I've added affiliate links to the video description. If you make a purchase using these links I'll get a small commission, and you'll be helping to encourage more such videos in future.
And so I shall. I know this video is a bit old now but you've finally sold me on it. Was on the fence for a while. Love your videos. You sold me on the Tokyo Dawn stuff many moons ago and I still love them. Cheers! And happy new year!
I've been a Satin user since it launched. A few years ago a friend asked me to help him transfer some 16 track 2" multitrack tapes from a session originally done at the legendary Rudy Van Gelder studios in Englewood, NJ back in 1972. I just happen to have a 16 track 2" Scully machine. So he was excited that I could help him. The problem was that the tapes had dbx Type I NR on them. My machine came with 16 channels of dbx Type I NR but only eight were working. Enter Satin, which had just come out at the time. I transferred the tapes into my computer raw and then applied the decoding in my DAW. It worked perfectly. Thanks for the great video on companders. They are fun to play with and I agree that no other plug-in offers that functionality, as far as I know.
I have a beloved 16 track master recorded with dbx NR. I’d about given up ever being able to revisit it when I found a facility with the same Otari MX70 1” format. Sadly though, no NR fitted. Q: Can you recommend I try Satin to decode it? It would be a longtime dream to revive that extraordinary session. One of those where the band was magic and everything went perfectly.
Years on, still a great video! Companding is part of my Steely Dan simulator chain. Only problem is once engaged, it then takes 6 months just to dial in the hi-hats… Satin is great. Beyond this, I’ve managed to put together a very good take on the Dolby Cat 45 dialog smashers/unsmasher we used for film mixing. Thanks again, Dan.
Dan. In the first damn minute of this video you've given me a Eureka moment. I've been at a music studio to try using analog gear, in my early training in audio engineering, I've never understood why compression was so prevalent in general, but particularly why the owner of that music studio kept telling me to always apply 2 or 3 dB of compression when recording any kind of drums. I understood that you (almost) always apply some compression anyway in order to get the sounds to sit nicely in the final mix, and that it's very rare that you don't apply any compression at all, particularly in a rock context. I had accepted this idea as a rule of thumb for recording while keeping in mind the targetted shape of the signals for a final mix. But you've reminded me of a day I've never known (at least, I never took interest in audio engineering in that day because I was a small child): recording to analog tape. And now finally I understand that anyway a compressor is required simply to not hit analog tape too hard. And this was probably where this audio engineer who was training me was getting his habit from (he is an older guy), and I couldn't understand why he recorded this way since it looked to me he was sending his signal to a great AnalogDigitalConverter anyway and probably could record his takes clean in ProTools. And now even more I understand why people rave so much about analog compressors and how important they are, and I also understand even more that when you are working with these restrictions, you are forced to keep your signals within a more constrained dynamic range. I have the opposite issue: being a digital kid, I have so much dynamic range I struggle to find the right balance for my signals that tend to come in and out of the mix if I'm not being careful. I know all of this sounds super obvious, but because I've never seen a recording studio digital tape in my life and never experienced the hassles of analog recording of the old days, I never put 2 and 2 together, for me tape is an effect, not a medium. And finally, now that I've had this eureka moment, I'd like to try to do a mix by applying tape emulation on every track, as an exercise in discovering how mixing with these restrictions in dynamic range can maybe train my ears to get used to their sound, and later mix without tape emulation but with my ears attuned to what a sensible dynamic range is, for a classic record.
The compander + saturation trick is incredible. It sounds nuts, because you can absolutely crush the sound and still get the dynamics. I love to hear that kind of sound in recordings (arctic monkey's AM, for example) and I had no idea how to get it. Thank you so much !
That piano sound you chose as the background music at the start is one of the best ones i've ever heard. Heavy yet filigree, a smooth shape with a deep reaching foundation
Thank you Dan. U-he Diva, Bazille, Zebra, Ace, Hive are all great but my absolute favorite from them still is Satin. I enjoyed a lot to step a little deeper into this amazing plugin. I'd be glad if some day you maybe do a video about Presswerk too :)
They gave older recordings a nice "pump" that brought vocals out but in modern music, where the snare and kick are usually loudest, they don't quite sound as good. But if you want a great example of companders at work, "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney had one prominently in its final mix process because of how worn the tape was from recording in a humid, hot studio in Africa. Very "pumpy" mixes but still musical.
Comparing recordings from the early 70s with others through the middle and up to late 70s is like a time capsule of compression/expansion being used in more and more ways at once. One that caught my ear in this regard was Hawkwind's Levitation album from 1980. Heavy (yet rather transparent) compression of tape mixed to 2-ch digital master.
Great tip! Satin helped me out a great deal when I was transfering analog recordings made using dbx noise reduction. Bypassing tape and EQ and just using the decoder made it possible to enjoy the recoding once again. Great plugin!
