilly are u. Lets just loook at what a compressor is really needed for(taming inconsistency) . What woud you do if these tools weren't available to you. Everything i hear on these topics always seems to point to abuse of these audioslaves. Why don't you firstly think about practising your art be it playing an instrument (try to be consistent)or studying your levels on your peenieweeniekeyboardeenie/arpeggiator/..lol kaoss pad if thats your thing. You only need compression if these elements have been sorted to an otherwise acceptable result.....i.e. the track is still belying all tameable transient overload. If you can't master this for whatever reason(there are many) use your automation in your sequencer....... it will sound better(used properly, if not it will sound like s"+t, though probably better than bad and ill educated use of compression) if that doesn't work..... well the answer is simple....
Go and practise till it does...

If a chef overcooks a steak burning it irreparibly(i.e.bad performance/levels/the all too common overhot guitar with extreme boost and bad preamp use) does putting a beautifully cooked sauce on top make that steak taste better(or is it just good sauce).
Think about that
(disregard this those who are in the know i am not questioning your responses)