A lot of overpriced plugins, agreed, but i am more worried about invasive copy protection. The brainworx stuff, R2R couldnt strip all the wasted checking so whether I buy it or not the DSP is cloaked in hurdles to jump over & wasted electricity processing that shit. More to the point, I am also seeing a lot more useless plugins now, everyone wants a plugin as promotional material, the magic stuff is still there but its harder to find. Also goddamn VST3, F you to developers who kill off VST2 versions!
So... here's my main problem: It takes me so much time to study just one compressor plugin. And that effort just makes studio time too boring, since I'm not doing this for money. I have... I don't know how many comps. Bought and paid for. I have no idea which ones are "good", sound-wise, since they only start sounding good once they've been really well tuned, by ear, and by an eye that understands the whole interface. And... if you don't have any visual feedback, you'll want physical buttons, so you can get a feel for these things. I really do believe that exposure to actual hardware will make you ready to use software comps. And that without that, learning them is much more abstract and hard. Good algos inside a plugin mean really nothing, if you don't know how to use them. With compressors in particular, this is true. The design of the interface is as important, or even possibly more important, than the algos. The best compressor is the one you know how to use. That's where design comes in. Other types of plugins are way easier. Every important control on time domain effects like echo and reverb create changes you just hear, and you hear clearly. But volume domain effects like comps, those are more abstract. So visual indicators make up for the less obvious aural feedback. This is why I'm always positive towards people trying something new. I know scam plugins when I see them and those don't affect me personally. It's sad that people buy crap but we all did when we started out. Thats how you learn. My main issue is figuring out which of the more complex plugs I already own I should keep, and which I should discard. And that may intersect with where this thread started. We need better ways of comparing these products, explaining them, and by that measure, show the marks that scam plugs are marketed at why they shouldn't buy the snake oil.
how can we have better ways of comparing them when the only popular solution is having some youtuber, aka "wannabe tv persponality" try to pander to everyone all the time like some dirty attention loving whore People thought facebook was better than individual topic forums like this one, same with reddit, twitter and a host of other lowest common denominator, shitbrain bait But if you are really serious about an artistic direction, it wont in reality be at all hard to learn how compressors work and then spend X amount of hours practicing and learning how they all differ. Last edited: Sep 14, 2023
The easiest answer to the above questions is to take every plugin you have that is third party. stick them in a folder that your DAW cannot see or load. This way you can move them back later, or if necessary. Use your DAW stock plugins only for months. Add the entire Fabfilter Everything Bundle and Acon Digital or Accusonus plugins for restoration/audio repair. And use only that. You will absolutely figure that stuff out because you have a limited but comprehensive set of tools which are awesome ones that everyone on this forum knows and can explain things easier to you if you have problems. And keep a Valhalla reverb, because it is where you will end up back over and over anyway. Last edited: Sep 14, 2023
Chris at Airwindows builds on his own work and has many very cool plugins. https://www.airwindows.com/
That's nonsense. Truly. If you can study in a studio and get a pro to teach you all this stuff, it's reasonable. But doing it all from home, alone, is nigh-on impossible. I've been at this consistently for like 20 years. I know how to operate the ableton comps inside out, but everytime I meet a new comp, its confusing. Anyway, it's always incredibly frustrating when someone comes along and says "the thing that's a big problem for you is actually just laziness" or something like it. It's really rude and you shouldn't do it. There are some lazy shits out there, but you can't save them. The rest of us are trying our best. So everyone who might listen to you is already trying their best.
What do you mean? What are the differences that confuse you? There are tons of compressors that have more or less the same parameters as Ableton's. The Glue even exists as a plugin. Or maybe you were talking about hardware? Anyway, I'd be interested in an example of compressors that confuse you compared to Ableton's. Cheers.
I agree with your point about differing human personalities, but when you say a new comp is confusing, that makes sense as its "new" but after 20 years it should not be very confusing for very long, 95% of VSTs try to copy something done in hardware from decades ago, and the technology is very well understood at this point in history and info available for anyone with internet
If you don't like GUI or it distract you so much for testing, you can always switch to generic GUI, at least in Cubase.