We just recently purchased some Dolby A cards with their Cat 360 units and oh boy, it is such a lovely effect. I used it onto tape encoding as part of the mastering process and decoding back into pro tools. I can’t wait to start using it on individual tracks soon too in a session. We also modded one card so we can individually bypass the 4 bands for some cool exciter effects. Great video, more engineers should know about this technique! Great watch as always :)
That True Iron plugin is terrific. Thanks for this. Very informative. It would be nice if U-He released some mini plugins with just these processes. A simple compander plug would be amazing!
Every Time Dan Worrall speaks: *My mind blown* edit: I was literally trying to find some way to tame my distortion on a filter I had in my reason rack just last night and I couldn't find a transparent enough distortion to properly overdrive my filter
OMG Thank you! I ALREADY love my SATIN plugin, but DAMN 🤯 ...I'm even MORE madly in love with it NOW 🤔 You've opened up an entire Arsenal of NEW WAYS to contour dynamics in my tracks 🤩 I've been a fan of your tutorials for a while, but this SERIOUSLY has made me look @ ALL my Plugins with NEW EYES. You are one Hell of a FIND against the Ceaseless Ocean of Bad/Mediocre/Just Dead Wrong sound design Instruction on TH-cam. Respect! 😎👍⚡💥
I've learned a lot, even after recording/producing for 20+ years, from the You Tube Producer's Ball, as I call it. But boy... there is a lot of garbage at the Ball, more than a majority is garbage, so much parrotting of advice, much of which is bad! A lot. Still, these kids these days... if I had access to all this instruction (and all these tools) in my formative years, I might have actually been good! When I look back at how long I pressed on, not knowing anything... *facepalm* with no access to quality gear/sound... I am envious of these later generations. BUT STILL, that older music from the peak of the analog era... it still just sounds so much better than all of today's wizbangery, a lot of which actually leans towards painful... compared to that golden honey sound of The Day. I think it has more to do with soul/spirit/mindset, than tools though...
Oh, I got distracted in my historical recollections, I replied here to say that Dan is the master of the Ball. He is holding the veil aside for anyone who wants to peer into the workings of our contemporary tools, and in the observation of the machinations of how sound is processed in these plugins, understand better and more fundamentally (without getting into code) the base concepts of sound engineering with the benefits, then, of tips, tricks, and hard earned knowledge of how to exploit the capabilities of our plugin tools. What a don this Dan is.💯💜
Holy moly, thank you soo much for this excellent video. You got me totally excited about using this with Decapitator (I absolutely love this saturation plugin)
I was 8 years old (now 55) already experimenting with this. Now later I still use these techniques but for FM clipping pre emphase for the endstage clippers in the play automatization, I use this plugin before it hits a leveler, but it adds some warmth in the digital DSP's for FM. My secret blackbox you could say. Love this stuff, Dan, thanks again!
Wowwww…. Back in the days when this plug in was released, I used Satin only a couple of time and decided to use another tape emulation with less options. This video is a gift, i will give another try soon as possible
Thank you, Dan, for that demonstration. I often use Satin for Lo-Fi productions. But I didn't know all this incredible informations. Thank you very much for that. PS: Could you please enable English subtitles on your videos. I can understand some technical aspects better with subtitles. It's the difference between seeing and hearing when you're not fully bilingual. Thx. :)
Thank you so much. I own satin and new the basics of compansion from reading the manual, but that last trick sounded fantastic. And true iron as well. Been on my very short list of plugins to get for a while but haven't got round to it yet. Even with decapitator it gave a real deep, posh texture to the sound. Cant wait to experiment. Thanks again
Oh man, I think I might have picked the wrong hobby. Add the 2:00 minute section of this video to my ever growing list of 'couldn't hear the difference'! 🤣 Deeply appreciative for all of your excellent insights all the same, as always. Cheers Dan!
Might be time to get your hearing checked professionally, you may have diminished high range sensitivity? I can't believe how good my top end still is after years of abuse..
I don't like that blinking bypass button. At first I was like why the hell is Dan toggling the bypass so rapidly! I realized pretty quick but it still tripped me out every time. I've never seen a plugin do that.
I grew up in the 90's with a cassette in my hand and I have to say that this video enriched me a lot. Although I didn't enjoy it much at first. But the ending is amazing!!! I have to try it. Thanks for the inspiration!
Just love your vids, instalike even tho i dont know what its gonna be about lol Also, Dan speaks in the tempo of the song, and usually a snare is exactly where he stops speaking :)
compress the like button XD really enjoying these videos, i'm a technical oriented person and i like all the detail, it's really helping me understand whats happening to the sounds more than well, i like it with these settings
As a simple solution for saturation inside a compander, there is BoostX by Initial audio (comb-filters when parallel though) and Antares Warm with its Omni tube. For something more (too much?) tweaky, there is Melda's MCompressor or MDynamics where you can design your own compressor in one instance and a mirror expander in another instance and use an emp-deemph technique.
