Are you enjoying yourself?

Jokes aside why don't we also give some love to @Friendelek here who not only follow the rules but, when in doubt, he chooses the careful way?
This is especially important given the "over-excited" threads we have since the R2R massive party.
Well done

 

What's it to you?

Wowzah! As he should. And as I do. It's expected, Xupito.

 

What else? It's funny

I sure know I didn't read the rules when I first commented here. So props to him.

Whot??

 

oh yeah i agree with you... but the distressor itself isn't another vca compressor, and that's why for me, more accurate makes an emulation better

 

Hey, I don’t really understand topics like this.
When you put 10 original Teletronix La2a side by side and compare them - every will sound different. They probably all will sound good but differences will be noticeable. So the recreations of different units. Also every other mixer or mastering engineer given same hardware or same plugins will sound differ.
There is also a factor of “I’m used to it for years” so if your first plugins were waves - u stick to it. Same with other developers.
And of course UAD is winning the game using trademarked names, being exclusive for using hardware (not so super affordable for many) and - for older generation of engineers - plugins look the same as their beloved hardware. But in the end is the sound that matters. And if someone can achieve amazing mix with stock Ableton/Cubase/Logic etc then be it.
plugins made us lazy, we are use to reachin for 10 La2a recreations and looking for best one. Not so many years ago it was almost impossible. If the studio had one or two Fairchilds,Urei,Teletronix, SSL,Neve... that was it (unless You worked with the best studios) and home studios almost didn’t exist. But back then engineer was aware of every microscopic sound and detail of the given hardware. They knew their craft and their usually limited tools perfectly. That’s the point guys. Have a nice day everyone!

 

I love Nebula programs. However, it's a shame, envelope behaviour is not that accurate on compressors.
This characteristic of the hardware is not "sampled", instead, Nebula's own envelopes are applied in the same way in all programs. The way in which the compressor acts on the transients (envelope), is just as important as the timbre (electronic circuit characteristics - [not including the amplifier that acts on the envelopes]) that it applies to the sound. Thus the final result of the sound would be an Axis of Enevelope vs Circuit Timbre, which unfortunately is not emulated in the nebula. Please correct me if i'm wrong

 

Last edited: Jan 8, 2021

I can't because I just don't know how they're doing this exactly.
Do you have any insights about this approach for Aqua plugins?

And yes, the envelope/timing is pretty important for compressors and EQs.

 

I believe that in the case of Aqua, the developer should try to add an envelope characteristic similar to that of the hardware. Actually I don't know because I never made any kind of comparison. In the case of Nebula, the evelope behavior applied to the programs "kernels" is the same for anything you put inside, be it Alex B, Patrick, ......It`s part of Nebula`s Engine ( you can`t choose VCA, or FET or anything else to control the amplifier)

 

Last edited: Jan 8, 2021

Nebula basically samples all parameter ranges of a hardware device similar to impulse responses, which you then recally by moving the parameters on the Nebula plugins GUI. Due to having many of such extended impulse responses in a matrix (ideally of all possible settings) their model becomes dynamic (as in: the opposite of static).

However, this method is great to capture and recall anything in the frequency domain (anything that affects the frequency spectrum), but its much more difficult to capture the effect on amplitude (time domain), since you would have to sample each little step of the compressors effect on the amplitude (each single point of the envelope) for the entire parameter range of the compressor hardware device, which probably boild down to hundred-thousands of individual impulses to be captured. Hence I guess they simplified the process by either using a generic envelope or some kind of interpolation model.

 

Just to mention, I just installed the SSL Native X- Comp. Oh my God!! The envelope behaviour in this plugin is surreal !. I can't get such a sound when it comes to tweak transients using none of the Nebula SSL compressors.

 

As much softube (thanks R2R) and PA as I can get (Thanks R2R) ;)

I've used most of the others, some are way worse.. some are almost as good.. some are maybe slightly better in some areas but overall I love using PA and Softube plug-ins because they reek of high quality, low CPU, great sound and work very well with my Pro Tools DCommand controller.

I replaced noiseash ruletec with softube's tubetech eqs MKII and they sounded better for me (less congested/less smeary), they aren't exactly the same units being modeled obviously but either way the Tubetech is great for a busy mix.

Softube tape is my new go-to , replacing the far too cpu hungry IK Tapes.

Chandler stuff from softube is replacing various plugs from others (inc the dreaded waves stuff I had to tolerate until now)

 

Softube tape is very nice imo. And NoiseAsh actually does a very decent pultec emu perfect for the low end trick.

 

Ik tape - still unrivalled for me


Tip- since two hardware don't sound the same, try using a combination of different plugins from different manufacturers for various tracks on your project. For example, If I would use 4 fet compressors in a project, I would go with one each from either ik, waves, P.A, overloud (drums, bass, GTR, VOCs for example)
Same for EQs.... With this approach you get a much more better Sonic for your track.
Sometimes the color of a specific plugins across multiple tracks can cause freq masking too. So the above approach can help in avoiding freq masking.