Finalists for a cheap, decent Dx Compressor plug-in

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RWhite

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I've been playing arround with a few hardware compressors and have decided that what I really need is a compressor/limiter plug in. For me the limiter is even more important than the compressor section. I'm not doing work for clients, just myself, so I don't want to spend a lot (no more than $200). I'm using Cakewalk Pro 9 in Windows 98, so I'm looking for a Direct X plug-in.

My top choices seem to be:

Cakewalk's Fx-1 - compressor + Limiter + more stuff for $79
Ultrafunks Sonitus:fx compressor - compressor only for about $50, with a bunch more stuff for $200

I was also looking at the Waves plug-in until I found out it required a hardware dongle, which I refuse to use.

Any other suggestions?

Incidentally the article I looked hard at comparing plug-in compressors was this one from 1999:

http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/9FED7E1E97DC4C9A862566E70067B116

Somewhat out of date, but the product descriptions on the web I have recently seen still seem mostly unchanged.
 
To clarify, the latest version of Waves (Version 3.x) doesn't require a dongle. I've been using the Native Power Pack and The Rennasiance collection, and they sound great! You should check out the fully-functional (for 14 days) demo from http://www.waves.com Good luck in your search!
-Evan

RWhite said:
<snip>
I was also looking at the Waves plug-in until I found out it required a hardware dongle, which I refuse to use.

Any other suggestions?

Incidentally the article I looked hard at comparing plug-in compressors was this one from 1999:

http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/9FED7E1E97DC4C9A862566E70067B116

Somewhat out of date, but the product descriptions on the web I have recently seen still seem mostly unchanged.
Click to expand...
 
UnkleSlam - Ha! Nothing is below me... Where can I find this Blue line? I did try to get the Freeverb plug-in to work but could never get anything out of it except a Direct X error.

Gordone, glad to hear the evil dongle is no longer required. I will definately try out the demo. It looked like a cool product, and I know a lot of people here like it. I just oppose on principle having to stick any hardware parasites on my PC.

Is anyone out there using Cakewalk FX1? It looks like what I am looking for, decent software for a very reasonable price. Like I said, I'm not trying to create the next Dark Side of The Moon, but I also don't want to invest a lot of time in something which turns out to be crap.
 
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I would not buy the FX1...

I bought it and was sorry. Its not terrible, but not worth the 79 bucks it will cost. If you want something commercial, the Sonitius stuff is better IMHO. I use the Waves PP1, and am satisfied. PP2 could be had for around 200, and also has a greatr compressor.
 
Thanks to both of you, I downloaded both the Waves Demo and Blue Line and will play with them Friday.
 
before you decide, give the UltraFunk compressor a listen.

i've got all three and i end using the UltraFunk for most single instrument stuff and the Ren Compressor on mixes. i never use the Blue-Line.

-kp-
 
OK, I found the Ultrafunk compressor demo. I'll give that one a shot too.

Strange, I feel like Bert Parks....
 
And the winner is.... ?

Well, I finally got a free day to play with and I spent it learning more about Direct X plugins. The following might be of interest to some, pathetic & amusing to others.

I assembled the downloaded plugins from Blue Line, Ultrafunk (compressor demo), Waves (14 day demo), and Freeverb. I use two PCs to work on -

Main system (“Basement”) is PIII 533, 512 meg RAM, Win98SE, Gadget Labs Wave 824 card.

My primary "non music" (Computer Room”) system is a PIII 933, 512 meg RAM, Win98SE, SoundBlaster Live.

Both systems have Cakewalk Pro 9. Up until now I have used either all outboard hardware effects, or Cakewalks built-in Reverb plug in (which sounds pretty weak).

I like to test new software out on my P933 first, it has lots of software on it while I try to keep the "music system" as clean as possible. I had already installed the Wave 14 day demo on it and it turned out the evaluation period had expired. I tried installing it again and (not surprisingly) it said sorry, you've had your 14 days buddy. Then to add insult its dialog box locked up the machine in a loop. Next…

I tried the Freeverb demo next. I had tried installing it once before and received only cryptic Direct X errors. Now with DirectX 8A freshly installed, plus SB Live drivers reinstalled, it worked fine. Quality of the reverb seemed so-so, but I was working on my wimpy upstairs speakers (more below).

Next I tried the Ultrafunk compressor demo. The demo version basically “stops” at random 1 second intervals. A good idea in my opinion – it protects their software while giving the user a good idea of what their plugin is doing. Well, I brought up the interface and started playing with a test song ( a stereo 16 bit .WAVrecording of a Eurythmics song). Immediately I began having dropouts – playback would just die. I’m thinking, what the hell, a PIII933 and its choking????? I made some other experiments and the problem continued.

Somewhat discouraged I decided to move the testing to it’s ultimate target, my basement system. Wanted to see the difference in using a slower system with a better sound card. I was immediately and pleasantly surprised to find that the dropout problem vanished. I had been under the impression that CPU power was the most important factor in balancing plugin, but my trials showed the opposite. The sound card, and its ability to process audio, is just as key.

