Are Compressor Plugins a Scam? (Part 1)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ค. 2024
- My website: www.apmastering.com
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As per the title, this is PART ONE. This is just the intentionally conspiratorial/dramatic/entertaining warm up video, intended to follow on from my EQ series in which countless people requested a "compressor scam" follow up. Audio examples, discussion of saturation and typologies (the heart of the discussion) are all to be found in PART TWO.
The results to the blind ABs from part two are in PART THREE.
If you only watch the first 10 seconds of part 1 before leaving an outraged comment, you completely miss the point of the video series and are likely arguing with nobody.. Comments like "u stoopid cuz saturation" and "dude trusts a line more than his ears" all completely fail to engage with the substance of this discussion on compression, as these things are all discussed in part 2, here: th-cam.com/video/Uaj1WsKXJRA/w-d-xo.html
I love this! Comparing (and debunking) compressor plugins has been super challenging! I really appreciate the effort you put into this!
thanks for watching! have seen a fair few of your vids too and appreciate your work!
Lesson: Keep gear basic. Focus on song-writing
YES
I agree to for the most part but good mixing and production play their part too. I think the point of this video is that you don't need to pay large sums of money on your gear and you certainly don't need to keep buying the latest whatever.
💯
Just invest in hardware. You need a good mic and guitar with a good interface to record and oh don't forget the pc or better still just a mixer. That should do it.
I think the truest wisdom is that producing, engineering, songwriting, and arranging are all art forms in their own way. The best results will always come from a team of experts.
I produce and mix all my own stuff and I see exactly where I could do more if I had the time.
As a plugin dev currently building a compressor I think you're oversimplifying a bit. Looks like you're mostly trying to match with some impulse response but there are so many variables, and many ways to code program dependency for example. (as I'm sure you're aware). Saturation aside (which is also a big one).
RMS window and its length, peak vs rms compression, hybrid of the two with different weight, most of the sound of a compressor will depend on how that's implemented.
If you decide to have two compressors in a row internally that will also change the character I don't feel like you can judge that with one impulse.
Good luck with your efforts! If you are looking for inspiration I recommend watching a couple of Dan Worrall's latest videos when he talks about suggestions for the compressors (mix knobs, ratios, etc.).
He was specifically referring to analog emulation compressors, which also tend to model the harmonic distortion / saturation stages of their analog counterparts. Matching the gain reduction for one static signal is one thing, but recreating the "box tone" of the device is an entirely different endeavour!
sure you can do whatever you want. my plug has no rms or impulse based stuff. it's literally just a straight peak comp. i'm just modifying the gain reduction curvature mathematically. im not trying to clone, just achieve the same attack character and those 3 modifiers (convexity, inertia and feedback) get me pretty close to all the classic types
@@APMastering If after matching those curves you try a null test it will probably show that there is something more going on.
@@danivalles7638 100%, stay tuned for the next video (3 parts)
I think maybe you need to study what compressors do a little more before you come to these conclusions. There are many different types of program dependencies that can be seen. You can’t simply use a single test to quantify any of this. Attack could be compression dependent, time dependent external input envelope dependent, frequency dependent. There are more. You’ll have to trust me on this one as I look at compressors from a topology standpoint and analysis standpoint… none of the test you are doing show any of this…
The test you are doing is looking at one single point with no time domain tests.
Take for example a feedback compressor, your release will literally be changing depending on your material. That would mean you’d have to change your release time every transient and every sustain..
i will discuss this stuff in my follow up video. it's a 3 part series
I agree 😊
Tim Petherick in the house!
This is awfully reductive. Compressors aren't just about attack
elease\knee. Different compressors will emphasise different frequencies\timbre as they squash things down. Some will make the mids punch out, some will strangle the low end, some will get pummeled by bottom end which means the bass ends up dominating everything. To focus on just the attack
elease\knee is looking at about half the picture.
It's fair to say that there's a huge amount of snake oil when it comes to plugins, but this is kinda bollocks.
yeah most of that is addressable with side chain EQ and preemphasis
@@APMastering I mean sure there's always 10 different ways to skin a rabbit, but instead of jury-rigging a hammer, sometimes it's faster, better and easier to just use a hammer isn't it?
@@iwiggs6870 sometimes it is. sometimes you don't need a hammer.
OTT, is that you?
@@APMastering with this logic, you don't need a single plugin, why not write vst's in c++, but wait you don't need c++ because you already have assembly language, so why not use that !
Can't help but to keep going back to the stock Logic compressor.
its all I use and all I need lol
Funny you say that. I thought maybe cause I’ve used it before all these modelled plugins came out. After trying and loving so many new ones I can’t help but revert back to logic compressor to get the job done. I use the first setting that comes up, adjust to task, done. And it does sound better than many others.
Same but with Maximus or OTT
@@onteraction8294 exactly
9 times out of 10 - same here
You got bonked on the last one because your nulls weren’t actually nulls. Now you’re trying to convince us that just because the gain reduction responses are the same that it’s somehow a scam. Didn’t even compare harmonic distortion, and noted in the video that workflow and feature sets are all radically different. I agree with you in principal, that compression is compression, but I think pitching it as a “scam” is inaccurate. That said, love the free comp! It’s cool! I will be using it for sure! And the fact that you programmed an entire analysis plugin for the video is sick.
i couldn't come up with a better word. something like "illusion of magical sound character which doesn't really exist". do you have a suggestion for a better word?
RE nulls, i'm assuming you didn't watch my third vid with the more exhaustive methodology where i discuss JND?
@@APMastering Smoke and mirrors? I agree "scam" sounds a bit clickbait (although it's what TH-cam wants you to do).
Thank you so very much for what you said, because that was exactly my thought that you posted… I have several friends in the industry who purchase various compression plug-ins more so for the character they part and not to get any sort of specialized compression curve.
@@APMastering no I will check that out, thanks!
I agree scam is a bit clickbait. I was sitting there with chatgpt asking it for better words and I was getting con, swindle, hoax, deception, rip-off, scheme etc. Like I literally couldn't find anything that fit better and anyway, I'm not trying to intentionally make my videos less sensational. I'm looking for a bit of entertainment value as the majority of audio content is kind of dry and boring.
This is a bit like saying all pianos sound like pianos.
what if you are comparing digital pianos and you have knobs that vary piano size, upright, grand, wood density, % open etc
@@APMastering yes of course. It was more a metaphor than a measurement. I choose a certain compressor over another because I prefer the results I get.
@@psychesonic1but if you can get the same results with a free one, why is somebody charging 500 dollars for another
@@gigglthewiggl because its not exactly the same and this guy is quite simply full of shit
@@APMastering have you ever been serious about buying a nice digital piano? They all sound 100% different. As do these compressors.
