sidechain compression

ashcat_lt said:
I'm using Reaper (32 bit) on PC
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i'm sorry, i am not at all familiar with that program. my only suggestion would be to google free audio plugins. there are some out there, but i don't know what would work with reaper.

if you somehow get a hold of plugins, waves offers a very comprehensive bundle of plugins. they also offer a 2 week free trial period. the renaissance bundle is fantastic. the RComp is the one in that bundle that does negative ratios. works very well. on a side note, Farview prob wouldn't like that plugin as it has a setting for "warm" and "smooth". Farview's opinion has merit, but the setting for "warm" does sound warm to me, and the setting "smooth" sounds smooth to me. perhaps adjectives aren't entirely as worthless as previously stated. i love the RComp. it's the comp i use most. i assume the warm and smooth are knee selections as there is no other knee control. there is also a setting for opto or VCA style characteristics. that's very cool

waves C4, C6, & LinMB multiband compressors all have the ability to do negative ratios on any band range which is nice because you can give some ranges a bump while taming others. worth checking out. all of those have variable knees, and all of them allow u to switch between VCA and opto characteristics
 
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Reaper runs any VST and is supposed to run DX, but I never trusted those fuckers anyway. I'm not buying Waves because fuck them, and I stopped using cracks a while back. I've done some research, but haven't found a good solution. Reaper also runs its own JS plugins, which are just-in-time compiled, and you can write or edit them in the DAW itself or in any text editor. A friend on that forum was looking into a compressor with negative ratios, but I think he got distracted along the line.

Edit to add - Those parameters that you're talking about are exactly the kind of thing that lead me to this kind of thinking. They give you a switch, tell you nothing about what it does. You flip it and listen. It either works or it don't. What if it's close, but just needs a little tweak? Find another plugin and hope it's version of that switch gets you closer. If you get into real hardware emulation where the compressor isn't just a compressor any more, but also several filters and a distorter or two, and you don't get any control over any of that?

Give me a couple (few) instances of ReaComp and a couple (few) of ReaEQ, and I can do the same thing with way more control of every aspect of how it affects my program. I wouldn't be surprised if it did it more efficiently than your Waves plug, too. I sort of use those individual plugs as little "circuit snippets" or modules that I can snap together to make my own custom effects.
 
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as for what other dynamics plugin that are very useful, SPL has several very useful plugs including their de-esser which works by specific frequency phase cancellation and not gain reduction. so the body of the tone stays intact.

stillwell dynamics are very nice, especially major tom. (sounds close to a dbx 160x)

McDSP has sweet dynamics processors like their compression banks and multi-bands (MC2, MC4, MC6). i would rate these very high for using on guitars. these remind me a lot of EL Distressors.

BrainWerx has excellent dynamics tools. you might like these a lot they are very flexible and have built-in filters on their sidechains and also do negative ratios

IK Multimedia has good LA2A and 1176 plugs. the 2 classics. waves has these also and a LA3A but the waves versions are modeled after Chris Lord Algae's personal units so they have a more specific sound.

Softube has a wonderful tube tech CL-2B

nomad factory makes all the classics. they sound great.

sonalksis has some nice dynamics plugs worth checking out. i dont use them because i have so many to choose from already, but they do look like they are very good.

PSP has nice stuff. i mainly use their lexicon pcm42 plug

GRM tools, and Soundtoys are fabulous, but they don't have any dynamics plugs. i mention them because they have some plugs that are particularly useful and i wouldn't want to live without them.

Antares has some unique dynamics plugs, but i rarely use them. they seem pretty good though.

if you can aquire any of these plugs, i recommend the waves first, but you will fall in love with any and all of these. i have a feeling you would prob like the McDSP stuff the best. you might also be partial to the Brainwerx.
 
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The only time I use presets on a compressor is when I've made them. The only time that works is when the the songs on an album were all recorded consistently. Then I would simply use them to get the next song into the same ballpark as the one before.

So no, I don't use the presets. I do have the waves stuff, but I usually use the 1176, la2a, Fairchild emulatons and the compressor in the ssl channel strip.
 
ashcat_lt said:
Reaper runs any VST and is supposed to run DX, but I never trusted those fuckers anyway. I'm not buying Waves because fuck them, and I stopped using cracks a while back. I've done some research, but haven't found a good solution. Reaper also runs its own JS plugins, which are just-in-time compiled, and you can write or edit them in the DAW itself or in any text editor. A friend on that forum was looking into a compressor with negative ratios, but I think he got distracted along the line.

Edit to add - Those parameters that you're talking about are exactly the kind of thing that lead me to this kind of thinking. They give you a switch, tell you nothing about what it does. You flip it and listen. It either works or it don't. What if it's close, but just needs a little tweak? Find another plugin and hope it's version of that switch gets you closer. If you get into real hardware emulation where the compressor isn't just a compressor any more, but also several filters and a distorter or two, and you don't get any control over any of that?

