Haha wtf, you dont speak spanish do you? ooh yea the old uppercase E, thats day one stuff

 

@Talmi thank you for writing that.
That's exactly what I don't want. No purchase from me then, I'll wait for a "liberated" version before I spend my money there, I have enough compressors for the time being anyway. Thank you!

 

@waverider, the authorization system is by far my biggest complaint about them.
Once you DEMO one, though, you'll likely be hooked on them. Nothing else sounds quite like them. It makes the authorization system a little easier to stomach then.
Dammit, just purchased this one too! Can't wait to shootout against a Gates STA Limiter (plugin, not hardware) on a vocal track.

 

I've been trying to like this compressor as much as everyone else, but the low end bump makes it hard for me to say if I objectively like the action. Even a counter EQ doesn't give me the same feel when bypassing and trying to gain match to see if I like what the comp is doing. I kinda like the box tone, but sometimes I feel like 'm hearing a different but more smeared version of what I'm compressing.

What's your favorite source material and use for El Rey? Most of my struggles have been throwing this on already bass heavy stuff like drums.

 

Vocals

 

Try lowering the level you're sending into it. Acustica plugins tend to work best around -18dBFS.
I usually stick a Klanghelm VUMT before them calibrated to -18 and use that to set the level hitting the following plugin.

 

audio editor acoustica is named like that...further com on

do not all italians speak spanish...or understand at least

 

Last edited: Jan 23, 2020

.del

 

I'm with Greg on that one, who (I've heard) was the one who wanted to keep it at as close to the original behavior of his hardware. It made it easier to handle for me. I still don't really really studied it's behavior, but it gets a lot of use on my vocal group busses.

 

I'm usually pretty good about gainstaging, but I think you're right about this one. I've been hitting it a little hot when throwing it on drums.

And trying it on some higher end material (guitars) sounds better to me than trying to make it work on drums so far. Appreciate the suggestions, fellas

 

Read somewhere how "every" Acustica plugin Giancarlo releases is the next best dreamware plugin.
Sure they have to sell, they are a company but i also disagree with the negative connotation of such statements because they are literally pushing the technology further with every release and even after a month or two after a release, new tech is applied or discovered which erases the barrier between a plugin and hardware or actually goes even further.
OK, now the El Rey plugin.
It is special, very special. I was skeptical. Especially after reading the long GS thread. Smooth glue, clean albeit fine in a very high end, expensive, tubey vintage gear kind of way.
Sound of money just like the Tim P Opto3A.

 

Last edited: Jan 23, 2020

For depth effect, master.

Tbh, I don't remeber how El Rey behaved, but for most of them I tested, no (apart from the fact that this -18dBFS calibration wasn't intended and made for ITB productions at all).

 

Eh? Read the Acustica manuals. They work like the analogue hardware they emulate and require the same levels. Some will take a little more before going mental and making nasty noises. I think most people who aren't hugely impressed by the sound of Acustica plugins have been trying to use them like normal algo plugs and hitting them too hard with low latency settings. That's what I did for ages until somebody showed me where I was going wrong.

 

so how versatile would you say this compressor is?
i usually work on rap vocals, electronic music and less acustic material and dont think this would be a smart purchase for me cus of its slow release
any thoughts?

 

Reading manuals is always a good idea. I can only highly recommend it.
Sadly, most of AA's manuals are more of a off-topic travel guide and picture book, which I don't like at all, to be polite.

I normally test plugins at -16dB RMS (which is 5dB too high for that standard, I know) and whenever the manual states it's 'calibrated to -18' I usually test it also at -6 and -26dB and as I wrote, it doesn't matter at all for most of the plugins I tested (goes for pluggies from all developers).

I don't believe in manuals in the way that, according to them, every single plugin out there is the greatest on the market. Therefore I make my own measurements and sonic tests.

 

Due to the very few attack and release times it's not very versatile, but if it fits, it's good on single sources and fantastic in the mainout.

 

Very usable on many sources. Mixing should be more about the emotional impact vs technically trying to tweak every single detail.
Very high resolution monitors can do that, making you work way too much on meaningless things and information instead of core mixing.

 

Like incongruous attack and release times? Aha.

 

Put it on fast release then. If you look through the presets you'll see that some well known producers and engineers can use it on just about any source. I said earlier that it seems as versatile as a Fairchild to me and after a few days' use that still stands. A Fairchild sounds great on anything (though I admit the only Fairchild I've ever used is made by Acustica Audio and called Ultramarine) and so does El Rey. I think its intended main use is for buses.

Most questions about it have already been answered in this thread:
https://www.gearslutz.com/board/pro...g-wells-signature-tube-compressor-plugin.html
Greg Wells' own comments in that discussion sound entirely genuine to me. He's not just letting somebody slap his name on something sub-standard.
He knows a lot more about his onions than some people on here who've memorised a few buzzwords for bluffing purposes.