" No Avenger " say:
It's a saturator, not a compressor, different result.

It's a Dynamics VST and a Saturation VST.

Spoiler

Professional standard for more pressure and level without affecting the sound.

The Sonnox Oxford Inflator has long been considered a secret weapon by professional sound engineers and does exactly what many other dynamics processors only pretend to do. It increases the perceived loudness of your mix or individual tracks without audibly impairing the sound quality or reducing the dynamics. The inflator can add power, warmth and transparency to your mix by introducing a virtual overdrive reserve above the digital maximum and thereby completely preserving the musical character.

The inflator is the perfect answer to over-compressed "louder-is-better" mixes, because it ensures a louder mix without the pumps typical of compressors and "oversaturation". Generate more loudness even with massively dense and compressed material and give back overdriven signals more musicality and dynamics.

NOW YOU CAN:
- Give your mixes more pressure, presence and typical tube warmth
- Use a virtual overload reserve above the digital maximum level - percussive signal peaks are allowed through without distortion
- Increase the perceptible loudness of any source without audibly degrading the sound quality
- Achieve maximum flexibility and optimum DSP utilization via the direct and band split modes

 

Last edited: Apr 15, 2021

is compression on a send , parallel compression ?
and some people say a dry wet knob on a comp is also parallel compression is this true ?

 

what makes you think that requires less CPU?

the most interesting point of parallel compression is that you are getting another curve - or that you can do it frequency selective by inserting filters before.

 

technically yes, but that is a rare case and not as half as useful. (see post above)

 

yep, good practice when ITB. just copy tracks.

there is no difference between splitting a signal or copying the source: as soon as the dynamic effect has a lookahead delay, that delay will have to be compensated for. almost impossible analog, but default in DAWs since 20 years.

p.s. oh yeah, unless in apps like ableton where routing audio is an unpredictive mine field. ;P

 

Last edited: Apr 15, 2021

Hi " No Avenger ", i understand you ! We agree " Half of it is Saturation and the other half is Dynamic " ?

Spoiler: Sonnox - Oxford Inflator - User Guide

Sonnox - Oxford Inflator - User Guide

The Sonnox Oxford Inflator plug-in is designed to address the current preference to produce the maximum apparent loudness from popular music mixes. Many processes are already in use, which are variously reliant on compression and limiting to produce maximum modulation and try to give an impression of excitement to the sound of the programme. The Inflator plug-in goes further than these methods and can increase the loudness of almost any programme material, regardless of the levels of prior compression or remaining dynamic range.

It will even make full level white noise sound louder! The Inflator plug-in can also be used to create much of the warmth, character and dynamic excitement of analogue systems within the digital domain. The Inflator process functions by changing the relative probability of samples in the programme material such that there is a greater probability of larger values than the original signal.

The Inflator does not employ signal compression, so there is no ‘pumping’, dynamic level change, loss of presence or flattening of percussive attacks. The full dynamic information of the music content is largely preserved despite the increase in average modulation density. In addition to loudness enhancement, the Inflator can create a harmonic profile in the signal spectrum that not only increases the apparent dynamic impact of instruments and performances, but also provides ’warmth’ to the programme, reminiscent of good valve systems.

When used in this way, the Inflator even has the ability of good valve systems to produce great sounding programme when significantly overdriven, and can therefore be used as an artistic enhancement tool on single performances within a mix.

 

dan worall new video on how parallel compression affects the ratio and attack and release curves

 

Thank you No Avenger for your expertise.

 

Last edited: Apr 16, 2021

Try Cubase prior to version 11 for Sidechaining - It is called "Pick the insert slot to see which one will make the sidechain buttons appear".
Some people's concept of fixed then was very different to my interpretation of unpredictably flipping a coin...
(I use Cubase).

 

Two different things. And they are too different!

Please don't copy/paste the same Sonnox blurb a fourth time! lol.
It makes no difference to your understanding. Our ours.

 

why they always say it is the same `?

 

Last edited: Apr 16, 2021

of course does it sound the same.

but when you use send effect in cubase or if you have a dry/wet mix know right in the dynamics plug-in you can not do it frequency selective.

or for example it is common that for mastering you put some tube saturation only on the peaks in a parallel compression (or actually expansion) track. or you put a M/S encoder around a compressor which does not have M/S built-in, or you sidechain something, things like that.

if you use "parallel" processing for this kind of stuff the patching will be a bit more linear. not unimportant when your mixer doesnt have a patch panel built-in.

so in other words, if the OP wanted to know about "what sounds better and why", the answer is "no". it is just different organisation of things; instead of patching 5 cables you use the features (send, insert, eg) which are already in a mixer channelstrip.

 

Last edited: Apr 16, 2021

sure, all DAWs suck when it comes to flexibility.

DAW makers hate sidechaining options because it will end up with many users complaining that the audio would stop working when they connect a feedback loop.;)

but in cubase at least the existing solutions (using plug-ins with sidechain plug-in or using plug-ins which are using the left input as sidechain for the right) are somewhat logical to set up.

for the usual waves-3-in-cubase-VST-4/5 you routed the following:

carrier-L -> group 1, panned to L
carrier-R -> group 2, panned to R
key input-L -> group 1, panned to R
key input-R -> group 2, panned to L

and then you inserted 2 compressors, one for left and one for right and you now have a stereo compressor with stereo key input.

it is basic functions of the DAW - assigning a stereo channel to a stereo group - and then you have to remember that you have to hold the alt-key in order to cross over one of them and you were done.

but in ableton? holy crap.

 

They don't.
Same technique but NY uses EQ too, supposedly. Or it's frequency related somehow.
I don't know the details though! lol.