Olitanh

Olitanh - Vintage Vibe Compressor.

Update:

• Make Up gain knob added by popular request;
• The effect of Mix parameter, when over 100%, is now way stronger. Adding polarity flipped Dry signal can be useful, when using Olitanh in parallel processing of a spectral band.

Olitanh - Vintage Vibe Compressor.

Distortion coupled with compressor brings interdependent wave-shaping and envelope-shaping. Controlled adding of harmonics. Level boosting and stereo enhancing.

Good for "warming up" bass instruments, guitars and vocals, or for "gluing" stereo mixes and groups.

List of parameters:

• Drive, 0-40 db of gain to Tanh curve waveshaper.
• Power, .25-4 tilts distortion curve from soft to hard.
• Threshold, -18-0 db sensitivity of the compressor from low to off.
• VU, 0-1000 peak detection response from modern to vintage.
• Attack, 0-1000 speed of gain reduction from fast to slow.
• Gap, 0-9 db offset between gain reduction and gain recovery.
• Release, 0-1000 speed of gain recovery from fast to slow.
• Knee, .25-4 response of the compressor from soft to hard.
• Link, 0-100 % linking of the compressor's LRMS channels.
• Para, 0-100 % mix of the compressor from off to full.
• Filter, 0-100 % Low Pass filtering from dark to off.
• Make; -12 to +12 db of Make Up gain.
• Mix, 0-200 % from Dry to Wet and to Solo Effect, with polarity flipped Dry signal.
• 1/8, switch between none or 8 times oversampled processing.

Principle of operation

From Left-Right stereo signal Mid and Side signals are also extracted, then each of the four channels passes through 8x Upsampler, Gain Reduction Unit, Tanh waveshaper, Level Detection Unit, Filter, Downsampler and than all four channels are mixed to Left and Right output.

Set the desired amount of peak limiting, harmonic generation or distortion (Drive). Change type of the distortion (Power). Control the distortion of loud notes (Threshold). Control the responsiveness of the compressor (Attack, Release, VU, Gap, Knee and Para). Enhance stereo image (Link). Darken the distorted part of the signal (Filter). Move Mix knob towards 0% in order to lessen the effect, to bring back some original dynamics or just to compare with the input signal. Move Mix knob to 150% in order to strengthen the effect and ease settings of the parameters. Mix 200% can be useful in parallel chains of processors, but in most cases Mix should be at 100%.

The story behind

Olitanh was made using iPlug2 C++ framework, and it evolved from Oli Larkin's Oversampling Example. At first, it was just an exercise of adapting it from Mono to multichannel LRMS Stereo, but as I started to like its softness and was using it more and more in my daily productions, it deserved an upgrade. Power knob to bend the soft knee of Tanh curve. Filter knob to tame the highest harmonics and further decrease aliasing. The Compressor story. When I was excited about how versatile Olitanh became, it occurred to me that this would be just the right type of waveshaper to answer the common question: "Should I plug distortion after compressor or before?" As both answers have its own merits and its own flaws, the best of both worlds brings Olitanh - feedback compressor - where Compressor's Level Detection Unit monitors Distortion's output, but Compressor's Gain Reduction Unit reduces Distortion's input. Interdependent play of wave-shaping and envelope-shaping.