ok, so now this thread is getting really interesting.....this rocks.
last night i sat at the DAW and did a test on a single guitar track (electric guitar -heavy). I knew the recorded signal came in at about -16dBFS, so i have a good normal signal coming in. Now i wanted to do a "zero in = zero out" approach. So i slaped the first plugin on the track....
a "tape simulator" - the signal wasnt pushing the meter into the RED on the input of this plugin, so on the plug i simply turned up the input untill the meter/needle on the plugin was reading right at 0 (im guessing it was 0VU) to get some tape sound pushed hard. i then adjusted the plugins output lower to bring it back down to the original signal to -16dBFS
i then slapped on the SSl channel strip - i checked the input meters on this plugin, and it was already in the YELLOW (im guessing the colored meter does display in VU scale), so no need for adjustments here cause i wanted it to be in the yellow....just started doing some EQing with the plugin. no need to adjust the plugins outputs, seems as if my guitar track was still hovering around -16dBFS
lastly, i slaped on a analog modeled compressor (
CL 1B style) - this is what boggles my mind, this plugin has no input/output adjustment knobs, but it does show metering on input/ouput/gain reduction. and the funny thing is, ....the input meter was already +2-3db in the RED. Which now makes sense cause a -16dbFS signal WILL show as +2-3dbUV on an analog compressor.
BINGO.....(lights started going off in my head)
the crazy thing is, i set the compressor (4:1/ slow attack/medium release) with no gain adjustments.....and the gain reduction didnt show any thing going on.....but while it was +2-3 on the meter, this thing sounded GREAT.
point of this post.....now understanding the whole gain monitoring with these crazy analog model plugins, my guitar track went from thin and whimpy to HOLY JESUS FAT BASTARD! although it was a solo'd/single track, i have to see how it will jive with the rest of the tracks.....that ill have to go back into and re-mix from scratch now understanding the whole gain thing.....
****EDIT- after thinking about it some more, i wonder why the SSL channel input metering wasnt in the RED to begin with, maybe they didnt really do a -18dbfs = 0VU conversion, but something else...
also, ill have to see what it sounds like when i adjust the SSL channels output so the CL 1B comp doesnt get hit so hard in the RED. At the time it sounded really slammin.......but i didnt hear what it would sound like if it was riding at 0VU on its input meters