Give me a couple (few) instances of ReaComp and a couple (few) of ReaEQ, and I can do the same thing with way more control of every aspect of how it affects my program. I wouldn't be surprised if it did it more efficiently than your Waves plug, too. I sort of use those individual plugs as little "circuit snippets" or modules that I can snap together to make my own custom effects.
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i'm very old school when it comes to using gear. i'd always prefer to use stuff with less control rather than more. if something has the sound i want, i use it, if it doesn't, i use something else. i won't spend extra time and effort tweaking away at something if i can avoid it. my philosophy is to always create less work, not more. the basic tools can work perfectly. one of the best engineers in the world Andy Wallace taught me a lot by watching how he mixes and he uses little more than the channels on the board. he doesn't really use any special outboard gear, but does amazing mixes. it really doesn't take a scientific approach, just a musical one. the secret is there is no secret. just focus on the details of the music. that's it. i'm not implying gear doesn't help, i just have seen how it's not the only answer.
 
Farview said:
The only time I use presets on a compressor is when I've made them. The only time that works is when the the songs on an album were all recorded consistently. Then I would simply use them to get the next song into the same ballpark as the one before.

So no, I don't use the presets. I do have the waves stuff, but I usually use the 1176, la2a, Fairchild emulatons and the compressor in the ssl channel strip.
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factory presets are terrible. you obviously can't work with factory presets to get any kind of good sound. the key statement you made is recording consitently. that's where you win the battle. i wasn't implying that you use presets though.
 
ashcat_lt said:
Give me a couple (few) instances of ReaComp and a couple (few) of ReaEQ, and I can do the same thing with way more control of every aspect of how it affects my program. I wouldn't be surprised if it did it more efficiently than your Waves plug, too. I sort of use those individual plugs as little "circuit snippets" or modules that I can snap together to make my own custom effects.
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i think you might be thinking of something else. when i say RComp i'm talking about their Renaissance Compressor. i don't know if that what you mean by ReaComp & ReaEQ. maybe it is and it's just a typ-o but i'm not sure
 
thehitman2375 said:
factory presets are terrible. you obviously can't work with factory presets to get any kind of good sound. the key statement you made is recording consitently. that's where you win the battle. i wasn't implying that you use presets though.
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But now, since I stopped recording and only do mixing, I have to contend with all manner of recorded goofiness. Techniques are always handy, preset aren't.
 
thehitman2375 said:
i think you might be thinking of something else. when i say RComp i'm talking about their Renaissance Compressor. i don't know if that what you mean by ReaComp & ReaEQ. maybe it is and it's just a typ-o but i'm not sure
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Those are the built in plugins that come with reaper. I don't use reaper, but I understandit is quite good.
 
the settings that i was refering to on the Renaissance Rcomp for warm/smooth and opto/VCA are not in the presets. they are actual controls on the compressor. i'm wondering if farview thought i was talking about using presets when i mentioned these. i can't give u an exact idea about what those controls are changing, they just do things that i like. i'm sure if you goto the waves site they probably have a technical explanation, i just don't have a desire to know it. it does what it does and does it well. that's good enough for me. i know the difference between an opto and VCA compressor so i need no further explanation on those controls and warm and smooth settings have qualities that i hear, so i just pick the setting that sounds better. i would never advocate using factory presets without at least adjusting the parameters accordingly. i have my own starting points saved as presets and that does save time. i strongly agree that the incoming signal should be consistent and tracks i get that were recorded elsewhere get gain adjustment to the audio to get me in the range i want them in. i don't know the Rea-stuff. i have to admit, some of these programs come with really nice sounding stock plugins. especially logic pro x. some of their stock plugs blow away the stock plugs in pro tools. i wouldn't be surprised if the rea-stuff sounded fabulous.
 
ashcat_lt said:
Reaper runs any VST and is supposed to run DX, but I never trusted those fuckers anyway.
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When I first got into digital recording (just before the turn of the century), I started with Logic 4.7 , and when I got that, I also got a disk with a whole bunch of plug-ins and assorted utilities on it. The plug-ins were mostly DX, and I used them happily with Logic. When I switched to Reaper, I continued to use the DX plug-ins, and they continued to behave.

However as time went on, I found myself using them less and less. I find that Reaper's suite works well. The one relic I still continue to use, though, is Timeworks reverb. It is, to my ears, the best sounding reverb plug-in (other than convolution reverbs). I have tried to find a VST version, but it seems that it is no longer available in any version.
 
Still love the Timeworks Comp/Limiter... though it'd be nicer still (and not OT'.. if it had side chain filters, or access.
 
That timeworks reverb was awesome. Alas, I had to stop using it when Nuendo stopped supporting DX plugins. There were a few DX plugins that made me not upgrade until I really had to, just so I could keep using them.
 
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