In no time I was able to install all the plugins and set them up on 4 virtual auxiliary busses in Cakewalk. After a few hours of playing around, here were my first impressions:

I’m a bit sour on the Waves compressor plugin. Aside from the previously mentioned bug with the 14 day trial box, on initially trying to run it would throw my whole screen into wildly cycling colors until I rebooted the box. I figured out pretty quick that it could not deal with Windows being in 256 color mode. After rebooting into 16 bit mode it would work, but it still liked to change my Cakewalk background colors. Seems to be some very weak Windows code in there. Final strike against it was that when you install the trial version it creates an icon for the its manual, but does not actually download the manual itself. So I was reduced to Homer Simpson mode (“Just poke blindly at the controls until they let you go”). If I’m going to try something out, that’s the ONLY time I need the manual. It may be a very good compressor plug in once you get to know it (and have the real version) but for now I guess I’ll pass.

The Blue Line compressor had decent documentation. It also had a tendency to lock the machine up. On my Computer Room system just opening the plugin would give the computer a seizure. On my Basement system I had several lockups, most of which seemed to involve the Blue Line compressor.

The Ultrafunk compressor seemed the most stable. Actually very stable. It seemed to work as advertised and for my demoing purposes the random 1 second shutoff didn’t bother me at all. I really only had one beef against it. It has a nice little auto-limiter that cuts off at 0db. This would be a very useful tool for me, and the manual mentions doing something I would probably want to do - setting to do no compression, just letting the limiter only run. However when I had it set so that it should be doing just that, it was obviously still compressing. I could not seem to get it to shut up, so to speak.

Also, the Freeverb reverb plugin didn’t sound too bad, definitely better than the included Cakewalk reverb. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who (like myself) is just getting acclimated with plug-ins and is on a budget.

Also, I now have new realization on just how key the sound card hardware is in processing audio, as opposed to purely the CPU. There is a reason why SoundBlaster Live cards only cost $50. And I have renewed understanding of people who complain of constant Windows lockups. I’ve been using Cakewalk in Windows 98 for a while now, and I’ve had maybe two crashes in the last 9 months. So I’ve been wondering what’s going on with all these people complaining about constant Windows crashes. After adding in plug-ins I had 4 or 5 crashes in one day, although in fairness I was doing my best to make them fail. It’s enough to make you want to stick to hardware effects.

I think for now I will pass on the Wave stuff, leave the Blue Line stuff for a day when I feeling particularly masochistic, and take a harder look at the Ultrafunk compressor. Also as I posted elsewhere I found Sound Forge 5.0 on sale for $129 (since back up to $149, damn) at Best Buy. It includes about a dozen DirectX plugs (no compressor unfortunately). I will probably pick that up, one because I’m still using version 4 and two because it sounds like quite a good deal just for the plug-ins alone.

Well those are my first impressions. Keep in mind that I’m at heart still an old mixer & tape guy, just starting to force myself to do everything (record, mix, master) all within the PC. YMMV. I would be interested in any feedback.
 
Heh! Yeah, my outboard gear never locks up! I can run 48 channels of eq AT ONCE, with as many damn compressors as I can afford on my Ghost console!!! My ADAT's either sync up and play or don't (seldomly don't....) and same with recording on them. No latency. No CPU overload. REAL TIME everything.

More expensive? Yes. Worth it? Yes.....

Ed
 
I cant disagree with using hardware, if you can afford the good stuff. I have a few OK pieces, but my gear isn't a money making setup as is yours so I have to scrimp. And I do like the idea of keeping things digital once it gets there.

Ed, since you are using hardware, I assume this means you are mixing down to some sort of external device. What do you use -an external CDR, or something else?
 
Outboard vs Direct x plugins

Hi all,
I am leaning more and more with each project to do exactly what Ed does.
The direct x plugins that I have bought have been a great dissapointment. After applying all the plugins I want, the dropouts make me want to smash something.
I already have all the outboard effects and compressors/gates from my live equipment rack, I guess I have been chicken to try them out. The only thing I would miss would be the editing of the direct x plugins to get the sound right.
If you screw up to start with, on the out board effects, you have to do the tune over again. I charge by the hour... get 4 musicians agitated, you can only blame so much on Mr Gates. I have pissed away alot of time because of Direct X Plugins.


Just my 2 cents...

Gidman
 
RWhite:

Depends on what I am working on. Lately, some of the projects I work on are mixed on a Yamaha O2R console....:( With it, I can either digitally output to DAT (not really preferred, but have to do it sometimes....) or use it's D/A converters going to a piece of tube gear (a Drawmer 1960 preamp/comp is my weapon of choice lately!!! :)) and into my Lynx One soundcard via it's 24 bit A/D converters.

If I am mixing on the Ghost (rare lately...:() I go to a ART Dual MP from the consoles outputs, then into the Lynx. I prefer this setup best, and most of my best mixes have come from it.