Please, i have no talent, but i prefer to believe its because i haven’t found my magic compressor. I like fancy marketing, fancy gui’s and newer means better. I am a plugin collector, and enjoy it. Let me spend my money o the newest compressor plugin without regret. So please, just use unbiased affiliate links and sponsored content and get in line. Thanks in advance!
thanks for the advice. i guess i should also do biased product reviews for stuff in my affiliate stores and cash a 6% commission on every sale of a $10k shadow hills unit. i do sell courses but i'm extremely transparent and up front about that
People do worse for happiness ..like marriage etc 😂
Money? do vsts cost... real money? 😮
@@Zer0Spinn Digital facsimiles of real gear (VSTs) can be bought with digital money (credit cards)
Q. What is real money?
@@mark-yj5sg real money is tangible commodities like gold, wheat and real estate.
You've just matching the gain reduction - it's has nothing along with the harmonic distortion which is a typical reason to use an "analog modeled" compressor plugin. This video has no sense.
addressed in post 2
*part
@@APMastering okay but please don't tell us that you gonna use external saturator to imitate what analog compressor does
I see what you’re saying but it’s impossible to say that all these compressors sound the same. While they may have similar compression curves a La-2a is still gonna sound a lot different than a 1176. And an 1176 will sound a lot different than a cl 1b. I typically don’t reach for a compressor because of features, I reach for the sound and vibe they can create based on the song I’m making. With that being said, your product looks nice, and I’ll for sure give it a shot!
1176 and la2a have drastically different envelopes
That would be true if you are talking about the actual analog hardware. The plugins are however, just digital gain reduction envelopes with pictures.
@@millenniummastering most hardware compressor are also changing frequencies, just like the dbx 160, I love for its transient work in the highs. I also never received any good distortion with compressor plugins...
no way this dude made his own "industry standard" compressor and made it free 💀💀💀 what a king
Attack characteristics are only a part of what makes a compressor a compressor. Different compressors also react differently to gain structure, different transients, and that is without considering the second and third order harmonics that different compressors add. This only tracks if you think about gain reduction as compression's only purpose, which is a bit reductive IMHO. I do agree that you only need a handful of compressors to do the job and not a billion plugins, I just think this isn't the whole picture, especially if you're leaving out release times which are responsible for how the source "fits" in the context of the mix, whether it is brought forward or tucked down. In my eyes it just feels like a very clinical way of thinking about audio as opposed to being in service of the source material artistically speaking.
its a conscious decision to exclude saturation and i'll discuss that in a follow up. in terms of release, release time is exceptionally important but release CURVATURE is much less sexy than the attack curvature which is why i didn't focus on it. it's a short form youtube video and the first of a couple i planned, ill start to expand the topic in future videos
DUDE ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! I was watching and everything you know, and when you said (basically) "You know what I couldn't find a cool analyser SO BAM I MADE ONE MYSELF" that is one of the baddassest things ive ever heard coming from an audio specialist. AND THEN EVEN CRAZIER, you said "i couldn't find a compressor either that suits my needs SO I MADE ONE MYSELF" BRO THIS IS EVEN MORE BADASS. For you to give this content away for free, make this compressor free, and provide easy access for such quality education is high verge of freaking awesome!!! I love that there is a transparency in your content parting away from that other famous audio specialists that try to get you to buy more unnecessary compressors because of their vintage vibe. I also kind of feel that a lot of people are butthurt that they spent so much money on different compressors for their vibe that they try to gaslight themselves by commenting! (Whats crazy is that this applies to ME having spent so much money on different compressors and my favorite one is a $3 one from HoRNet plugins!)
ha ha thanks. i am impartial but i do have a product to sell... my educational courses. they are there and people can buy them or not but yeah i have no bias to sell snake oil through affiliate links
Yeah this guy is seriously talented
windows version of APComp is now up.
WINDOWS USERS PLEASE NOTE!
if you get instant crashes when trying to load the plugin, your computer might be missing the c++ system files.
You need to install "Latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Version"
learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170
Since I dont know which computer you have, I can't say which exact download you need but there's only 3 possible choices. This is only in the case that you are:
1. running windows
2. get instant crashes when opening the plug or the plugin doesn't even come up after you have made sure it is in the correct folder
whats the chance of getting the CompView as an AU?
I can compile that for you now. check the google drive link in half hour
done it. Should be there now. send me an email if its not working for you
Quickly becoming my favorite audio engineering TH-camr next to Dan.
bro your so talented 🤟👿@@APMastering
Waiting for "The loudspeaker industry scam", "Microphone manufacturing's a big lie", "All snare drums sound exactly the same" and of course "Ears are massively overrated, just look at analysers".
that's actually a good idea. I could imagine a monitor scam, there is genuine content there. There is also some interesting stuff with the transducers used in dynamic mics and I have recorded some real nice music with some super cheap mics but ultimately a U87 is a good mic. My father is a drum maker, specialising in snares and so I know a thing or two about bearing edges, plies, hoops, wires... A well tuned cheap snare that has freshly sanded and shaped bearing edges sounds WAY better than a poorly tuned expensive drum. The last point about ears is just bullshit, if you've watched my content you'll know that this is antithetical to my message.
@@APMasteringWhat a wonderful reply! :)
search "Tested: Where Does The Tone Come From In A Microphone" it's basically just the capsule. he also did one for amps and cabs and electric guitar. basically everything is hype lol
@@APMastering I’m very curious to see your loudspeakers and monitors debunking video. As a man who calculated, evaluated different design options and built couple of pairs, for me it will be very interesting to see your observations and discoveries :)
@@APMastering as a drum maker and drummer for 45 years I would love a snare comparison ;-).. but off course you need to compare well tuned with well tuned. That said the snare has great importance in a drum recording. Probably the biggest in the kit. And even minute details will change the feel of the drummer and how he is inspired to play. Although the real difference is very small it does change some details that might just be what you need in the mix. Also good snare respond well to EQ and compressors. Price is rarely the reason if a snare is good. Its all about tuning, heads, response from the wires, the room but MOSTLY the drummer.
I have snare ranging from 50$ to 1500$ and I use them all without looking at the price tag.
Same with plugins. I dont look at what it says it can do, the price or the GUI. I look at my work flow. Which one gets me the result I want the easiest and fastest. I dont care if its actually just doing gain reduction or saturation or what have we. Also the sound like a snare drum inspires me to take sometimes more interesting decisions. But I am sceptic about expensive plugins as they in 90% of the cases are not worth the money.
Wow, amazing work.
I was also analyzing my compressor plugin collection and found out that I can stick Ableton's stock compressors and not caring about anything else.
The glue compressor is also pretty good and easy to use
@@JJaxxon I said compressors because I meant all 3 - Compressor, Glue and Multiband :) They are extremely good, and I am waiting for 12.1 release (not beta), to get my hands on updated limiter.
@@DmitryPuffin didnt read that well
Someone please summon Dan Worrall here, he's no bullshit.