Approached chronologically, the entire decade of the 1970s is an education into more and more compression/expansion/NR. It was the inevitable consequence of multitrack recording going from 2 to 16 tracks in the space of a decade. The higher the track count, the more gates and expansion is needed to manage the (potential) hiss&noise accumulation.
I made many records with Dolby SR. It was nearly miraculous the way it expanded the range of tape with no artifacts whatsoever. When I was using it on the 24 tracks, the machine seemed to disappear. I found myself mixing much more dramatically, using the console like a special fx tool. It’s a bit hard to explain why but I do recall digital machines did the same. The range let me get way more creative and many of my favorite records were SR all the way.
All of this needs to come out in a 15 hour masterclass and I am putting down 100s of monions for it. Thanks Dan...this is the goldmine of audio tutorials :)
I do not understand all of his tutorials, and do not have resources to try much of the techniques in them, but what I have tried works well enough to say this guy is brilliant. I would love to hear his thoughts on Kirchoff eq.
@@InXLsisDeoReelbus models tape compression, but no compander. No companders from Klanghelm or Variety of sound either I'm afraid. But, SDRR my favourite saturation/distortion plugin is from Klanghelm and also sounds amazing in Satin's compander! :)
@@MichaelToddFutureTodd They have an input and output sound too, though. The input sound compresses and the output sound restores the level. Looks like a compander to me.
@@InXLsisDeo They have a makeup knob, which is really just a volume knob post compression, and automatic gain compensation which tries to match the compressed output level to that of the uncompressed output level so your hearing the effect of the compression rather then a volume change, essentially its just setting the makeup gain for you. But, it's not the same as an expander which increases the dynamic range, like the opposite of a compressor.
We still use the Dolby trick. The original Dolby A devices are still banging around quite a few studios because they are still used on vocal chains as a parallel effect (with dry signal mix). But you can recreate the Dolby A device in your daw with some clever busing and eq.
I have to say, I'm sort of doubting my ears after this one. :P I couldn't really hear any major differences between the companders when you were auditioning them over the full mix in the beginning. You said it was a significant difference, but for me it was rather subtle. (although I haven't been working on that mix like you have) There were certainly modes I liked better than others, but none of them sounded blatantly inappropriate or offensive to me. Am I missing something profound and obvious?
A few things to say here: first of all you're right that when you've been working on a mix or a master you're tuned in to notice differences much more acutely. You also need to be listening on a system that can recreate the details well enough. A phone or tablet speaker isn't going to cut it! But also: subtle does not necesarily mean insignificant. The difference between a rough mix and a polished final mix is rarely one magic trick or process, its an accumulation of a thousand little subtle changes that all add up to become a night and day difference (hopefully). So a change can be significant because it takes you a few extra steps on your journey, and those might be the final steps you need to reach your destination. Here's some pointers in case you decide to try again: listen out mostly for the change in the high frequencies when I use the A types. The ride cymbal gets brighter and glossier, and there's more "air". When I switch to the B type listen for a dulling of high frequencies, and softening of the snare. This is the closest to "inappropriate and offensive" to my ears. Uhx type I has a slightly mid scooped character, and is darker than the A types. Uhx type II: fat bass guitar! Enough that I would probably compensate by nudging the fader down on the bass channel...
Oh wow. I actually got everything except the bass guitar, even on the first run through. :) (says a lot about my home monitoring. :P ) Everything you said about significance and subtlety not being mutually exclusive makes sense. Very reassuring. :) Thank you, Dan. I appreciate this.
I used to work for STC and one of the trainers used to drive me nuts by saying "companding" and "decompanding". He was a nice guy and digital telecoms systems were on the way in so I didn't labour the point.
4:00 There's a difference in sound? I swear I'm sitting here swapping between two different HD280s, ATHM40x, SHP9500 and iLoud MTMs and I'm struggling to hear anything significant between the compander modes. Maybe my ears are really and truly shot after 30 years of abuse.
This was an eye opener for me. A plugin that can do the all time Dolby cassette trick :-) (and a lot more!). I would have expected this to be in Wavesfactory Cassette, which I bought after watching your video, but it wasn't. At least the Dolby-B trick from the consumer machines. I pointed them to your video :-). Just curious what you can do with the lower part in the interface, especially the playback head. Can it be used as a tape echo?
You can use satin as a tape delay, but not using the bottom section, it has a dedicated mode for that with up to four playback heads for multi taps. Also a dedicated flanger mode. The bottom section is for tweaking stuff like bias, azimuth, noise and asperity and so on. If you want an authentic cassette style Dolby B trick you could use Satin's encoder followed by Cassette...