For comps, I usually only use Composers (old style, not the cheaper Pro's!!!) and a ART Dual Levelar. I have an old style MultiGate too. While I wish I had class A gear available all the time, most clients just don't have the kind of budget to either rent it, or rent a studio for me to mix in that has it. I can charge VERY cheap rates (comparitively speaking....) when just using all my own gear. Anyway, the point is that I don't normally use very high end gear for most of the stuff I mix with an analog console.

I don't neccesarily agree about keeping digital "digital". In the case of multi-tracking to digital, I think that mixing analog offers a much more robust sound. Far more "real" than digital mixing, and characteristics that are ear pleasing. Even with cheaper processing gear, if one is careful to track well, and not try to push the cheaper analog dynamic processors very hard, you can get very good results from them. But cheap DSP is horrible!!! And being limited to what a CPU and hard drive can handle is a major drag! My analog setup doesn't just CRASH all of a sudden when I add in another effect or dynamic processor. No code errors! And the sound quality seems to have a more "earthy" sound to it. All in all, cheap digital SOUNDS cheap. Even in competent hands, the sound just seems to miss something. The depth of the recording goes to hell in a hurry with bad DSP. I have mixed a lot with cheap digital consoles (and in this case, the O2R is not even considered CHEAP!!! It is considered "mid class"....:() and am always disappointed that they don't deliver the kinds of sounds I want to get. I am aware of it's limitations, but that is my point basically! The limitations!!! When I need to fix something, I need an open format to do so. If a vocal NEEDS a high end compressor to make it rock, I can at least rent it and use it with my analog mixer. On the O2R, I am basically stuck with what it offers. Sometimes it works okay, but often, the DSP is heartless and uninteresting.

Just rambling here......probably won't be my last rant concerning cheap DSP......

Ed
 
Its been my experience that these cheapo 1.0 versions of shit tends to lock up programs alot, cause boots, blue screens, etc. The waves stuff rarely if ever locks me up. If you're getting dropouts due to CPU useage, print the effect, delete the plug, and you're back in business. You can have all the effects you want this way, and about 60 tracks or more with a properly configured computer. Well written plugs are the most important thing of all.
 
Tubedude - I agree that the Blue Line plugins, at least, seem quite cranky. I guess you get what you pay for.
The Waves demo didn't impress me much either. But the fact that a lot of folks here do really like it has not been lost on me, I may yet buy it.

Tim - Do you actually have hands-on with the Flavio plug-in, or have you just heard that it's good?


Another reason I didn't mention that I would like to migrate towards plugins is the simplicity factor. In the "old days", each time I saved a mix I would have to write down notes on which effects I used, their settings, all the mixer settings, blah blah blah just in case I decided to go back and re-do it.

Now with Cakewalk once I get the sounds into the computer I doing all the volumne mixing and panning right on the computer, when I save the project file it gets saved to. No more fumbling arround trying to remember at what point I faded out a track. If I can extend this new simplicity to include my effects as well it makes doing a remix days or months later almost effortless. So I need just a few good quality plugins that I can trust and keep arround for awhile.

Well last weekend I went out and bought SoundForge 5.0, which comes with about 12 Sonic Foundry plug-ins (no compressor alas). So this weekend I'll be giving some of those a test drive.
 
since i own fx1, ultrafunk, and waves let me chime in

fx1 compressor and limiter:
sucks. hands down the worst of the 3. especially the limiter because it is not a look ahead limiter, which you really, really need for digital work.
ultrafunk:
got it, loved it. it's worth the $200 bucks to get the whole suite. I use the EQ and compressor (which has a built in peak limiter) on my individual tracks, and the other fx i use now and then.
waves:
got it, loved it. i use the C4 to compress the entire mix. i understood the user interface for this multi-band dynamics processor faster than any other piece of waves Dx gear. BTW, the L1 limiter is awesome as well.
here's my list of fx and how i use them:
ultrafunk: track compression, eq, and occassional autowah
dsp-fx: delay, reverb, chorus
waves: multi-band compression, limiter, reverb, harmony processor
autotune: cause i like to sing backup, when i really shouldn't

i also have the RBC voice tweaker which is a decent formant preserving pitch corrector and harmony processor, but autotune and waves are better.
 
All: The best compressor plugin I have ever used, period, is the McDSP (www.mcdsp.com) series of plugins, which are only available for Pro Tools TDM on the Macintosh. Most other plugin compressors, I have found, are ok for taming dynamics, but don't really sound very good. That's just the deal with Windows.

RWhite: a lot of your problems are probably due to your hardware or video drivers. I would check that you have the latest video driver, or get a better video card. I myself have never had a Waves-initiated crash. In fact, my music hardware/software seems to be the only stable elements in my system, and I rarely have crashes while using them. In contrast, I have had probably 5x as many crashes just running Internet Explorer as I have had doing music. Anyway, you might try the db-audioware plugins (www.db-audioware.com). 39$ for the compressor, or you can get all 4 of his plugins for 99$. They work really well, even though they're just made by some guy. I think they match up with the Waves non-Renaissance plugins just fine. The Renaissance plugins by Waves are pretty cool too, they have a little bit of a sound, but once you've heard the McDSP stuff, you just want to switch platforms.
 
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