Why? Dan Worrall isn’t selling you these plug-ins, the manufacturers are and it’s for them to convince you to buy it. If you don't trust what he's sying then continue spending your money and move on.
@@errmable You assumed a bit too much out of thin air. I was curious on Dan's opinion about a) if really the curve is the only important part of a compressor or these emulations have some non-linearity in them that would mean, say, different level of harmonics appearing at different levels and b) if it is really cannot be null-tested (or nullish test it, when the difference is inaudible or doesn't matter in a mix) and c) he usually is quite skeptic with plugins, and what is his opinion on this plugin, d) he usually has great suggestions regarding UI functions.
@@errmable It's not disrespectful to want to hear other experts chime in on the guys methodology. He even sounds like the type who'd welcome having his work put to the test of peer review. It's part and parcel to the scientific method, after all!
@@errmableOh give it a rest you attention seeker
FWIW i'd love dan to peer review this. to be clear, i don't think my plug is the best comp on the planet, i'm just a dude who spent a few days writing a plug, a mature software company could take my ideas and make a better plug in every imaginable way. also, i'm deliberately excluding the saturation discussion, that's the elephant in the room but i'll address it in my next video
So you’re saying that just because all compressors offer gain reduction, that compressor plug-ins are a scam? There’s a tremendous amount that your graphing program doesn’t account for. The main things I can think of are harmonics at the input circuit, output circuit, and detector circuit.
But I haven’t found a plug-in that reacts to audio in a way that’s even close to how a real diode bridge compressor does. I also haven’t found a Fairchild emulation that doesn’t let through way more transient than a real Fairchild does. If I were to make a video with your Clickbait title, I might consider focusing on these areas.
Well I have a part 2 coming in a couple of days in which I mention vari mu and zener diode typologies (I'm a big TG1 fan). I've never had the pleasure of working with an original Fairchild but I've worked with a lot of the familiar gear. Some of the plugins are pretty good. UAD isn't too shabby. But my point isn't that my analyser and comp faithfully emulate every single compressor under the moon perfectly. Should be a lot more clear by the end of part 2 why my videos aren't simply clickbait. This first one was just the warm up. If I have one single hour long video, it will get no views.
I would like to see whether, and to what extent, they do something (like distortion) to the material, aside from gain reduction.
This, I was really wondering about harmonic content because that's what a lot of companies are selling their plugins with
This is where phase cancellation would show the differences.
@@Lilly24244Exactly
Get plugin dr and have a look for yourself.
you can see harmonic distortion in plugin doctor very well. from my perspective, distortion is an separate bundled feature. I would rather apply distortion to my taste in a dedicated plug rather than simply being subjected to unspecified mystery distortion with zero control
You are way off base here. Perhaps many plugins do have generic processes that can be comparable under many conditions, but this does not account for ALL TYPES of non linearities, or what is happening in the frequency domain. if signal x is our input, and f(x) equals the function to generate y, our output, f(x) can be an immensely complex function. asymmetry, saturation, non linear responses, entropy simulation functions, frequency bias, filters, multi stages, recursive propagation, opto sim, tube sim, and much more. you can't just stick something that runs a sine blip or an impulse through a plugin, get the dynamic response in the time domain and think you have analyzed what something does.
although you are right to a certain extent with some of the other stuff you mentioned, a dynamics processor by definition should not significantly affect the tonal balance of a source. i also personally feel that a compressor should also not additionally increase thd outside of its inherent internodulation distortion, as that is literally unrelated additional unspecified mystery bundle feature code, which id prefer to have control of myself. so i personally consider such non linearities to be a moot point
@APMastering You can't impart certain nonlinearities in certain ways, especially harmonic distortion, body vs peak, and the transients, without a compressor. You don't always want to separate the two. Take something that is tonally and percussively rich as a rap vocal, that choice of how a compressor saturates and handles the transients is the whole shabang. Also, some of the most famous hardware compressors, like the SSL, has a frequency dependant bias. I definitely know where you are coming from, but sometimes you gotta cook in the sauce, not just use it as a topping after you grill.
ha ha, I like the analogy.
in terms of frequency bias, you can do this by merely EQing your side chain signal.
in terms of the kind of distortion you describe, I would be interested in investigating the exact kind of thing you are talking about and then ABX testing it
@APMastering some recipes are for the talk show, some you keep in the family cookbook...
Good lad. That second "bad?" example of your "AP Mastering" compressor, right on to add the "?" to it because that can be a _very_ cool, _very_ useful sound when used in parallel to give your drum buss some swing and movement. I've often gone after compression effects like that to achieve this result. The producer Rudolph Steiner (I believe that's his name) has long used a that kind of compression "trick" on his drum track.
isn't he also the guy with the sausage mic?
Reaper's stock ReaComp is still one of the cleanest compressors I've ever used.
reacomp is good, transparent, I use it for side chaining
a lot of Reaper stock plugins are really good. Just dont have a fancy GUI. A bit like AirWindows that makes plugins that are very impressive and way beyond many expensive plugins.
I see your point, but this is a pretty misleading comparison...to me, it kinda sounds like you're saying all of the compressors do the same thing, just get one and match the curves, yeey! That's bs obviously, in most cases, I go for compressors that do something extra than just compression, it's the distortion and saturation and the vibe that each compressor gives me, when I use compression just for the dynamic control, I will use something clean that doesn't produce any distortion ect. When I'm mixing, I don't want to think about matching a curve on a compressor to match another compressor like you showed in your video, I want to work quickly - I want more bus type compression? I'm grabbing the ssl, I want a fast compressor with some cool distortion vibe? I'm grabbing the 1176, I'm not going to match a compressor to sound like another one, I'm just gonna grab the "real" thing that will allow me to be quick and creative. I see the point, but saying plugin compressors are a scam is bullsh*t. It's more than just a compression curve, it's about a vibe, distortion, harmonics, ease of use, cool gui, I want to be quick and creative and get to the finish line as quickly as I can.
I dont disagree with you. but im hardly going to sit there in the studio and first match my plugin to another one and then use it. the point is, if you become proficient at using a single full featured compressor, you can dial in any tone you want in 2 seconds and having a bunch of different plugins with severely limited parameter ranges is a hinderance
@@APMastering Right it's really important to know your gear, you can absolutely use sort of all-around single eq and a single all-around compressor, dial in your curves and make a record with it, that's really boring though and I bet the record will be boring too,
If the point of the video was to learn your plugins better instead of always buying the next new thing, that's a great message right we all need that reminder, but compressors from various manufacturers definitely don't sound the same,
I really did liked your video and your ideas that's why I'm commenting, obviously you put a lot of time into making it, no one just uses compressors only for the curves though, literally for anyone try and use as many weird compressors you can get your hands on and see what it does for you, my mixes have gotten significantly better when I bought the, on this topic "high-end" compressors not only because of the sound but also for the confidence it gave me to use the gear, it's not only about a curve but saturation and distortion of the compressors cleverly used to get a killer mix, cheers 🫡
I did a shootout of about 50 different compressors on a kick drum and also an 808 both set at -18dBfs. I set all compressors as identically as possible: with slowest attack, fastest release. 1dB of gain reduction. Same ratio.