Damn, Dan! Forgot to mention how much I *LOVE* the music in this video. Did you RELEASE this anywhere, like SoundCloud or iTunes? I'd LOVE to hear the finished track! Cheers! 😎👍
@@DanWorrall Well damn -- I loved what I heard of it in your video. Too bad it can't be released as an Instrumental till the vocals are done. It basically played in a loop for 20 minutes and I didn't tire of it once. That piece has got some legs, from the drums, bass, & Keys. A great vibe. Thanks for answering 😎👍
did you try this also in reverse? using an expander first and a compressor second? i imagine you could get an even more dynamic type of saturation this way, or a reverb that reacts stronger to loud signals and less to quiet ones!
@@BIG_PASTA as far as i know most reverbs are static, meaning they apply the same amount of reverb to any signal level. i heard there are some dynamic reverb algorithms, but they are rare. maybe it's a stupid idea but i think it could be an interesting effect.
For the expander to precisely match the compressor, the envelope used by the compressor must be derived from its output while the envelope used by the expander must be derived from its input. Otherwise, the envelopes used to control the compressor and expander will not match.
@Dan worrall Hi there Just came across your TH-cam Channel .. hoping to learn some Technics off tutorials like the way you dont rust quickly on to the next thing .
I can't really hear any difference between none and A, the mod starts bringing in tiny changes, and from B its very different to me. Am I supposed to hear a bigger change between A and none?
![งมหอย จับปลา มือเปล่า หาอยู่หากินแบบวีถีอีสานกับแก๊งเซียนหรั่ง ม่วนคัก! [ขอนแก่น] @Sianstudio](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JEJZg6N-AbU/mqdefault.jpg)
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And so I shall. I know this video is a bit old now but you've finally sold me on it. Was on the fence for a while. Love your videos. You sold me on the Tokyo Dawn stuff many moons ago and I still love them. Cheers! And happy new year!
This man is David Attenborough of audio community!
I thought that was loopop
For geeks like ME in the Music / Production /sound design \engineering .. This Guy Dan Worrall Is The GOD Of Audio :P
damn i just wanted to comment that hahahaha , my thoughts exactly spot on !
I literally fall asleep to these videos at night and learn from them during the day 🙃
He makes Attenborough look like a guy who's never even USED a compressor before.
I've been a Satin user since it launched. A few years ago a friend asked me to help him transfer some 16 track 2" multitrack tapes from a session originally done at the legendary Rudy Van Gelder studios in Englewood, NJ back in 1972. I just happen to have a 16 track 2" Scully machine. So he was excited that I could help him. The problem was that the tapes had dbx Type I NR on them. My machine came with 16 channels of dbx Type I NR but only eight were working.
Enter Satin, which had just come out at the time. I transferred the tapes into my computer raw and then applied the decoding in my DAW. It worked perfectly.
Thanks for the great video on companders. They are fun to play with and I agree that no other plug-in offers that functionality, as far as I know.
I have a beloved 16 track master recorded with dbx NR. I’d about given up ever being able to revisit it when I found a facility with the same Otari MX70 1” format. Sadly though, no NR fitted.
Q: Can you recommend I try Satin to decode it? It would be a longtime dream to revive that extraordinary session. One of those where the band was magic and everything went perfectly.
@@artysanmobile yeah, it should work!
I flat out brickwalled and then clipped the like button.
Thank God... that you didn't saturate it....
You're just another soldier in the likeness war. 🙃
Years on, still a great video! Companding is part of my Steely Dan simulator chain. Only problem is once engaged, it then takes 6 months just to dial in the hi-hats… Satin is great. Beyond this, I’ve managed to put together a very good take on the Dolby Cat 45 dialog smashers/unsmasher we used for film mixing. Thanks again, Dan.
Dan. In the first damn minute of this video you've given me a Eureka moment. I've been at a music studio to try using analog gear, in my early training in audio engineering, I've never understood why compression was so prevalent in general, but particularly why the owner of that music studio kept telling me to always apply 2 or 3 dB of compression when recording any kind of drums. I understood that you (almost) always apply some compression anyway in order to get the sounds to sit nicely in the final mix, and that it's very rare that you don't apply any compression at all, particularly in a rock context. I had accepted this idea as a rule of thumb for recording while keeping in mind the targetted shape of the signals for a final mix. But you've reminded me of a day I've never known (at least, I never took interest in audio engineering in that day because I was a small child): recording to analog tape. And now finally I understand that anyway a compressor is required simply to not hit analog tape too hard. And this was probably where this audio engineer who was training me was getting his habit from (he is an older guy), and I couldn't understand why he recorded this way since it looked to me he was sending his signal to a great AnalogDigitalConverter anyway and probably could record his takes clean in ProTools. And now even more I understand why people rave so much about analog compressors and how important they are, and I also understand even more that when you are working with these restrictions, you are forced to keep your signals within a more constrained dynamic range. I have the opposite issue: being a digital kid, I have so much dynamic range I struggle to find the right balance for my signals that tend to come in and out of the mix if I'm not being careful. I know all of this sounds super obvious, but because I've never seen a recording studio digital tape in my life and never experienced the hassles of analog recording of the old days, I never put 2 and 2 together, for me tape is an effect, not a medium. And finally, now that I've had this eureka moment, I'd like to try to do a mix by applying tape emulation on every track, as an exercise in discovering how mixing with these restrictions in dynamic range can maybe train my ears to get used to their sound, and later mix without tape emulation but with my ears attuned to what a sensible dynamic range is, for a classic record.
