The "best" plugin

[Bob Olhsson]

The DBX is well worth checking out.

[meloco_go]

The DBX is well worth checking out.

Thanks!

[John Eppstein]

So all Waves compressors are selling at $29 this week. Are there any recent ones which stand out? I own C1 and would often use it in split mode, but overall I demoed some of their compressors a while back (CLA collection and SSL) and actually was underwhelmed. They all seemed to have the same kind of "flattening" effect over any sort of material (yeah, compressors do flatten the dynamics, but that was something else).

"flattening of aspect".

[nobby]

The DBX is well worth checking out.

I guess I'll be finding out what my hardware 162 isn't worth soon...

[nobby]

The Abbey Road Chambers are pretty nice. I don't have too much need for STEED or the filters, but as a set of IR's it's worth $29!

I'm glad they included the Olympic stone room

I recently tried setting up an ambient mike here at nobby road along with a close mike on a guitar cab to get an echo effect.

I was surprised that I could get the entire mix to sound better just by muting it.



I never imagined 40' of shielded, balanced xlr cable could be so noisy

[John Eppstein]

The DBX is well worth checking out.

I guess I'll be finding out what my hardware 162 isn't worth soon...

Probably not. I don't know of anu plugin emulations that really behave like hardware.

[meloco_go]

Probably not. I don't know of anu plugin emulations that really behave like hardware.

Mute buttons work like they should IME

[Bob Olhsson]

The DBX is well worth checking out.

I guess I'll be finding out what my hardware 162 isn't worth soon...

Depends on the number of cold solder joints...

[John Eppstein]

Probably not. I don't know of anu plugin emulations that really behave like hardware.

Mute buttons work like they should IME

True....

Do they make them in plugins? I thought they were built into the DAW.....

[meloco_go]

Another big sale from Waves, now all their analog-modeled plugins are at $29 each.
There are all sorts of stuff in, Abbey Road plates and vinyl, tapes, compressors, and EQs.
Which ones do you like?

[nobby]

Of that lot, I have:

PuigTec EQs
Abbey Road Plates
Abbey Road Chambers
SSL G-Master Bus compressor

I think they're all great. I probably don't need any more compressor plugins. Or EQ plugins.
Anyone familiar with Kramer tape? Is it basically a saturation plugin or is there something special about it?

[meloco_go]

Of that lot, I have:

PuigTec EQs
Abbey Road Plates
Abbey Road Chambers
SSL G-Master Bus compressor

I think they're all great. I probably don't need any more compressor plugins. Or EQ plugins.
Anyone familiar with Kramer tape? Is it basically a saturation plugin or is there something special about it?

I have plugins from other manufacturers which pretty much cover the same bases.
I do have Kramer tape. Depending if you have other tape emus it may or may not be something worthy to expand your collection.
It's a bit more colorful than most.
It also has tape slap mode.

[keks]

Chris from http://airwindows.com/ has begun a while a go to recode all his AU for VST.
He's putting them all out for free and has a Patreon-account for people who want to support him.
I like his Console-plugins a lot, and should I feel inclined to use anything tape-y or channel strippery I'd reach for one of his plug-ins first...

Needless to say that I am a Patreon.

[nobby]

I have to say I'm really liking the Puigchild as a master bus compressor.

I can quickly get it to sound the way I couldn't get other compressors to work like after spending a lot of time trying.

[Bob Olhsson]

I seem to remember reading that Fairchild was bought at the Abbey Road auction.

[weedywet]

When I first learned what bits I know about disk cutting, we had fairchild compressors attached to our lathes.
(One built into a mono Fairchild lathe and another stereo one)

But funnily enough, much as I love them on some things, I rarely like them on the stereo bus

[Bob Olhsson]

They were bought for the cutting room because of the vertical/lateral feature but quickly moved to the studio because of what they sounded like.

[meloco_go]

Never liked any Fairchild plugins on the mix either, so I guess it applies to the software too. Oh, wait....

[nobby]

Is there a type of mix bus compressor setup that you guys use that you've found to work for you more often than not?

[Bob Olhsson]

Prior to the '80s it was only considered appropriate for jingles by many of the top people.

[weedywet]

It was starting to creep in in the late 70’s. When the first SSL was inflicted it really took hold.

[Bob Olhsson]

The SSLs combined with arrangers being MIA and this overriding obsession with holding Les Paul Memorial Overdub parties using headphones.

[nobby]

Are you guys talking about the use of compressors on the master bus?

I originally didn't use one, compressing either individual tracks and/ or sub-busses.

The maximum gain reduction I've been getting on master bus is about 2.5 dB.

To put things into perspective.

[Bob Olhsson]

That's what we are talking about. They also weren't used that much in mastering. We didn't even have one in the mastering room at Motown.

[nobby]

I fell in with the wrong crowd.

Momma tried. But I succumbed to peer pressure and started because Mixerman, Kenny Gioia, Malice, and others were mixing into a compressor, starting at the start of the mix. Just saw a video with Pensado raving about the L2 on the mix bus

If I get a maximum of about 2.5 dB of transparent (to me and I can't guarantee I'm not fooling myself) GR on the master bus it helps things gel. People say it "glues" the mix, but I prefer gel because it's easier to get out when you're done

I'm just shaking the tree of wisdom to see what falls out

[Bob Olhsson]

To me, it's all about balance translation. Compression and eq. can make a balance "sort-of work' on one set of speakers but "sort-of" isn't really good enough.

[nobby]

If I can get a mix to "sort of work" on my near fields and headphones, it will "sort of work" on other speakers also.

But, no, "sort of" isn't good enough. That really isn't a high enough standard for any aspect of music production IMO.