Then I matched the output of every compressor so they're all at the same exact volume. The sounds of the different compressors were vast. Some choked the lows, some accentuated mids, some reduced highs, etc. Some were very transparent. Some were way punchier than others. Was very interesting. Tested on ATC's in a professionally designed and built, fully treated studio. I narrowed it down to 7 that I'd happily use on any kick, 808, or transient/sub rich material.
did you listen to any music coming through these plugins, or just compare the gain reduction characteristics on the graph from feeding them an impulse or a snare drum hit or something?
this is just test tones. i'll do a video on listening soon
Hardware is a scam too. Those compressors are no different than your stock Reaper compressor. You can match the compressor response curves by using plugin doctor, and the harmonics with a simple distortion plugin. Hardware is a scam from NASA. 😂
and NASA is a scam too (Operation Paperclip)!
But seriously, I actually kind of agree with you but I think hardware offers some benefits in certain situations... extreme example... I want my guitars, guitar amps and pedals to all be hardware. No software guitars for me!
In terms of analogue hardware EQ sounding better than stock plugins... hmmm. I still love working with analogue EQ. But I think you are probably right. I'll get on the case at some point and do THE HARDWARE SCAM ha ha
@@APMastering I think your videos really prove what we like about plugins and hardware. We like the curves, we like the non linearities whether they are genuine or not. We like the character. Can we do this with stock plugins? Perhaps with a lot of work, and time, or just get the plugin and use it. I think your titles are clickbaity, and these plugins are not a SCAM as you say. It just proves with enough time, and effort, we can get the same sound from tools we already have. But this is like building a house with a hammer, nails, and a hand saw. You can build a house with those tools, but a nail gun, table saw, etc can get it done faster and easier.
@@APMastering About the guitars... Why can't you simulate a guitar amp, pedal, etc with stock plugins from Reaper or Fabfilter Total Bundle? Maybe guitar amps, pedals are scams too?
don't want to be a smart arse at all but i actually love framing and carpentry and one of my favourite framers who passed away but has great instructions videos which you can find on yt always used to use a hammer to frame houses. watching him work was something else. but point taken and i agree to a certain extent but in the case of my eq videos for example, i can dial in the sound i want in 2 seconds and using the modelling plugs takes much longer so i'm actually wasting my time with the so called time saving plugins
Some hardware is scam (the one that uses cheap circuitboards and generic components) and sells it at inflated prices. But actual analog hardware built with quality components is not a scam. It's certainly overpriced as well, but not a scam. The interaction of real life physical components is really impossible to recreate in every nuance algorithmically.
I’d love a follow up where you post samples of how the comps sound next to each other when they measure the same
Matching the gain reduction curve is only part of the equation. Especially if you want to nail analog sound (as opposed to generic digital compression), you need to model the saturation as well. Not just static saturation, but actual state dependent saturation!
i'm not interested in saturation since if i wanted distortion i'd add it as a discrete process. i understand many other people want that and that's fine but i'd rather control it myself
@@APMastering That's fair. But your claim (as I understood it) was based on the premise that analog modelling compressors are a scam, since they can easily be replicated with generic "benchmark compressors" like Pro-C or your AP Comp.
Yet, you only prove that the gain reduction curve can be approximated with generic tools, while failing to prove that the other main component of analog emulations can be reproduced: the non-linear, state-variable saturation behaviour!
sure. the way I see it, a compressor does gain reduction. if it happens to have additional bundled unspecified mystery distortion, that's maybe something other people care about but I'd rather not have that at all and control it from a separate plugin, or have knobs for that saturation so it is overt and no longer mysterious and untweakable. Now, I COULD add more features like saturation and then we'd have an improved general benchmark compressor where we can model saturation of other units but ive got to draw the line somewhere, I can't put my day job aside for a year to make a free plugin
@@APMastering I'm not referring to your plugin, but to your claim. Your fail to prove the point that analog emulation compressors are obsolete. Instead of replicating their sound, you only replicate (not even accurately in some instances) one aspect of their sound: their gain reduction curve. You fail to prove that you can also easily replicate the rest of the equation, the harmonic distortion. Without replicating saturation / harmonic distortion, you are missing a crucial aspect of what makes an analog emulation an analog emulation.
So you should rather say: "I can match the gain reduction curve of analog emulation compressors" as opposed to "I can replicate the sound of analog emulations". You don't replicate their sound, you are only approximating one aspect of the sound. So you only finished 50% of your assignment.
@@whawha9016dude it's a youtube video i can't do everything. if you want to pay me a million dollars to spend a year developing the greatest compressor of all time, with 100 knobs that nobody is able to use, i'll take you up on that. otherwise, that's all i've got for this video 😂
This is another landmark video I'm going to be having virtually all of my students watch. Amazing analysis!
be sure to watch part 2 though, this is only the first part and is oversimplified
@@APMastering I did, actually before making the comment!
You're right, the issue of how compressors deal with different frequency ranges is very hard to quantify. It could be argued that's what gives them their "character".
The reason this will be essential to showing my students is so that I can help them understand the underlying principles of compression.
nice one 😎
Like your previous claim, I find this to be too hyperbolic and cynical. I think there are developers out there that WOULD scam its customers if they thought they could get away with it, but the vast majority are geeks, nerds and audio enthusiasts who I genuinely believe try to make better sounding and innovative products. It would be shortsighted to simply make an attractive gui and shove in a freebie algo, you would ruin your reputation and destroy your business overnight to try.
From personal experience, I go to various compressors regularly and for certain sonic diversity, I can’t say how your testing model is flawed, but my intuition is you must be missing something, this wouldn’t make sense to me.
i agree with most of what you wrote and my video is oversimplifying but i will add more nuance in future videos
Thank you,Alain, for the time and effort you've put into this subject. I've allways trusted my ears over some fixed complex algorithm, in regards to digital compressors, equalizers e.t.c. My approach to recording music is: If it's a studio productions with a band, record it live in three takes. In regards of mastering: NO AUTOMATION and NO AUTOTUNE. To me, music is a vibe,created by human beings and no amount of plug-inns or AI's can replace it. I dig your aproach to plug-inns and looking forward to use your compressor.@Old School
While I agree that most of these plugins with their fancy GUIs are hype, there is something to be said about familiarity. I have collected way too many plugins (more than I like to admit) but through the process I landed on about 5-6 compressors that end up on most of my tracks. I know what moves to make to get the sound I want to hear. Sure you can make a free compressor and use a tone generator to mimic one of the big time compressors, but it seems like you will be constantly hunting down whatever "magic" curves their plugins make. I'm not saying your video is wrong but I can say there is a reason why I do prefer the few compressors I like. It's all good to discuss and be critical of anything on the market!