The compander + saturation trick is incredible. It sounds nuts, because you can absolutely crush the sound and still get the dynamics. I love to hear that kind of sound in recordings (arctic monkey's AM, for example) and I had no idea how to get it. Thank you so much !
It's a combination of a computer and a panda
PANDA OR was that Prada Loll
I laughed way too hard at this than I should.
Hahahaha
your videos are ridiculously informative. edit: hip hop producers have never dialled anything back in our lives XD
That piano sound you chose as the background music at the start is one of the best ones i've ever heard. Heavy yet filigree, a smooth shape with a deep reaching foundation
The music in this video is 👌🏽
Dan's tutorials and lessons sound for me like songs of a band that I love....each video is a new hit...thanks for being that special.
I randomly bought this Korg KEC-42 compander at a shop & I had no idea what it was supposed to do but this video helped a lot
Wtf is a compander + satin + drum mixing tips ( 3 tutorials packaged in ine )
Dan you clarity in explaining things is profoundly unique.
Thank you Dan. U-he Diva, Bazille, Zebra, Ace, Hive are all great but my absolute favorite from them still is Satin. I enjoyed a lot to step a little deeper into this amazing plugin. I'd be glad if some day you maybe do a video about Presswerk too :)
Always excited for more Worrall heat! Bomboclart! Best audio pro vids on TH-cam! Thanks for your great work your videos are so interesting!
you're knowledge is amazing, and your easy way of showing everything makes us plebs able to grasp stuff!!
They gave older recordings a nice "pump" that brought vocals out but in modern music, where the snare and kick are usually loudest, they don't quite sound as good. But if you want a great example of companders at work, "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney had one prominently in its final mix process because of how worn the tape was from recording in a humid, hot studio in Africa. Very "pumpy" mixes but still musical.
Comparing recordings from the early 70s with others through the middle and up to late 70s is like a time capsule of compression/expansion being used in more and more ways at once.
One that caught my ear in this regard was Hawkwind's Levitation album from 1980. Heavy (yet rather transparent) compression of tape mixed to 2-ch digital master.
interesting note, thanks
EMI Studio, Lagos Nigeria '73 (Engineered by My Great Uncle - "ODION IRUOJE")
@@Studio987RecThats awesome
Great tip! Satin helped me out a great deal when I was transfering analog recordings made using dbx noise reduction. Bypassing tape and EQ and just using the decoder made it possible to enjoy the recoding once again. Great plugin!
We just recently purchased some Dolby A cards with their Cat 360 units and oh boy, it is such a lovely effect. I used it onto tape encoding as part of the mastering process and decoding back into pro tools. I can’t wait to start using it on individual tracks soon too in a session. We also modded one card so we can individually bypass the 4 bands for some cool exciter effects. Great video, more engineers should know about this technique! Great watch as always :)
Jealous that I didn’t think of dynamics as another sort of emphasis / de emphasis technique. Really smart.
First subscription on YT....i have been using internet since dial-up modems...Thank You DAN.
That True Iron plugin is terrific. Thanks for this. Very informative. It would be nice if U-He released some mini plugins with just these processes. A simple compander plug would be amazing!
Every Time Dan Worrall speaks: *My mind blown*
edit: I was literally trying to find some way to tame my distortion on a filter I had in my reason rack just last night and I couldn't find a transparent enough distortion to properly overdrive my filter
OMG Thank you! I ALREADY love my SATIN plugin, but DAMN 🤯 ...I'm even MORE madly in love with it NOW 🤔 You've opened up an entire Arsenal of NEW WAYS to contour dynamics in my tracks 🤩 I've been a fan of your tutorials for a while, but this SERIOUSLY has made me look @ ALL my Plugins with NEW EYES. You are one Hell of a FIND against the Ceaseless Ocean of Bad/Mediocre/Just Dead Wrong sound design Instruction on TH-cam. Respect! 😎👍⚡💥
I've learned a lot, even after recording/producing for 20+ years, from the You Tube Producer's Ball, as I call it. But boy... there is a lot of garbage at the Ball, more than a majority is garbage, so much parrotting of advice, much of which is bad! A lot. Still, these kids these days... if I had access to all this instruction (and all these tools) in my formative years, I might have actually been good!
