Have you not tried Mpressor? Bit fiddly, but amazing sound.
I tried something of theirs ages ago, but not sure if it was full Mpressor. Didn't ring the bell at the time, whatever it was. Vague memory of interesting shapes possible, yet disembodied sound.
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have confidence in your ability to rise above the foam - crufty
Vertigo VSC-2 has a hardware vibe - nice full bottom end
3rd party Nebula libraries have the hardware tone and colouration
Compassion is super flexible, but neutral in sound, use Nebula to colour it!
CL1B has the opto squash and pop, and a muted creamy colour
See here for a little comparison of sounds Nebula 76D
The Glue gets mentioned a lot, but I never found it to be useful. Everytme I bypass it, the original sounds better....
On the bus the DensityMk2 is pretty cool - free
While I was accurately able to set the physical unit to the plug-in using some phase cancellation techniques and a whole bunch of metering, as soon as you change the source material or change any of the attack, release, or ratio settings, the two pieces begin to apply their compression curves in a different manner, no longer behaving the same.
Andy from Vertigo speculated that perhaps the plug-in, or the unit, was at a different point of the compression curve when initially compared to each other. I am not so sure. There are only two continuously variable controls on the VSC-2: threshold and make-up gain. Eliminating the make-up (by not using it) and adjusting the threshold until the physical unit almost completely cancels a 1kHz tone gets them almost sonically identical, and causes both plug-in and physical meters to behave identically.
So what does that mean for me, the user? It means the two work differently — the relationship between how the controls work and the resulting compression are a little different. However, as you can hear in the video, when they are calibrated to each other…they sound nearly identical. The physical unit is a little smoother in the upper midrange and retains a little more dimensionality, but yeah, still pretty amazing. Besides, you’re supposed to be listening to the unit, not relying on the settings, right?
that musotalk comparison seems really thorough - its possible to follow bits of it if you dont feel german but would be great to have subtitles or something...
From what I gather the engineer says the software is close but there is a small nuance in the hardware in the bass and punch...which is the usual for plugin vs hardware comparisons...
that musotalk comparison seems really thorough - its possible to follow bits of it if you dont feel german but would be great to have subtitles or something...
From what I gather the engineer says the software is close but there is a small nuance in the hardware in the bass and punch...which is the usual for plugin vs hardware comparisons...
I can hear it, even in the Youtube vid, which has good audio quality BTW
The plugin has a bit more of a plastic type quality, subtle, more noticable in that software sounding dance track in the video.
If you use hardware synths, the difference will be much less IMO
But how much of it is the hardware and how much of it is the converters used?
All the high end convertors sound different from each other, and all colour the sound compared to the original in loopback tests.
In any case, I feel the plugin is currently the most hardware sounding plugin for that type of VCA compression. Can be pushed hard. It's quite coloured though, as can be seen in the vid when running a sinewave through it. Almost Nebula like, colouring wise.
Elysia Alpha for the bus/mastering is another I forgot to mention. Very punchy, just like the hardware...
Also coded by Brainworx - genius
BTW I like that hardware monitor controller the mastering engineer in the vid is using - allows you to crossfade between the hardware compressor and the plugin chain with the knob- handy!
I can hear it, even in the Youtube vid, which has good audio quality BTW
The plugin has a bit more of a plastic type quality, subtle, more noticable in that software sounding dance track in the video.
If you use hardware synths, the difference will be much less IMO
But how much of it is the hardware and how much of it is the converters used?
All the high end convertors sound different from each other, and all colour the sound compared to the original in loopback tests.
In any case, I feel the plugin is currently the most hardware sounding plugin for that type of VCA compression. Can be pushed hard. It's quite coloured though, as can be seen in the vid when running a sinewave through it. Almost Nebula like, colouring wise.
Elysia Alpha for the bus/mastering is another I forgot to mention. Very punchy, just like the hardware...
Also coded by Brainworx - genius
BTW I like that hardware monitor controller the mastering engineer in the vid is using - allows you to crossfade between the hardware compressor and the plugin chain with the knob- handy!
I see you are a Neb fan - as am I. Did you try the Alex B Fenix yet - or any of his other compressors...? Im curious about the current state of Nebula compressors...
I dont quite feel happy with most software compressors...the way they handle the bass...I do quite like the Slate FG-X compressor and also the Tokyo Dawn Feedback compressor...
Not that one, I have a few from SIGNALTONOIZE.COM
The Stripe 76, DME 1968 etc and the ones from AlexB's TSX packagae, the Fatso and DTE mastering one.
It's mostly about the colour from these, since they don't really replicate the actual compression character of the hardware units as far as I know.
Only use them for gentle compression. Anything obvious and creative doesn't work that well. Nebula is not fast enough to duplicate them
Besides none of them do the squashy Opto compression I'm familiar with from the Focusrite Compounder. CL1B does it to some degree, and Compassion can be made to sound like it, without the colouration, but noise and bleeds can be added due to the flexible nature of it, then just add Nebula for colour.
Not that one, I have a few from SIGNALTONOIZE.COM
The Stripe 76, DME 1968 etc and the ones from AlexB's TSX packagae, the Fatso and DTE mastering one.
It's mostly about the colour from these, since they don't really replicate the actual compression character of the hardware units as far as I know.
Only use them for gentle compression. Anything obvious and creative doesn't work that well. Nebula is not fast enough to duplicate them
Besides none of them do the squashy Opto compression I'm familiar with from the Focusrite Compounder. CL1B does it to some degree, and Compassion can be made to sound like it, without the colouration, but noise and bleeds can be added due to the flexible nature of it, then just add Nebula for colour.
yeah the earlier ones from STN were interesting but not quite there IMO...however I hear good things about the newer ones from Alex B and CDSoundmaster...I would mostly be using them for subtle compression - I prefer to do heavy compression outside the box...
As far as Nebula not being fast - that doesnt bother me so much - as its quite rare I need to use very fast attack compression...I prefer a slow-ish attack to bring out some punch...I did think the FATE compressor was quite good tho for faster attack on bass or vocals.
I also have a compounder which I quite like for kicks - bass expansion is cool...the compression action is a bit uninspiring I find...kills the highs and not very punchy...I think its a VCA design but I could be wrong....it does sound a bit like an opto!
If you decide to go with either Waves or Plugin Alliance, make sure you checkout re-sellers instead of buying directly from those companies. You can normally find a much better deal.
If you decide to go with either Waves or Plugin Alliance, make sure you checkout re-sellers instead of buying directly from those companies. You can normally find a much better deal.
...and excellent customer service (from Waves Universe, that is).
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