What's your cleanest compressor plug-in?

[philbrown]

Thanks for the heads up on Klanghelm. Never heard of them and the prices are right!

My 2 cents' worth:

Spittiness, IMHO, is epitomised by what T-Racks used to do to the vocal high end back in the early days. This manifested as high-end crunchiness in cymbals. Can't speak for today.

Exactly.

[mikehalloran]

Thanks for the heads up on Klanghelm. Never heard of them and the prices are right!

My 2 cents' worth:

Spittiness, IMHO, is epitomised by what T-Racks used to do to the vocal high end back in the early days. This manifested as high-end crunchiness in cymbals. Can't speak for today.

Exactly.

i think I'm going to be a customer, too.

[Gravity Jim]

I don't know if it's "clean," but my go-to favorite is Waves' R-Comp (Renaissance Compresser). It's transparent, it's easy to set up and does the job.

[philbrown]

I don't know if it's "clean," but my go-to favorite is Waves' R-Comp (Renaissance Compresser). It's transparent, it's easy to set up and does the job.

I have used that one for this application and I agree, Jim. The name belies it a bit as you can set it where it's not very colored at all or push the limiter and will get gnarly as hell. It's a pretty standard go-to for me and I have dozens of compressors. Cool that it works as an expander as well on the rare occasions (for me anyway) when that's needed.

Side note to all compressor plug-in developers, no matter how cute and wonderfully vintage your GUI emulation is:

WET/DRY CONTROL!

I forget the graphs-and-charts technicalities of exactly what parallel compression is doing, but I find it quite useful to mix back in 10-30% dry signal. Just seems to work on a lot of stuff IMHO.

[monkey man]

Yup. All comp plugs should have a mix knob, no question.

Apart from anything else, it saves on track and channel numbers, along with setup time.

[billf]

Side note to all compressor plug-in developers, no matter how cute and wonderfully vintage your GUI emulation is:

WET/DRY CONTROL!

I forget the graphs-and-charts technicalities of exactly what parallel compression is doing, but I find it quite useful to mix back in 10-30% dry signal. Just seems to work on a lot of stuff IMHO.

FYI, the Klanghelm has a hidden wet/dry control. There's a small white arrow at the bottom, click it and additional controls appear.

[Jamie]

I generally use the Native Instruments SSL strip and buss for spoken word, the strip grabs the peaks off, and the buss helps level things a bit, but as you said, automation to take load off the buss compressor is really the key.

I would also check out the Slate Digital plugs - you can get a subscription now for $20/mo which is what I'm doing for a project right now. "Renting" the entire suite for a whole month for 20 bucks? That's enough time to mix this whole album I have in front of me.

I would look at the Slate FGX Mastering (I think it's called) and test the virtual buss compressors in there too. A Fairchild, an SSL4k, and a Red.


Have you tried a subtle application of Massey's TapeHead to shave off the transients? At low settings it doesn't impart that much color, and it could do what you need it to do perhaps, mellowing out the high mids to boot.

[EMRR]

I never ever use a wet/dry/mix control. I used parallel compression a lot a decade ago, and then just stopped completely. I don't find a reason to use it anymore.

[mikehalloran]

I never ever use a wet/dry/mix control. I used parallel compression a lot a decade ago, and then just stopped completely. I don't find a reason to use it anymore.

I never found a use for it, myself.

[philbrown]

I never ever use a wet/dry/mix control. I used parallel compression a lot a decade ago, and then just stopped completely. I don't find a reason to use it anymore.

I never found a use fir it, myself.

Well one musical use is to slam the crap out of the drum bus and bring that just underneath the dry mix. Sta-Level (I think it's called) and the Distressor Nuke setting are commonly used.

[EMRR]

Yeah, I know the theory, I just don't ascribe to it anymore. The sounds I used to chase with that method I get other ways now.

[philbrown]

I generally use the Native Instruments SSL strip and buss for spoken word, the strip grabs the peaks off, and the buss helps level things a bit, but as you said, automation to take load off the buss compressor is really the key.

I would also check out the Slate Digital plugs - you can get a subscription now for $20/mo which is what I'm doing for a project right now. "Renting" the entire suite for a whole month for 20 bucks? That's enough time to mix this whole album I have in front of me.

I would look at the Slate FGX Mastering (I think it's called) and test the virtual buss compressors in there too. A Fairchild, an SSL4k, and a Red.


Have you tried a subtle application of Massey's TapeHead to shave off the transients? At low settings it doesn't impart that much color, and it could do what you need it to do perhaps, mellowing out the high mids to boot.

All good suggestions, thanks Jamie.