When I look back at how long I pressed on, not knowing anything... *facepalm* with no access to quality gear/sound... I am envious of these later generations.
BUT STILL, that older music from the peak of the analog era... it still just sounds so much better than all of today's wizbangery, a lot of which actually leans towards painful... compared to that golden honey sound of The Day.
I think it has more to do with soul/spirit/mindset, than tools though...
Oh, I got distracted in my historical recollections, I replied here to say that Dan is the master of the Ball. He is holding the veil aside for anyone who wants to peer into the workings of our contemporary tools, and in the observation of the machinations of how sound is processed in these plugins, understand better and more fundamentally (without getting into code) the base concepts of sound engineering with the benefits, then, of tips, tricks, and hard earned knowledge of how to exploit the capabilities of our plugin tools.
What a don this Dan is.💯💜
This was nostalgic, Dolby tape machines, Cassette Decks and the Walkman-s type B trick! 😭
Awesome tutorial once again! Thank You Dan! 🍻
Oh boy ! Dan , you have just sold a Satin licence to me with this video! The best videos on TH-cam!🙏
"How cool is that?!" Indeed - thank you very much for this deep and helpful insight in Satin!
Wow, that made my day, thanks a lot. I've been using this plugin for quite some time and never thought about that, that's excellent !
Holy moly, thank you soo much for this excellent video. You got me totally excited about using this with Decapitator (I absolutely love this saturation plugin)
this guy just makes you want to listen to what he says and do what he does!
Your videos are amazing the best audio demonstrations on youtube.
I was 8 years old (now 55) already experimenting with this. Now later I still use these techniques but for FM clipping pre emphase for the endstage clippers in the play automatization, I use this plugin before it hits a leveler, but it adds some warmth in the digital DSP's for FM. My secret blackbox you could say. Love this stuff, Dan, thanks again!
What an impressive variety of results that plugin can achieve! Added to my wish list.
Wowwww….
Back in the days when this plug in was released, I used Satin only a couple of time and decided to use another tape emulation with less options.
This video is a gift, i will give another try soon as possible
Whoa. I feel like this is going to be a game changer in me getting more lively sound out of drums machines and sequenced percussion parts. Thank you.
Thank you, Dan, for that demonstration. I often use Satin for Lo-Fi productions. But I didn't know all this incredible informations. Thank you very much for that.
PS: Could you please enable English subtitles on your videos. I can understand some technical aspects better with subtitles. It's the difference between seeing and hearing when you're not fully bilingual. Thx. :)
Brilliant. Thank you, Dan!
Thanks so much for this, Dan. I might have just found what I’ve needed for years to decode a dbx multitrack.
First! Thank you Dan! I’ve learned so much about dynamics, phase and eq thanks to you and your work
Thank you so much. I own satin and new the basics of compansion from reading the manual, but that last trick sounded fantastic. And true iron as well. Been on my very short list of plugins to get for a while but haven't got round to it yet. Even with decapitator it gave a real deep, posh texture to the sound. Cant wait to experiment. Thanks again
Sweet baby Jesus, this is pure gold! :) Much love for sharing the knowledge!
Ah yes, the "But Wait, There's More" school of dispensing audio wisdom.
Oh man, I think I might have picked the wrong hobby. Add the 2:00 minute section of this video to my ever growing list of 'couldn't hear the difference'! 🤣
Deeply appreciative for all of your excellent insights all the same, as always.
Cheers Dan!
Might be time to get your hearing checked professionally, you may have diminished high range sensitivity? I can't believe how good my top end still is after years of abuse..
I don't like that blinking bypass button. At first I was like why the hell is Dan toggling the bypass so rapidly! I realized pretty quick but it still tripped me out every time. I've never seen a plugin do that.
uhx type II is my favortie, sounds incredibly smooth and spacious while maintaining optimal detail in the very high & very low end
Never used Satin in any production....but now....i like it!
With the Soundtoys in between, it went all Bonham.
Like button compressed, a brick now, I’d say haha. Great vid as always, keep it up Dan!
I grew up in the 90's with a cassette in my hand and I have to say that this video enriched me a lot. Although I didn't enjoy it much at first. But the ending is amazing!!! I have to try it. Thanks for the inspiration!
Just love your vids, instalike even tho i dont know what its gonna be about lol
Also, Dan speaks in the tempo of the song, and usually a snare is exactly where he stops speaking :)
You never disappoint, Mr. Worrall.
compress the like button XD really enjoying these videos, i'm a technical oriented person and i like all the detail, it's really helping me understand whats happening to the sounds more than well, i like it with these settings
As a simple solution for saturation inside a compander, there is BoostX by Initial audio (comb-filters when parallel though) and Antares Warm with its Omni tube. For something more (too much?) tweaky, there is Melda's MCompressor or MDynamics where you can design your own compressor in one instance and a mirror expander in another instance and use an emp-deemph technique.
