How do YOU use Vintage Warmer?

[tubedude]

Any tricks, favorites uses?

[pingu]

Talk about a bump!

[ArcCirDude]

Sometimes, on pop/rock music, I like to bus the drums through VW. (Not to be confused with loading the drums on the VW bus!)

[SK1]

3 years and six months.

And dude finally gets a reply .....

[ArcCirDude]

Originally Posted by SK1

3 years and six months.

And dude finally gets a reply .....

Well, I pride myself on my service...

(Would have been funny to wait 3 years and 6 months to comment, but my schedule is getting so tight that I couldn't make any guarantees..)

[username]

I use it lots of ways.. but it's number 1 use is parallel on the drumbus

[pingu]

Yeah, he probably doesnt give a shit about the answers any more.

[RainbowStorm]

For some reason I don't like Vintage Warmer. In my opinion it's not warm. I have given it many chances but I just can't make it warm sounding. To me it sounds a bit compact, that's all. Maybe I don't set it up properly... I like PSP Mix Saturation a lot more, though I usually find myself leaving that plug disabled too. I don't know about these plugs, I don't seem to find them useful enough...

[username]

the names deceptive.. I'd say it's more of a crunch than a warm.. but crunch is a much less popular term.. so I guess they decided to go with warm :p

anyway.. it's basicaly a compressor + saturation..

[denne]

Originally Posted by RainbowStorm

For some reason I don't like Vintage Warmer.

I demoed and never got comfy with the sound and the handling. I know there are thousands of happy users, congrats! but I just .. well... don't like it.

[RainbowStorm]

Originally Posted by denne

I demoed and never got comfy with the sound and the handling. I know there are thousands of happy users, congrats! but I just .. well... don't like it.

Yeah. The PSP Vintage Warmer costs 149 $US, for twice the money I get a complete piano mix pad element: Synthogy Ivory. So I would rather spend that money on the Ivory...

[denne]

Originally Posted by RainbowStorm

Yeah. The PSP Vintage Warmer costs 149 $US, for twice the money I get a complete piano mix pad element: Synthogy Ivory. So I would rather spend that money on the Ivory...

Do it. Ivory is amazing.

[warhead]

I like it on electric guitar busses and sometimes on the whole mix. Not a bad plug!

War

[Empty Planet]

Somebody had a rather detailed approach to this plug that some people liked. What was that guy's name? Hmmm.

Oh yeah, it was alphajerk! Do a search.


Cheers.

[audiomichael]

Vintage Warmer vs. Ivory = the strangest A/B I've ever heard.

Ivory is great!

Vintage Warmer is great too. The key to that and Mix Saturator is the 'mix' knob. Basically a parallel compresson blend. Go crazy with comp and EQ, and blend it back if you went to far.

[Jazzpunk]

Originally Posted by RainbowStorm

For some reason I don't like Vintage Warmer. In my opinion it's not warm. I have given it many chances but I just can't make it warm sounding. To me it sounds a bit compact, that's all. Maybe I don't set it up properly... I like PSP Mix Saturation a lot more, though I usually find myself leaving that plug disabled too. I don't know about these plugs, I don't seem to find them useful enough...

I feel the same. I'd love to see a test where something like the Vintage Warmer was given a makeover-just a simple crappy looking UI with no resemblence to a vintage piece of gear. It would really be interesting to see the response. I can't help but feel that people are being visually manipulated.

[by-tor]

Vintage "warmer" not warm just another flavor of crunchy limiting! I happen to like it on drums and room mics and electric guitars and the ocasional "mastering" job.

[max cooper]

I always keep the "knee" at zero. I only use the drive control and never past two o'clock.

Try stacking two of 'em on the drum bus.

[warhead]

Originally Posted by max cooper

I always keep the "knee" at zero. I only use the drive control and never past two o'clock.

Try stacking two of 'em on the drum bus.

Max, I was leaving the knee alone also forever but lately I've been pushing it up...sometimes as far as about the 9:00 position. It can be pretty effective! I don't really mess with the attack and release times though...

War

[Anonymatt]

On the drum buss, knee is 8-9 o'clock. Drive is around one o'clock. Ceiling is set to limit GR to 1-2 dB.

My drum buss includes kik, snr, and toms. Toms are only included if they're a part of the same basic rhythmic structure as the kik/snr. If not (like if they're only present in fills), then they get their own buss.

This applies to rock music.

[Matt Smith]

LOVE it on vocals and tom group. Also bass, sometimes.

Matt

[rolo95]

Matt

can you post the settings.. you use ?

Greets
Rolo.

[Empty Planet]

Ugh. The search function. But if we're going to persist with this thread, let's try to keep the available info together.

Okay, here's Alphajerk's hideously in-depth technique.

This is NOT my text, it's Alphajerk's.

BEGIN ALPHAJERK TUTORIAL:

okay then, i will post later how i set all the knobs and why.... but the drive @ +4 is WAY more than i have it set at (again, that will depend on how "hard" you are hitting the mixbuss), mine is usually @ -4 to -10db.... but agan, that can vary widely depending on the material im working on....

