PSP oldTimer?

[heybub419]

Hey everyone, first of all, I am NOT a professional mastering engineer, and all of what I do "master" is for myself and friends of mine. However, I am very, very interested in mastering. I mostly use Sonnox Oxford and Waves plugins for my work (LinMB and Sonnox EQ/Dynamics), and have recently tried the demo of PSP Audioware's oldTimer plugin. In my situation, I find it to work extremely well. It almost never pumps, even at somewhat extreme settings, and despite it's valve emulation mode, it remains very transparent for a vintage style compressor. Is this a good idea, to use oldTimer for mastering? It sounds much better than say, PSP MasterComp, IMO, as far as the pumping and breathing. Am I missing something, like does it cause unwanted distortion or phase shift which I don't notice yet?
BTW: I work ITB for mostly everything; I'm a college student and cant afford much high quality outboard gear.

[Mr Illusive]

I say if it sounds good, then definitely consider it. People have done all sorts of crazy and wonderful things to get their own sound on a track.

Listen to your material on different systems and try to get some feedback from a few engineers and regular non engineering listeners.

I haven't used that one myself but I have used the PSP Vintage Warmer which I do like.

[scepstral]

Hmm college student that can't afford outboard gear yet is using Waves plugs. Wonder how you pulled that off

[Doughboy]

I've never really heard much bad about PSP. I've tried several of there demos and have really liked them. I have the one PSP delay the 84. I think it is exceptional. I tried the demo for old Timer...and liked it....I'd sure like to find one of those bundle deals for there plugs though.

[huejahfink]

Originally Posted by scepstral

Hmm college student that can't afford outboard gear yet is using Waves plugs. Wonder how you pulled that off

Given that you can get some of the basic Waves bundles for a couple of hundred quid, that's well within range for a bit of student loan action.

[KyleDiSanto]

I've always felt that one big thing in mastering is having a monitoring set up that allows you to hear the positive and negative artifacts that any form of signal processing produces.

If, in your case, you aren't monitoring on that great of speakers and in a good room...just go with what you know and what sounds good to you. Do some trial and error stuff.

One man's "unwanted distortion" is another man's wanted...

[dethroxxmeowserz]

Originally Posted by scepstral

Hmm college student that can't afford outboard gear yet is using Waves plugs. Wonder how you pulled that off

your sure are getting wierd, Sherlock Holmes.

[heybub419]

Originally Posted by dethroxxmeowserz

your sure are getting wierd, Sherlock Holmes.

Hahaha. Just for the record, I buy my plugins. I said "not much high quality OUTBOARD gear", meaning for example a $5500 Manley MP or $10,000 Weiss.

[Whitecat]

Originally Posted by scepstral

Hmm college student that can't afford outboard gear yet is using Waves plugs. Wonder how you pulled that off

With Waves' generous 50% student discount, maybe?

Student Discounts | WAVES

Back on topic, I haven't yet fallen in love with the oldTimer as some seem to have... maybe I just haven't spent enough time with it. Prefer the Softube CL1B for my colour comp plug-in (but it is more money, of course) ...

[heybub419]

Originally Posted by whitecat

With Waves' generous 50% student discount, maybe?

Student Discounts | WAVES

Back on topic, I haven't yet fallen in love with the oldTimer as some seem to have... maybe I just haven't spent enough time with it. Prefer the Softube CL1B for my colour comp plug-in (but it is more money, of course) ...

I've heard some great things about the Softube. They just came out with another Tube Tech (a Pultec eq) emulation as well. Hopefully it's better than the many others out there .

[api2500]

Originally Posted by heybub419

I've heard some great things about the Softube. They just came out with another Tube Tech (a Pultec eq) emulation as well. Hopefully it's better than the many others out there .

My fear is that it's another EQP-1A Emulation.... Not heard it though. It's why I like the OldTimer. Something nice and original.

[heybub419]

Originally Posted by api2500

My fear is that it's another EQP-1A Emulation....

Exactly. I'm always skeptical with emulations too. It seems like every other manufacturer "has to" release a Pultec clone; there needs to be more creativity in this area, IMO. That's one reason I love PSP stuff.

[Alécio Costa]

PSP Old timer is great for harsh source material. Snares, Vocals, Guitars.
I myself designed a few of the factory presets.

[Accurate]

Since most of what I do is acoustic music, I usually find the OldTimer to color things too much to use as a general mastering compressor. However, I recently mastered a duo sax/drums album of my own group and it worked incredibly well. The music was quite aggressive and harsh and it helped smooth things out really nicely.

I would not recommend the OldTimer as your only compressor, as I don't think it's incredibly versatile. So far, the most useful tool I've found for mastering is the FabFilter Pro-C. You have a variety of compression settings, really useful tools for doing things like M/S compression, and it is very customizable. Plus it is very affordable and they have a 50% student discount. I've been very happy with the sound as well, both as a transparent mastering compressor and also for other applications like parallel compression on drums.

[Beyersound]

Originally Posted by Accurate

Since most of what I do is acoustic music, I usually find the OldTimer to color things too much to use as a general mastering compressor. However, I recently mastered a duo sax/drums album of my own group and it worked incredibly well. The music was quite aggressive and harsh and it helped smooth things out really nicely.

I would not recommend the OldTimer as your only compressor, as I don't think it's incredibly versatile.

Actually the Old Timer is pretty darn versatile. It has incredible time constant settings that can go actually faster than most other comps on the market. The Valve/Clear settings are really different. The Clear setting is still a bit colorful, but no more so than a typical VCA or opto comp. It is also about the most aliasing-free plugin out there, and can also be as clean as anything out there. Spend more time with it, you just might discover some nice things. Wish it had a sidechain highpass, it would be an amazing 2buss comp.