CLA-76 Compressor

Z

Zydrus

New member
This is on sale for $99 right now. I don't currently own any purchased plug ins. I use Reaper and have a few free plug in's I've found. But this is usually $400. Is this too good a deal to pass up? I'm sure most are going to say download the demo and try it out. Which makes sense but when you are just starting out like me anything is probably going to sound better than my stock stuff.

I missed out on the Slate VCC,VBC, and VTM bundle when it was on sale. I talked myself out of it because I'm just learning and don't want to spend a bunch of money on plug ins.
 
There are loads of free, decent plugins available. Until you know what you're doing and what you need from paid for plugs, maybe it's not worth the gamble. Check out the Antress modern plugins and Variety of Sound.
 
I find myself using the CLA-76 plugin a lot on mixing. It's my 'go to' for drums on a lot of mixes. The good thing about it is that it's a 'two in one' product, modelling both the blue and black series. Great attack on them too and very warm sounding. Great plugin it.
 
It's a good plugin. But, like a real 1176, it isn't the best choice for every situation. That sort of compressor is more about the effect of compression, rather than simple dynamics control. But it is very cool in situations that call for it.
 
jonny deep said:
There are loads of free, decent plugins available. Until you know what you're doing and what you need from paid for plugs, maybe it's not worth the gamble. Check out the Antress modern plugins and Variety of Sound.
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This is why I didn't purchase the Slate stuff. It's just not often I've seen a plug in like this that I recognize (I'm still a newbie) for 75% off. That's why I was wondering if I should jump on it. I'm gonna demo it and then decide.
 
I downloaded it and while I'm probably not gonna buy it, it made my vocals really pop. I used the Bluey version on the vocals and man it was awesome. Does the retail version include presets? Cause I was just twisting knobs till I got a good sound. I heard it was also good on drums as well. I couldn't get a sound out of it I liked on the drums. Could be cause I don't know what I'm doing but I tried "Blacky" on the kick, then the overheads, and then the drum buss. I couldn't tell much difference on the kick but the OH and buss I could hear some effect but wasn't what I was looking for.

In the end when I do purchase some plug ins I'll probably wait for the Slate stuff to go on sale again and get the VCC, VTM, and VBC.
 
The actual purchased version includes presets, and I think the demos do too. They have a lot of nice ones to just throw up if you don't know how to use a compressor well. xD

Honestly, a lot of the time I find myself clicking the presets and then just moving the knobs around anyway. I don't know why I even bother using them for any of the CLA stuff because all of those compressors are so simple.

Especially the LA2A. I think it's kinda funny that one has presets. You basically have input and output controls and that's it. xD
 
so after trying it you dont feel you can get the Reaper stuff to match it?
ReaFir and ReaCompX and the 11 band eq etc..? Theres so many in the stock Reaper, I wonder what is it the $$plugs do thats so different. Reaper has a 1176 and another one in the JS stuff, right?
 
CoolCat said:
so after trying it you dont feel you can get the Reaper stuff to match it?
ReaFir and ReaCompX and the 11 band eq etc..? Theres so many in the stock Reaper, I wonder what is it the $$plugs do thats so different. Reaper has a 1176 and another one in the JS stuff, right?
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To be honest I didn't realize Reaper had one. There are a ton of plug ins but outside of ReaEQ and ReaComp I don't use much of the Reaper stuff. I did go find the JS 1175 when I was at lunch and tried it out. Granted I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with it but I couldn't get that "fullness/warmness" out of it that the CLA-76 gives me. However while searching for the Reaper version of it I noticed they also have a Fairchild 670 type plug in. I put that one on the vocals and liked it. I'll need to do some more experimenting with it.

I have also checked into the Antress modern as jonny deep suggested and some of those seemed to have good reviews. I already use some of the VOS plug ins. So I think I'll stick to the free stuff for now. Surely I can find something that gets me pretty close.
 
My favorite 1176 plugin emulation is the newer Universal Audio one. I was using the CLA one when I ran out of DSP, and it seems OK (I recently got a bigger UA DSP thing, and so I've kind of stopped using the CLA one). Seems like I bought the bundle of CLA compressors on sale for maybe 149? 199? Not sure - anyway, that was during their holiday sales, and you might have wait until year end for that.

The CLA 1176, like a lot of the Waves plugs, has built in noise and harmonic manipulation (but mainly it sounds like noise to me) - usually billed as "Analog" or something in the user interface - you set it to 60hz or 50hz (for US or British power cycles, I guess) or off. When it's on, there's a hiss, and it drives me nuts. You can set the default to be off, but then if you use the built in presets, it gets set back on again. Then you hear a hiss through your monitors whether or not you're in "play" mode in your software. I have spent way too long picking through tracks for the instance where I left the noise on. Recently I even got something close to a real 1176 (the 6176 channel strip) and it's not nearly as noisy as the CLA plugin - I guess they're modeling older, noiser units, of course. Anyway, something to think about.


edit - one of my favorites is the Stillwell Rocket ( http://www.stillwellaudio.com/plugins/stillwell-audio-plugins/rocket-compressor/ ), the mantis shrimp of software compressors - I'm using a 64 bit version which works fine, but I think the company is about to do a fresh release of all their plugs in 64 bit. Can't wait...
 
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I've got the Antress stuff downloaded. First thing I did was load the Seventh Sign on vocals and set it up exactly as the CLA-76. The inputs were a bit off and I had to crank the Seventh Sign's input to match the CLA-76 but other than that I can't tell a difference. Thanks for the info guys. Now I've got some VOS and Antress along with the Reaper stuff so I think I'm set for now.
 
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Zydrus said:
I've got the Antress stuff downloaded. First thing I did was load the Seventh Sign on vocals and set it up exactly as the CLA-76. The inputs were a bit off and I had to crank the Seventh Sign's input to match the CLA-76 but other than that I can't tell a difference. Thanks for the info guys. Now I've got some VOS and Antress along with the Reaper stuff so I think I'm set for now.
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Yeah if you're on the Windows VST platform there are tons of free, great sounding plugins you could make an entire record with. In fact, I could probably make an entire record with VOS (Bootsy) plugins alone. The Antress stuff I haven't touched in ages and now with the Eventide Ultrachannel I'm pretty much set.

The whole thing about plugins is that you forget you're looking at a GUI. I often wonder if the plugins I love would have the same effect on me if they were just plain GUIs and sliders. Of course the UAD and other emulation plugins have got a lot going on under the hood to emulate each component in the design or whatever and have virtual harmonic distortion but sometimes I feel like it's just gimmickry. That being said, I can't get the same drum sound with certain plugins that I can with others. How plugins react on drums, specifically, is a hallmark for me. You just can't get a stock Cubase Compressor to slam like an 1176 or a 160 or a ThrillseekerLA.

You just gotta use what you have until you know what it's good for. Quite similar to analogue gear.

Cheers :)
 
CoolCat said:
so after trying it you dont feel you can get the Reaper stuff to match it?
ReaFir and ReaCompX and the 11 band eq etc..? Theres so many in the stock Reaper, I wonder what is it the $$plugs do thats so different. Reaper has a 1176 and another one in the JS stuff, right?
Click to expand...

I'm running Reaper and have not found the 1176 plug. What is it called?
 
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