[And from a later post....]

so has everyone read the manual?

my approach will be different for stuff i mix as i probably do things differently to the individual channels than you do so adapt this to what you do i guess.

first, i start with it on the 2buss with the low @ 100hz and the high @ 8k-10k and both those level knobs at 0. the drive i start at 0 and the knee around 30, the speed at 50, the release @ 1. the mix is always at 100%. the ceiling starts at zero and the backside [he's referring to the plugin's back panel] i start with the saturations all at 0 and the release for low x4, the mid at 1 and the high at .25.

the big things to consider when using it is the saturation on the back and the ceiling on the front work with each other. the release on the back and the release on the front go together (i kinda wished these were all on the front as little knobs below the associated knobs but they arent so i flip the thing over)... but its pretty odd when i move the ceiling too far off 0 for 2buss.

big two things that i mess with is the knee and the speed first after i get a rough mix built, and i always keep tweaking this plugin as the mix progresses. for a smoother sound, turn the knee to zero but for a punchier sound go clockwise.... sound gets more hard going clockwise on that knob. the speed i generally use for attack and let the attack i want through before the limiter clamps down on the signal on the final output of it. it does work in relation to the speed knob (and the release knobs on the back) so if i get the attack i want but the release is too fast or slow, i change the speed knob of the front and then flip to the back and fine tune those release settings (kinda wish there was a solo for each band while working on it, but something to be said about not letting you solo and listening as a whole)

so now you are starting to get some compression and loudness to the mix, probably rivaling commercial releases in loudness by this time. the meters i leave always set to GR and flip between VU and PPM. but as the GR meters start moving more, that is when i start to back off the drive (or if im not getting enough compression/limiting, i add some)... now with the drive set, and i usually set this during hte loudest passages of the song because if you dont, you are setting yourself up for massive slamming when they do come. so set that drive to be working nicely during the loudest parts so they are nice and excited sounding but no pumping (which is also very easy to do)

now i listen to the balance between low/mids/highs and thats where the ceiling knob and the saturation knobs come in handy, and while back working on those set the releases right. i check the lows and see if they are getting through enough but not enough to set off the limiter overreacting to the low information. the saturation basically sets its ceiling in relation to the other two bands. a lot of times i will increase it a db or 2 but that spretty program dependant. same goes for the mids which i tend to open up a bit as well, the highs usually stay where they are.

if the bass gets that farty sound, i make the release multiplier by 4 on the low on the back and then move the release on the front until that distortion goes away, and then go back to deal with the mids/highs and usually shorten their time more. obviously the higher the freq, the faster release you can get away with, but you can also use them to your advantage the other way.

as for the crossover settings, i use 100hz because i like to focus the plugin on what is basically going to be feeding the sub and controlling that for some nice consistant level so when i bring it into my truck and the sub in there keeps pounding nicely along with the song and no odd suprises there.

the mids i generally take care of as a huge swipe from low mids to upper highs (5kish range and up) and leave the high xover point for the "air"... 10k sometimes. i adjust the levels feeding the compressor from there as to how much i want to feed it but this also reacts with the saturation settings. again, one of the reason i revisit this plugin over and over through a mix because how i alter the tracks within the mix invariably affects how the plugin is processing the result.

if you look at the block diagram, its the input feed the drive>multiband comps>limiter.... so you want to make sure your comp levels on the bands are pretty balanced going into the limiter or that will wreck havoc upon the mix.
now while i change these settings through the mix, obviously its not gonna change EVERYTHING i want it to so by putting it on the 2buss to begin with you adjust your individual tracks to take out or add things you want happening in each of the sections you define iwth the crossover points.

does any of this make any sense?


END ALPHAJERK TUTORIAL.


Not saying that's the end-all and be-all, but it's illustrative, right?

I've used some of this, though you know, it's the same with every plugin that has a little thought behind it....know your tools. You just can't scroll through presets and get more than an approximation of a deep plug's potential on your material in the context of the sound you're going for. Do I sound cranky? Okay, I'm cranky. I just got a lousy paycheck.


Cheers.

[theother]

Originally Posted by audiomichael

Vintage Warmer vs. Ivory = the strangest A/B I've ever heard.

.

Hilarious!

I also think Ivory is better!

I replaced Vintage Warmer with a Studer 820, but I replaced my upright piano with Ivory. Go and figure!

[max cooper]

Originally Posted by warhead

Max, I was leaving the knee alone also forever but lately I've been pushing it up...sometimes as far as about the 9:00 position. It can be pretty effective! I don't really mess with the attack and release times though...

War

I have gone back and forth on that. I've been also messing with stacking a VW with the Massey limiter. Nice. On the drum bus or on a synth track.

Which reminds me, all of you guys who are actually using Massey's stuff for paying gigs, go pay if you can. (Yeah, I said I was gonna but I haven't yet... going to now. Oops.)

But also, War, there are the controls on the back panel. How do you set those?

[rolo95]

bump

[six_wax]

I, for one, continually find myself turning the Drive *down*...

[lamp]

Ive just picked up VW and started reading the manual. I can't seem to figure out how the ceiling knob is used. Is this a threshold setting? How do you use the ceiling setting??? What is it???

[nativeaudio]

Does anyone know when Vintage Warmer is coming as a Universal Binary for Intel Macs?

[beranie]

Originally Posted by lamp

I can't seem to figure out how the ceiling knob is used. Is this a threshold setting? How do you use the ceiling setting??? What is it???

I think ceiling is the output gain. could be wrong...but am pretty sure.