I'm shocked and troubled about my first VST

[Marketblandings]

Exactly. His approach is _anti_- plug-ins in a lot of ways.

I don't doubt the final product but I think he sends the wrong idea to people who are still growing. It can be done with experience and using visual cues while mixing. I'd be interested in knowing how often he looks at such visual cues while moving along with experience that was already obtained in the comfort of his own zone.

Not sending the wrong message at all. I went to school for audio engineering and have learned plenty from watching his videos. Yes experience is what got him to get such a result with his $300 challenge but that's the point. He wants you to gain experience in actually using what you have before buying something else. He never says not to buy new things, just not to buy new things without understanding why you're buying it. Too many beginners buy lots of plugins to fix issues with out understanding how things work.

Here's the link to that video series https://www.recordingrevolution.com/cat ... challenge/

[aeox]

The Cakewalk RE-2A Rack Extension was my "aha" moment and it doesn't get any easier than that!

If your willing to spend a little more you can get the real thing:
the real thing.JPG

Only 8 payments of 437.38. That's 8 payments of 437.38!! Get it now while supplies last!

[DonnieAlan]

...More than anything, I apparently have never really heard what a compressor should be able to do. I have been trying to "learn what I have" with the M-Class compressor and, apparently it just barely effects to the results - which makes sense since I have been trying to hear what a compressor does and just not getting it for 2 years!

What's my problem? I needed to hear this 2 years ago because it could have saved hundreds of hours of unsatisfactory mixing/learning!

Thank you. Just venting. Go on with your day.....

One way to both see and hear what a compressor is doing is the following. Put a 1kz tone on an audio track for, say, 2 seconds at unity gain. Follow that with the same tone, same length, but -20db.
Now apply a compressor to the track. Bounce to a new track and take a look at it, compared to the original.
Rinse and repeat with different compression settings. You'll begin to see how attack and release change the shape of the wave, as well as ratio and knee. Adjust the threshold levels and notice what happens. And you'll hear it too.

Rinse and repeat using a kick sample. Then move on to using other signals. Its worth spending an afternoon doing this as it will really help you both hear and see exactly what your compressor is doing. And you can compare different compressors, too.
Its worth running this experiment on different instruments with different compressors too. Take a bass note....just one note. Do the same as with the 1kz tone...first note at unity, 2nd at -20...then apply the compressors and see what they're doing. Rinse and repeat using an entire bass line.

Doing this will help you know which compressor to reach for for which application, and how it will affect the sound.

Just a thought

[Marketblandings]

Very appealing advice because this level of understanding is what I want.
I'll do this experiment right away tonight.
Thank you.

...More than anything, I apparently have never really heard what a compressor should be able to do. I have been trying to "learn what I have" with the M-Class compressor and, apparently it just barely effects to the results - which makes sense since I have been trying to hear what a compressor does and just not getting it for 2 years!

What's my problem? I needed to hear this 2 years ago because it could have saved hundreds of hours of unsatisfactory mixing/learning!

Thank you. Just venting. Go on with your day.....

One way to both see and hear what a compressor is doing is the following. Put a 1kz tone on an audio track for, say, 2 seconds at unity gain. Follow that with the same tone, same length, but -20db.
Now apply a compressor to the track. Bounce to a new track and take a look at it, compared to the original.
Rinse and repeat with different compression settings. You'll begin to see how attack and release change the shape of the wave, as well as ratio and knee. Adjust the threshold levels and notice what happens. And you'll hear it too.

Rinse and repeat using a kick sample. Then move on to using other signals. Its worth spending an afternoon doing this as it will really help you both hear and see exactly what your compressor is doing. And you can compare different compressors, too.
Its worth running this experiment on different instruments with different compressors too. Take a bass note....just one note. Do the same as with the 1kz tone...first note at unity, 2nd at -20...then apply the compressors and see what they're doing. Rinse and repeat using an entire bass line.

Doing this will help you know which compressor to reach for for which application, and how it will affect the sound.

Just a thought

[selig]

...More than anything, I apparently have never really heard what a compressor should be able to do. I have been trying to "learn what I have" with the M-Class compressor and, apparently it just barely effects to the results - which makes sense since I have been trying to hear what a compressor does and just not getting it for 2 years!

What's my problem? I needed to hear this 2 years ago because it could have saved hundreds of hours of unsatisfactory mixing/learning!

Thank you. Just venting. Go on with your day.....

One way to both see and hear what a compressor is doing is the following. Put a 1kz tone on an audio track for, say, 2 seconds at unity gain. Follow that with the same tone, same length, but -20db.
Now apply a compressor to the track. Bounce to a new track and take a look at it, compared to the original.
Rinse and repeat with different compression settings. You'll begin to see how attack and release change the shape of the wave, as well as ratio and knee. Adjust the threshold levels and notice what happens. And you'll hear it too.

Rinse and repeat using a kick sample. Then move on to using other signals. Its worth spending an afternoon doing this as it will really help you both hear and see exactly what your compressor is doing. And you can compare different compressors, too.
Its worth running this experiment on different instruments with different compressors too. Take a bass note....just one note. Do the same as with the 1kz tone...first note at unity, 2nd at -20...then apply the compressors and see what they're doing. Rinse and repeat using an entire bass line.

Doing this will help you know which compressor to reach for for which application, and how it will affect the sound.

Just a thought

This has proven a useful test for me over the years to visualize compression. Makes it easy when I'm posting about a specific compressor to visualize some of it's qualities to help explain them to others.

I actually have a Thor patch for this, which shows attack/release times. I have another which shows ratio by creating an I/O curve, which is done with a ramp up in level (you've probably seen me post these over the years!).

One thing to remember about the first test: the level of the second tone dictates the threshold setting of the compressor you are testing. That is to say, if the level of the second tone is -20 dBFS your threshold needs to be BELOW that level to get the most accurate reading in my experience. I also suggest a very specific length of time for both tones so that you can measure the response accurately. I do these tests at 120 BPM typically and have the tones change on a bar line, which makes it easy to make quick and accurate measurements when viewing the audio waveform.

One thing to note on the second test: attack/release times should be fast since you're measuring ratio (not time constants). This will give a more accurate indication of the ratio's shape. Also, choose a threshold that falls soured half way up the slope, which (possibly counter intuitively will be around -12 dB to -6 dBFS since the audio waveform is linear with regards to level).

Between these two tests you can really get a good ideal of what compression is doing to your audio, though it would be helpful IMO if the audio waveform display could be increased vertically for these. On that note, try switching to the slice edit mode to view these or make screen grabs and import into a graphics app to scale up.



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[dana]

Talk about blast from the past..

Waves audiotrack, along with the Renaissance series, mondomod and all the rest, half of waves plugins are pretty ancient at least in heritage.

Probably not your best first vst plugin, but its free so why not?

Not as exciting as the renaissance channel, but at least the interface is a lot clearer!