Not speaking for him, but I believe the point he’s trying to make is that one free compressor can do the work of many many expensive plug ins, which are artificially limited in their range and scope to appeal to familiarity and also brand loyalty. The same can be said about a lot of instruments frankly. Bottom line here is that all he’s gotta do is add some preset capabilities to his free plug in and you’d basically have every compressor plugin on the market with just a click for the price of free 99.
i do and don't agree. i agree IF you aren't intimately familiar with a "benchmark" compressor and can dial in any vibe in 2 seconds, and as there aren't that many benchmark style compressor plugs, that can't really be expected, but given such a benchmark, everything would be possible quickly with a single plug
@@APMastering I love the discussion and I’m certainly all ears when it comes to trimming up my plugin manager. Lol. Certainly this topic would be very helpful for the young ones starting to record on their own. I already have some regrets in terms of duplication with functionality in my compressors folder.
@@marksaxon simplify your decision process by only keeping the 5-6 that you use frequently and remove the others.
@@atilavictorio I'm basically heading in that direction. Every week I slowly look at the my plugin manager and weed out the ones that I haven't opened in 6 months. Maybe not delete but remove them from my favorite folders. As a fun exercise, I went through my compressor fav folder and picked out 8 that are must haves but then it left about 20 others off the list. Lol.
It's not ugly; it's simply useful. The beauty is in the numbers within, not in the UI
I did think those fancy interfaces and the lack of range in the parameters was kinda sus
Thank you for making this
That haircut has a hysteresis curve!
Also, yes. In the box sound is pretty much a commodity these days. The amount of guff spoken about how guitar amp modellers almost but not quite match the real thing, for example. After 20+ years of this, I find it boring. Modellers do their job perfectly and can get amazing guitar sounds the equal of even the best amp setup. I still use an amp, however. Because playing into an amp ‘feels’ better while I’m playing, even if it doesn’t give a better sound when playing back. Same with compressors and eqs. I came up with a lot of outboard, even plenty of valve stuff like Pultecs and Fairchilds. 1176s were our standard outboard when we weren’t using the SSL with its own channel dynamics. Now, saturation makes a difference, no question but apart from that, the only thing that makes a real difference is workflow. User interface, user experience. And that can’t be underrated.
I don’t use external rack gear anymore but the interface is important to me. When you’ve used an 1176 a thousand times, having an interface where making the same tweaks I would have made on the physical box (and getting the same results) is important. And for stuff that doesn’t rip off physical equipment, the design, location, type of knobs/faders, metering etc., is very important to me.
enjoy the haircut while it lasts! Part ii will feature a new hair character... warmer, more assertive, engaging, clear, open, transparent, exceptionally clean with a sparkle imparting an air of fairy dust.
in terms of hardware vs software, guitars are the most extreme example. no matter how good the Japanese make high end realistic dolls, I will chose my wife every time ha ha.
What about the harmonic content induced by these compressors ? Do they have the exact same response to a signal ? People are looking for color as much as gain reduction in a compressor, which is odd tbh since we have dedicated saturators these days. But still, do all these compressors sound the same to your ears ?
stay tuned for part ii
Yes... can absolutely confirm this from my side. The best thing is to ask pros if they blindfolded can hear the difference between hype expensive and free... and they can not or are sometimes favoring the free version. (me included) its the fancy interface that draws us in.. i quitted Ozone Subscription because i checked their plugs and found better substitutes!!! one example is ozone low end focus... i analized it and got the Pro MB dialed in and sounds much much better. I dont buy over 20-40 bugs of any plug because of that. For example Goldclip.. can be replaced easy with lots cheap or free options. For the mojo (because its not only the eq or envelope) you can use Satutation distortion or any coloring you want. Thanks for speaking out and reviewing this. I will check your compressor and see your other videos😊
i think specifically chosen plugs are the way to go. some people download 1000 cracked plugs and then have everything but don't know how to use anything
So with all this in mind, what about the "analog" characteristics added by a particular plugin? Do you happen to know if that part can also be replacated using a saturation plugin?
yeah just use a distortion plug. that's all it is mostly but just bundled in a hard coded way
I'm still waiting on someone to explain to me how one compressor plugins can differ **so** much from another when they're both being made from 0's and 1's lol.
If ALL plugin comps/EQs etc etc had the same GUI, the only difference I can see being drastic is attack and release times and how they respond... Stock comps rule... but 3rd party vendors don't want you to know that.
stay tuned for part 2, will explain this!
Im curious about how this reacts compared to the sidechain shapes in the api2500 for example, dont the compressors react different to different material and thats why we use different ones?
Yes... you can do all sorts of things. You can EQ the side chain or do preemphasis EQ. You can trigger dub delay and Bob Marley samples if the detector circuit identifies reggae. If you can code, or build circuits, and have an imagination, you can do anything you want.
We make plugins and would like to team up. Our representative has already contacted you, hopefully we can get some more skeptical, reason based movement going.
to do a LUT compressor? that would be wild.
@@APMastering are you getting my emails?
You think Fruity Wave shaper or even the wave shaper in Maximus(FL studio) would be that "drawing curve you're talking about?
i don't have fruity but if it's a waveshaper then probably not. it's more complex for a compressor lut
Great series and appreciate the effort. I have a question since im not that experienced, does the "flavor" of an analog emulation plugin , weither is compression or eq, by the function options or the way it saturates the signal based on what hardware its designed? Because in that term there shouldn't be a need to have all those different options on the hardware world either, right ?
a lot of hardware is designed NOT to saturate
@@APMastering just trying to understand whats the purpose of having different models weither are plugins or hardware if everything is the same
@@constantinranis there are many different flavours of compression, unlike EQ, mostly because of the complexity of the attack curve. But this can be emulated if you know what features to look for. That's why many comps offer different character modes more commonly than EQs
great ideas. I always wanted a graphical editor with nodes to draw in guitar or reverb IRs or tweak the existing ones how I want, removing resonances etc.
bro really said OOPS 😭
I'm amazing to have found a mastering channel that isn't focused on selling shit to me but actually giving useful information and tools to the community. there needs to be more channels like yours
i sell courses but that makes me impartial because i'm not biased to sell through affiliate links
Hey so I wanted to ask you something, you mention on your website that you provide "vinyl files when needed". What exactly are these?
they are slightly quieter files where I take more care with phase and resonances ready for vinyl manufacturing. I dont actually cut vinyl myself because that would be a negative cash flow operation but I work closely with a few studios that do.
@@APMastering thanks for letting me know! im not familiar with vinyl technology, so could you please do a video on mastering for vinyl, showing us stuff we need to take care of?
@@LeChapeauMusic i discuss in my mastering course. i feel like this is a tiny bit niche seeing as a professional mastering engineer would take care of this and its not really the right thing to mess about with if you want a decent 1:1 cut. there's probably way more benefit in improving mixdowns generally than learning more advanced niche mastering stuff but yeah i do discuss it in my course
@@APMastering okay!