Thanks bruv.
Approached chronologically, the entire decade of the 1970s is an education into more and more compression/expansion/NR.
It was the inevitable consequence of multitrack recording going from 2 to 16 tracks in the space of a decade. The higher the track count, the more gates and expansion is needed to manage the (potential) hiss&noise accumulation.
I made many records with Dolby SR. It was nearly miraculous the way it expanded the range of tape with no artifacts whatsoever. When I was using it on the 24 tracks, the machine seemed to disappear. I found myself mixing much more dramatically, using the console like a special fx tool. It’s a bit hard to explain why but I do recall digital machines did the same. The range let me get way more creative and many of my favorite records were SR all the way.
Damn that's a real nice trick with the two instances
I keep watching Dan's videos. I keep buying plugins. I don't have this u-he product, but I might very soon. 😲
Satin is pure love. Such a simple yet powerful tool it's hard to believe at first glance.
As always, thank you Dan!
All of this needs to come out in a 15 hour masterclass and I am putting down 100s of monions for it.
Thanks Dan...this is the goldmine of audio tutorials :)
Really interesting - thanks Dan.
I do not understand all of his tutorials, and do not have resources to try much of the techniques in them, but what I have tried works well enough to say this guy is brilliant. I would love to hear his thoughts on Kirchoff eq.
I'd never tried Satin as I was happy with Reelbus, but you've just persuaded me :)
Well, Reelbus sounds amazing inside Satin's compander!
Reelbus also has the compander too, no ? In any case, a number of Variety of Sound plugins also work like that, as well as Klanghelm MJUC.
@@InXLsisDeoReelbus models tape compression, but no compander. No companders from Klanghelm or Variety of sound either I'm afraid. But, SDRR my favourite saturation/distortion plugin is from Klanghelm and also sounds amazing in Satin's compander! :)
@@MichaelToddFutureTodd They have an input and output sound too, though. The input sound compresses and the output sound restores the level. Looks like a compander to me.
@@InXLsisDeo They have a makeup knob, which is really just a volume knob post compression, and automatic gain compensation which tries to match the compressed output level to that of the uncompressed output level so your hearing the effect of the compression rather then a volume change, essentially its just setting the makeup gain for you. But, it's not the same as an expander which increases the dynamic range, like the opposite of a compressor.
We still use the Dolby trick. The original Dolby A devices are still banging around quite a few studios because they are still used on vocal chains as a parallel effect (with dry signal mix). But you can recreate the Dolby A device in your daw with some clever busing and eq.
Your videos are so informative. Thank you. I don't know if you are payed for this but you should be.
If you subscribe to him, you pay him :)
@@InXLsisDeo not true but definitely helps
13:07 this trick only makes the whole video worth it. Amazing
Definitely gonna experiment with this. Thanks!
By the way, the Audiority LDC2 appears to be a reveered compander plugin. I can't speak to its quality yet though, haven't demo'd it yet
In fact, you deserve my subscription. #subscribed
Thankyou for the support :)
Another great tip! Very creative - thanks so much!
Bit pissed so will need to watch this again :P
Title is spot-on lol
12:43 Yes sir it is!
I have to say, I'm sort of doubting my ears after this one. :P I couldn't really hear any major differences between the companders when you were auditioning them over the full mix in the beginning. You said it was a significant difference, but for me it was rather subtle. (although I haven't been working on that mix like you have) There were certainly modes I liked better than others, but none of them sounded blatantly inappropriate or offensive to me. Am I missing something profound and obvious?
A few things to say here: first of all you're right that when you've been working on a mix or a master you're tuned in to notice differences much more acutely.
You also need to be listening on a system that can recreate the details well enough. A phone or tablet speaker isn't going to cut it!
But also: subtle does not necesarily mean insignificant. The difference between a rough mix and a polished final mix is rarely one magic trick or process, its an accumulation of a thousand little subtle changes that all add up to become a night and day difference (hopefully). So a change can be significant because it takes you a few extra steps on your journey, and those might be the final steps you need to reach your destination.
Here's some pointers in case you decide to try again: listen out mostly for the change in the high frequencies when I use the A types. The ride cymbal gets brighter and glossier, and there's more "air". When I switch to the B type listen for a dulling of high frequencies, and softening of the snare. This is the closest to "inappropriate and offensive" to my ears. Uhx type I has a slightly mid scooped character, and is darker than the A types. Uhx type II: fat bass guitar! Enough that I would probably compensate by nudging the fader down on the bass channel...