Good video. I think the main problem is that so many options can be overwhelmed, expecially for non experienced users. People who learn on their own from TH-cam in many cases don't need to go in depth with why compressor do certain things. They want quick solutions, which is delivered by product discriptions. For example if you want punchy kick - go for 1175 etc. It's so much easier to apply 1175 when someone knows only basics of compression than use a versatile compressor, which can do everything as you showed in the video, but user do not understand how to achieve the desire sound.
So what in that case is better - buy more expensive tool you can use, or get a free or less expensive tool you can't use?
When you are experienced, some kind of ultimate tool can be better, because you know how to dial the knobs but if it is really better? Maybe you prefer to choose 1175 and dial two knobs instead of 13, or whatever because it is quicker solution.
Point is to invest in skill not in equipment. If you can use 1175, ssl compressor etc and you know it well, you achieve great sounds it's OK, you just paid more money to be on that level.
You can either spend more time and gain knowledge how to achieve desire sound with compressors like yours it is ok too.
In this video you proved that compressors do mainly same thing and yes, they are different. You just create tool that can replicate the behavior of many units.
Cheers.
bear in mind, back on the day, most medium and small studios just had a few compressors and that's it. nobody but the most high end studios had fairchilds and 1176s and neve whatever coming out of their ears. and the best records were still made
@@APMastering yeah, of course and that's OK. At the end all we want is good sounding songs not good sounding sound. :)
I just disagree with your statement that all compressors are the same. They all have similar main purpose but they are different and you confirmed it in the video by developing ultra flexible tool first for measure and second for tweaking :)
Your video proves that you can use one tool instead of many. But not proves that all tools (different compresors) do the same thing or sound the same.
You have clearly showed the measures of how every compressor types behaves. There are a slope, which shows how different compressors behaves during specific time period. There are different curves, and that shows that during specific time period different compressors reacts differently and that means sound will be different from one to another that's obvious.
I'd love to have ability to tweak one compressor and go with the sound I want, but for sure I'm on lower level of experience :) Making music, tweaking knobs is fun. At the end joy is what we want from that. Personally I find to be fun look at nice looking interface of some kind hardware emulation I can't afford. It is not my job so I don't need to spend ridiculous amount of money for hardware. Imaging that I have some kind of that studio feeling in my monitor gives me some kind of happiness. I think it matters more than another $ spend for plugins :)
I appreciate your point of view and your will to share your thoughts with people.
Have a good day.
but I didn't say all compressors are the same, Im talking in the video about how they are different in terms of features, time constants etc and finding a benchmark is so hard. I say at the start that they all do one thing (gain reduction). That gain reduction can be quantified and we can theoretically match it.
2:07 I'll never forget this moment
just use whatever you like people
There may be many companies putting out plugins in the most basic form to make a buck, but the notable companies put the work into making plugins model the hardware well. I don’t think these graphs translate the character differences. Anyone can figure this out for themselves. Try a bunch of well rated eqs and compressors and you’ll hear they’re all different.
with EQ, you are pretty much wrong, you can convincingly phase cancel pretty much any EQ because of the physical reality of what EQ does, especially IIR designs. With compressors, you are right that some companies put the work in. Despite me thinking UAD are for the most part overpriced fancy interfaces, they do actually have very clever code under the hood. Keep your eyes peel for part 2 in a couple of days!
rite - but how come I bought the ssl nfuse and it does sound totally different to other compressors - i wanted that snappy ssl sound that everyone goes on about - and it does it , then if i were to use say a fairchild emulation it will not do it
they are using different methods. fairchild is using feedback. i have feedback in my plug but you can get an ssl vca type thing too
As an electrical engineer that did his senior design in signal processing, I find this all kind of amusing.
nice! i've got some interesting projects planned, i'm going to make a "vibe console" at some point and do videos on how to make it. i'm planning to offer PCBs and assembled but i think i'll take a while to get around to it
After watching the video and reading the comments, it becomes clear that author believes compression and saturation are different "bundles" and should be handled by different plugins. Therefore, compression plugins are a scam because their dynamics processing can be easily matched WHEN ALL OTHER SONIC IMPACTS OF THESE PLUGINS ARE REMOVED FROM THE EQUATION. But it is these other sonic impacts that so often draw people to one compressor over another--whether in the hardware domain or the software domain. We reach for an 1176 for what it does to dynamics AND for the color it imparts AND for its ease of use. Right? It has a sound that we like and can dial in quickly. It is far more reasonable and efficient to simply reach for that tool and move on than to try to match its dynamics behavior with a digital compressor AND THEN try to match its color with a saturator. Does anyone need five different 1176 plugins? Hell no. Should they have one good one? Absolutely. And the same goes for the other tried and tested compressors. They're not a scam. They're tools for doing a job, and the tools that help engineers get the sonic results they want faster are the better tools.
keep your eyes peeled for part 2 in a few days
@@APMastering My eyes are peeled...
@@WisdomHouseCreative CAPS for sore eyes
I have been playing with a spectral compressor, and i believe that yhe sonable/focusrite algos use spectral compression. Do these still fit into the square shaped hole ?
probably not. will discuss way more in my next vid
also, I mention in this video that its single band downwards compression that I'm discussing.
haha, no they arn't the same. Also they totally are often different some are similar for sure but no there are different compressors. Like compressing with my SSL 4000G strip includes dynamics filter and eq, is different from my LA2A, silver they have a HP filter section on them maximus has 3 band eq section and other stuff, some has side chaining, the list goes on and on, so no they totally arn't he same. Some have totally different styles of gain reduction filtering, and banding, etc..
Im not sure you watched the vid. I spend a lot of it talking about feature richness of different compressors.
Funny. I had come to the same conclusion quite some time ago. I have a real Compex which I know well, and plugin models of it, which sound different. But they don't sound different to each other. I have found I can use almost any compressor plugin and get a good sound out of it. It's still easier to reach for a plugin model that I know will quickly get what I want... and I like what hardware does better, at times.
AP Mastering Continously Variable Convexity Compressor is the best compressor.
ha ha. maybe not but it was fun to develop
And now we wait … solid video man!
Scam is the closest word to the truth 🙏🏻
Just curious how would a Hardware compressor may fit in with them tests? Be interesting to see the differences !
Excellent channel !
i will do hardware at some point but most of my hardware is weird bespoke stuff so id need to literally go out and buy stuff
I love your approach of being curious and simply testing things out! I remember struggling with much simpler concepts and finally understanding them after doing a small experiment in my DAW or creating a Max MSP patch for it.