Oh wow. I actually got everything except the bass guitar, even on the first run through. :) (says a lot about my home monitoring. :P ) Everything you said about significance and subtlety not being mutually exclusive makes sense. Very reassuring. :)
Thank you, Dan. I appreciate this.
I used to work for STC and one of the trainers used to drive me nuts by saying "companding" and "decompanding". He was a nice guy and digital telecoms systems were on the way in so I didn't labour the point.
Companding also lends the E-mu Emulator II its lovely sampling characteristics.
Roland s-series samplers too like the s770 and s760
they also do emphasis de-emphasis (which Dan covers in another video)
I haven’t seen many demos on a compander.Nice.
Doesn't Abbey Road Saturator have a compander built in as well?
Thanks Dan for the tips
Pristine! Thank you!
This is glorious!
Amazing and very interesting, thanks for share!
Amazing!! Thanks Dan!!
Great stuff, thanks Dan
you sir, are a treasure
I wonder if there are other plugins that have this encoder-decoder thing, just 2 separate plugins, so I can cram my little saturators in between...?
Thanks Dan, I learned a lot
4:00 There's a difference in sound? I swear I'm sitting here swapping between two different HD280s, ATHM40x, SHP9500 and iLoud MTMs and I'm struggling to hear anything significant between the compander modes. Maybe my ears are really and truly shot after 30 years of abuse.
Okay the differences are a lot more evident on the solo-ed drums.
This was an eye opener for me. A plugin that can do the all time Dolby cassette trick :-) (and a lot more!). I would have expected this to be in Wavesfactory Cassette, which I bought after watching your video, but it wasn't. At least the Dolby-B trick from the consumer machines. I pointed them to your video :-). Just curious what you can do with the lower part in the interface, especially the playback head. Can it be used as a tape echo?
You can use satin as a tape delay, but not using the bottom section, it has a dedicated mode for that with up to four playback heads for multi taps. Also a dedicated flanger mode. The bottom section is for tweaking stuff like bias, azimuth, noise and asperity and so on. If you want an authentic cassette style Dolby B trick you could use Satin's encoder followed by Cassette...
Great video has usual. Thanks ;)
Damn, Dan! Forgot to mention how much I *LOVE* the music in this video. Did you RELEASE this anywhere, like SoundCloud or iTunes? I'd LOVE to hear the finished track! Cheers! 😎👍
It's a client of mine, Guy Nottingham, but this song is neither finished nor released. Looks like an abandoned album project at this stage...
Nevermind: @ the end of your video I saw that the music was "fade away" by Guy Nottingham. Was it ever RELEASED as an Instrumental? 🤩🥰
@@shanonkiyoshi4784 its supposed to have a vocal, but it doesn't yet. Maybe he'll come back to it one day...
@@DanWorrall Well damn -- I loved what I heard of it in your video. Too bad it can't be released as an Instrumental till the vocals are done. It basically played in a loop for 20 minutes and I didn't tire of it once. That piece has got some legs, from the drums, bass, & Keys. A great vibe. Thanks for answering 😎👍
did you try this also in reverse? using an expander first and a compressor second? i imagine you could get an even more dynamic type of saturation this way, or a reverb that reacts stronger to loud signals and less to quiet ones!
Whoa. That’s a really. Really. Really cool idea. You’d need two instances of the plug-in because there’s no way to change the order.
@@justingoers if you put another plugin in between you need two instances anyway, don't you? regardles if it is comp->exp or exp->comp
@@fitzeflinger OH! Yes. If you're going to have something in-between you'd need two instances no matter what.
I'm gonna try it out, cool idea! But, in regards to the reverb, isn't that kinda how it works already?
@@BIG_PASTA as far as i know most reverbs are static, meaning they apply the same amount of reverb to any signal level. i heard there are some dynamic reverb algorithms, but they are rare. maybe it's a stupid idea but i think it could be an interesting effect.
Decap style E ftw you know what's up.
For the expander to precisely match the compressor, the envelope used by the compressor must be derived from its output while the envelope used by the expander must be derived from its input. Otherwise, the envelopes used to control the compressor and expander will not match.
@Dan worrall Hi there Just came across your TH-cam Channel .. hoping to learn some Technics off tutorials like the way you dont rust quickly on to the next thing .
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the new Fresh Air based off modding the same Dolby units?
Love Satin... just wish I could afford it right now.
I can't really hear any difference between none and A, the mod starts bringing in tiny changes, and from B its very different to me. Am I supposed to hear a bigger change between A and none?
Super 😁 good song 🎶 GUY NOTTINGHAM - FADE AWAY , wy not on TIDAL?
Insanely good loop.
Can I listen to the whole piece somewhere?
Not finished yet, needs Vocals recording still....
@@DanWorrall I'll do it, just send the tracks! :`)
Good luck with the recording!
@@DanWorrall is it finished? Sounds gorgeous 😊
Thanks Dan!!!