I still think it is okay to have multiple compressor plug-ins for "different" needs installed, as long as you know how and when to use them and that they help you achieve your goal quicker. The same way I could build a ton of creative plug-ins with "builders" such as BIOME or Enrage, but in the flow of creativity prefer much more to grab a ready to use tool than create my own just for a quick effect. :)
sure. its a workflow thing. I will discuss workflow in the next instalments of this series
1:10 what is this Attack Release Measuring Tool? It seems like Blue Cat's but I'm not sure.
CMT. some dude made a plugin to measure his analogue compressors. i'm stealing his idea but making it higher res
@@APMastering thank you
Can't wait for you to do the noise gates 😂
I like the UBK-1 from Kush Audio a lot. Gets used farily often in my mixes. It is a diverse compressor with some properties not found everywhere. Whatever works for you should be fine. I use the Logic stock compressors very often too. For bus processing I have lately fallen in love with the Sonible smart compressor. It offers spectral dynamic processing and some other features most other compressors do not.
This is golden, I'm definitely nabbing that compressor plugin. Seems like I've been paying way too much 😔
I can't really be bothered with compressors. I don't know what they do let alone how they do it. I've tried stock plugins on drums as I've heard there are good for adding punch on them. They even have presets to make it easier. But to me they just sound a bit louder. What am I doing wrong?
its not about the loudness its about the shaping of the transients. if you record a drum kit with room mics and then listen to those dry, they sound cool, but then compressor those hard with a 30ms attack and 60ms release and they will sound MASSIVE
Paul Third meltdown incoming.
ha ha, i welcome all feedback even from my harshest critics
I love everyone in the comments being like “BUT HARMONIC DISTORTION EXISTS”… bro just because someone decided to load a saturator into your compressor plugin doesn’t mean it’s more valuable. Ableton stock compressor shits on 90% of compressors and they’re actually extreeeemly detailed now and easy to use. If i need harmonic distortion and saturation… i’ll just add a stock saturator on top of it for 0 cost in latency and money.
A compressor is supposed to compress. A saturator is supposed to add harmonic distortion. Just because some plugins have both in one plugin doesn’t mean you aren’t getting scammed.
100% agree.
The whole scam thing was because people were asking me to do the EQ scam thing with compressors, so I did it, but I dont really think there is a "scam" as such.
I have three go-to compressors: Kotelnikov, Molot and DC8C. They don’t model anything specifically, but they’re versatile and I like what they do. I love their work in general.
i like TDR too
Pffffff.... 😁🤣 This is brilliant! 👍😃👍
This gear religiosity when people claim they hear some 3d or similar nonsense, it got out of control.
The worst are those on the Gearsnobs forum, it is impossible to grasp that amount of nonsense. 😃
Great video, thanks. 🖖
Very few manufacturers are going to actually study and map all the dynamics of every electrical component in an actual analog compressor, and then build a custom mathematical model of the same. As we suspected, they copy some basic compression approaches in the digital domain and slap fancy graphics over the same rebadges.
Compression has to be the most taboo ‘musical’ device and term used in 2024 (and way before it)
Compression is basically COMPRESSION and can be achieved using stock plug ins or purchased (the listener doesn’t care or even notice) ,people always want the ‘next’ best thing and those well pocketed devs know this and just make HUGE amounts from the idiocy of the human mind (I’ve been guilty of this)
Obviously its usage is important as it can make a great track sound really great in the right hands yet at the end of the day it’s just simply ……compression !
Great song writing with natural talent is what counts before all the technical values should be even considered
Do you even notice compression yourself on your favorite songs ,maybe I’m wrong - but I don’t !
I just migrated my studio PC to Linux and ditched my entire Waves library in favor of stock, JS plugins, and a few choice free plugins. The only thing I'll pay for nowadays are drum libraries and plugins like Sketch Cassette.
cool. if there's demand i'll compile my plug for linux too
@@APMastering Would be cool as heck if you did, but it likely runs just fine in WINE via Yabridge.
Plug-in marketing always felt slimey to me. After looking into how plug-ins were made, I had a hunch this was the case. Great video and great explanation.
I can't agree, Shadow Hills changed the way I push sounds like never before
Why can't you use phase cancellation? In theory if you compress two signals exactly the same way and invert one they should cancel out? Also are some compressor add tonal colours like with an eq and some do also add saturation?
100% correct, however phase cancelation is too much of a sensitive test and you will never get anything to null... if you had the exact same plugin twice but without any labels/pointers on the knobs, you would struggle to get it to null. It's just impossibly hard. That's why the video was so difficult to produce both conceptually and doing the actual work for it.
Saturation is a bundled feature when it comes to digital. It's separate code. Separate feature. I'd rather apply that with a dedicated plugin rather than getting unspecified mystery distortion.
@@APMastering I think a null test would still be insightful just to see what the delta between the compressors actually is after accounting for the envelope
i can take another look but when i did this before the delta was massive
My man, doing the lord’s work. Thank you :). I hope someone can help you build a graph based compression plug in.
thanks, I've already had a couple of developers show some interest, let's see what happens! 😀
My question is, how much of the actual resul is given by just the volume envelope? I believe that the compression colors do not depend only by the way the volume changes, but also how the frequencies change over time, distortion, etc.
stay tuned for part 2!
The frequency response of the internal sidechain also plays a big part in a compressors sound
sure, you can eq the side chain input. i could make an EQ in the feedback loop but i think the plugin will do for now
Pretty much the video proves the matching of compressor action, not tonal differences. In other words there is a difference in the action of a LA-2A vs API 2500. But either way a line and a curve is a line and curve and can always be represented digitally if the math is permitted. The takeaway here is simplifying the compressors you need based on the level of control and action you want instead of buying the same thing twice or thrice… which many of us have done
exactly but it is a bit more complicated than that and I will reveal all in part 2, will upload I think tomorrow :-)
Pretty interesting. That makes sense because to me its hard to hear a difference if at all between most compressor VST i think its pretty sheep wool too, i mean they work but majority of them sound the same.
I guess it falls into the realm of conformation, meaning that anything is confined inside a set or parameters, you basically sum this up with the plotting on the graphs.
Eg a car has 4 wheels that will never change you could put 8 wheels on a car but it still acts like most cars. The car with 8 wheels will not radically change anything about it other than it has 4 extra wheels.
Like they all have to work within the confunds / paramters to be considered as "Compressor" Any thing else past that, that any given "Compressor" is doing is extra and outside the basis of "Compressor".
Digital would be more static than Physical hardware so i guess its somewhat snake oil when ppl say oh this digital VST sounds drastically different than this other one. Majority of the time imo they all sound the same but some offer more fine tuning than others.
You’re not right.
I tried everything and nothing sounded as cl 1b.
I think same with la2a and 76 but at least they have more emulations.
cl1b is opto. just has a different curve. a vactrol isn't a magical component built by Santa's elves. it's just an LED glued to a photo resistor.
I'm enthusiastically waiting for the day, when you focus your attention on guitar pedals 😂
i love guitar pedals but there's a lot of crap because it's probably the lowest barrier to entry in the world of electronics
👍Very nice Alain! Thanks for all the hard work on this. Not knowing how all these emulations "get there", all we have is the knob and our ears. With your work, and at the very least, we can see what makes them different and why we might want to use one type over another in our mixing DAW.
I am also an engineer, but I am coming from the hardware engineering side and would love to be able to "debunk' or confirm these emulations. I've been thinking of starting a new channel to compare plugins too. You have a good head start, and a younger mind, I might add.
id love to see any video where you compare the hardware to the plugin emulation and some of the tools for that could be my analyser but also plugin doctor and eq curve analyser
@@APMastering Thanks for the response. Your tools certainly will be a welcome resource. The gap is too large for me right now for real hardware comparisons without sponsors, so that will have to wait.
Would you agree that some type of compression are easier / faster to dial on some types of compressors ?
some compressors have less parameters, in which case that is faster than those with many parameters. However, if you have one decent plugin which you know well enough, you will be faster dialling in a compression sound (less than 10 seconds) rather than twiddling knobs on a bunch of different ones not knowing exactly what you are doing
@@APMastering but even with the most versatile compressor, let's say yours, you wouldn't be able to achieve all types of compression. As other says, it lacks saturation, program dependency, but also soft knee, upward compression, RMS size. My point is not that I cannot achieve SSL type glue with my stock reacomp, but it will be faster and easier to use an SSL bus compressor emulation, and I may get better results, or at least, differents one.
And you don't need to spent money to have these emulations. TDR labs, Analog Obsession and Variety of sound are already making so much of great ones, it's too much for me to handle them all. Single analog emulation with no extra feature and over let's say 50$ are, indeed, scams.
Similar reasoning apply to eq.
i disagree. there is no such thing as sn ssl sound. what you mean is probably a moderate slew with a low thd amplifier. you can easily do this kind of sound with a sufficiently advanced compressor. in terms of eq, if you have pro Q or something similar, there's absolutely no need to use another and there's no benefit for sound if you know how to use it. for very distorted compressed tones, you can add distortion to your compression. i don't see the problem
@@APMastering @APMastering what I mean by "SSL type glue" is the sound of a G series SSL compressor with slow attack, fast release, ratio on 2 to 4, applying 1 to 4 db of gr. What does it mean exactly in technical terms ? Iirc, it's peak compression, attack is about as claimed by the knob, but release is program dependant. If I want this sound in reacomp, I could match the settings, including reducing the RMS window to peak, maybe save this as a preset, and have similar thus very good results but the release may still differ (and I'll argue release is critical in master/bus compression). Then if I want to tweak it the scaling won't be appropriate and I may take my time to fine tune it. With the free emulation buster by analog obsession, this sound is three clicks away, and the scaling and/or program dependency make the plugin hard to sound bad. + I don't want to go to deeply into technical details while mixing, I may just happen to want some "glue compression ". So, master/bus compression is a perfect exemple where your video would not convince me to reach for my favorite (free) emulation. But at least you convinced me to try to do SSL type glue with reacomp, I'll see if I get close.
About saturation, well now I'm doubtful, so I'm waiting for your next video. But I'm pretty confident that some analog es emulations plugins provide some saturations that are different from external full band saturation. (Like TDR slick eq or graph hack by analog obsession).
About interfaces, I am not quite getting your point. Would you agree that a plugin interface impact how easy and how fast it is to dial ? Not only prettiness or skeumorphism, but more importantly size and position of knobs, scaling, etc.
Have you saved the various compressor type settings as presets??? Would be awesome.
no, i don't care about presets. that's not capturing the essence of my plugin.... i'll explain in part 2! 😀
could it do the eventide compressor tho?
dunno, download the plugs and find out! :-)
Hi, your giving a comp plugin out, how do I get one? I dont see info on your site
i give the email in my video
Everything’s a scam now.
😂
A LA2A sounds totally different than a 1176, than a DBX160, than a Fairchild, than a PRO-C2. I mostly use the PRO-C2. But if I want color I use emulations. Often without compressing but driving the input.
then why not just use a distortion plugin? The LA2A for example has two knobs, one is overdrive gain, the other is compression. Just use an overdrive. I show exactly this in part 2.
@@APMastering I do. But compressors gives me extra flavours. They have their own sound.
Ooooooooh you killing it 😂🔥🔥🔥🔥
Thanks for the measurement tool AP.
Is this taking any harmonic or distortion character into account?
i discuss in part 2
Good effort on a challenging topic indeed. And interesting plug-in you made too.
Have you checked the TBT CENOZOIX compressor by Plugin alliance? It has an overwhelming amount of options , it's ridiculously tweakable.
no haven't seen that
What I hear in this video, approximation, matching, until it hits some wrongly interpreted psychoacoustic thresholds of human hearing limits, or graphs will look “pretty close”. Also wrong statement about “eq sound the same”. You failed to answer on my questions about my experiments regarding analog modeked pultec eq’s. Gaining popularity using loud pseudoscience claims seems is popular tactics nowadays
I literally get hundreds of comments on my videos and so although right now I'm still attempting to reply to most of them, I can't reply in extreme detail and thoughtfulness to every comment. Either I give you a quick reply or I don't reply at all. I dont know what it is you talked about before but I am not wrong about EQ. if you fail an ABX test, I dont care whatever else you say, that's all that matters.
@@APMastering in case of waves pultec we found that null test results not the complete silence, cancelled only around 36 db, while there -37 db left still what scientifically this doesn’t means the both signals are equal. Also I want to point on analysis tools you use. What averaging is been applied when you compare graphs? There is also the precision aspect. Bevause distribution of amplitude values are not allways gaussian, it can have two most frequent or more values. This called multimodal distribution of magnitude per frequency. What for human hearing is more significant. See distribution types, and regular arithmetic averaging in case of multimodal distribution will give not very precise value. That’s why I’m saying your claims are not very correct. No doubts that filter itself can’t have “sound “. Two eq filters with the same filter type will affect the signal equally. But you have very strong claims that analog modeling is a scam, while there in these plugins are more than just filters, like in pultec eq, there’s a tube simulation which adds harmonics.
I do own several software compressors but only because the best value for money is to buy plugins as collections or packs and they’re always part of the sale. The only compressors I actually use are the fab filter ones, sonible’s smart comp for a quick starting point, or the stock Nuendo/steinberg one that’s built into my DAW of choice :)
I don’t agree, some have colors some not. A LA2 is different from a 1176, if you don’t hear it …
i didn't say all compressors sound the same
@@APMastering So where is the Scam ? I recently tried the 3 versions of UAD LA-2A for a drum group, each one is so different for example. A simple case is the Logicpro comp, switching between diff versions with the same settings …
Man but what about the harmonics? The eq curves inside those compressors? The way they shape the sound beyond attack/release?… I still have my own doubts but thanks for the effort! 🙏🏻
part ii coming soon!