Selig Gain

[ryanharlin]

I'm using it again tonight for the gazillionth time so I thought I'd post my 5 star Yelp review here for Selig Gain.

If you haven't checked it out yet, do! There's a ton of stuff it does, like one button mono compatibility testing which is great, but as small a thing as it seems - the fade out is the best! The best!

The curve is so lovely. Now anything else just seems so... linear. Even my own hand automated fades don't sound as musical. Love it. That's all. Carry on.

[eusti]

Broke almost down today as I was mucking around and somehow was missing a little extra gain...
But then found another solution... Soon!

D.

[rcbuse]

I can 2nd this.  One of the best utilities in the rack by far.

[selig]

I can 2nd this.  One of the best utilities in the rack by far.

Back at 'cha dude, having a blast and being creative with Korde - two songs based on Korde already (I'll let you know when you can hear them if you're interested). I'm also excited about the updates - could have used sustain support a few times already.

[sharpblue]

i prayed and prayed that selig RE's would appear on sale during black friday lol, but it just wasn't meant to be i guess ?, they are all definitely on the must purchase at some stage though list , the demos had me after the first watch etc

[selig]

I´ve recently become interested in Gain, Leveler and De-esser. Lost it´s "try" period, but remember De-esser was very handy, saving some time.
'Leveler' I missed out, only watched the video. I like the theory, but have not the ability to hear the difference to using a parallel compressor. I understand the Leveler is something of a compressor but actually very transparent. I can imagine it would suit perfect in for instance a more acoustic song where the artefacts of a compressor is to be avoided as much as possible, still getting the voice close up, hearing all nuances. Also read here that it can be used for drums and other instruments. 
'Gain' seems interesting as well, but have not yet understood the critical need for it.
I would love a bundle of these three or a special sale for a limited time or discount individually, buying one at the time.
(Maybe De-esser and Leveler for somewhere under 100 euro, getting Gain as a bonus.) 

All tips, trix, practical uses and opinions about these three REs are welcomed.
How do you use these, what do they improve in your mix/workflow etc ?  

Leveler tips:

Leveler IS parallel processing when using the Blend control. One advantage to the Leveler's Blend control is that if the Target is set as instructed, both the wet and dry signal will have EXACTLY the same peak level. No other compressor's dry/wet control can do this! And you can achieve the same amount of gain reduction with the Blend at 50/50 as every other compressor's blend set on 100. This means you can use less of the compressed signal (and more of the original signal!) and still have as much compression, preserving transients etc. 

Leveler CAN be very transparent, but it can also be VERY obvious. On drums you can create dramatic gated reverb type effects (but withtou using any reverb!) with high Blend settings and fairly live drum samples. For bass you can create electric bass tracks that never decay, or pretty much remove the extreme level swings often experienced when using detuned oscillators. I've used two Levelers to take a cymbal crash and remove ALL dynamics so that there was absolutely NO decay in the sound. Same for a low piano note - it just changes tone as it decays - but no level drop over 96 dB (again, using two Levelers). No other compressor I'm aware of can give you 48 dB of clean gain, let alone be used in pairs to double that to 96 dB!

Leveler can also be used with negative curve shapes to carve out areas of the dynamic spectrum, creating smooth gating effects, a sort of "un-compressor" effect, and more classic expansion FX. You can also choose to allow transients over the target, compressing or expanding only the mid levels of an audio signal. It's also worth noting that Leveler uses upwards compression, but only across a user specified range (the "Curve" setting). This allows you to raise lower level signals without raising the lowest level signals such as background noise or headphone bleed etc.

[ebop]

The other day, I whacked a Gain just before Ozone in the master chain and boosted volume slightly to drive the limiter. Presume this is acceptable? Wouldn't know. Sounded good so I don't care

[Yonatan]

Sounds lovely. Thanks for the explanations on what it can do. just what I wanted to know. Seems very usable as a mixing/mastering tool! 

[mayzon]

I'm going to pick this up on the weekend 

[Fretless Fingers]

Leveler has been one of my favorite tools and my new favorite in my Electric bass chain. I hate the drop off volume you get on some notes and being able to control this so simply and transparently with the leveler saves me allot of time.

This isn't even mentioning how its become my go to compressor for vocals, weather it's singing or even rapping for that matter.

In fact, the Leveler and LabeOne Recordings Black Knight are the only reason I was able to save a vocal session I was sent that frankly should have been redone. The vocals were much hotter than I prefer and allowed more room noise than desired. careful setting made it possible to get things more consistent and use the negative setting to compress all that terrible room noise. A little bit of eq love and things were great
I may have to post a before and after to highlight my love for those two devices

Now if only I can work the other two selig devices into my budget

[selig]

The other day, I whacked a Gain just before Ozone in the master chain and boosted volume slightly to drive the limiter. Presume this is acceptable? Wouldn't know. Sounded good so I don't care

Exactly the same as lowering the threshold, but absolutely nothing wrong with it either!

[Whoopdee]

I don't remember buying Selig Gain, but I use it all the time!

[plaamook]

I bought Gain on a whim and man I love that thing. It's everywhere in my rack these days.  Its just neat tidy and cheap and it does its job and a few others.

[tibah]

I got it in my bookmarks, under "someday, I should get this". 

Maybe someone can help me here. Obvious, I can listen to the signal in mono, trim the signal and have a clear out peak meter to look at for gain staging. Pretty much what I can do in Reason/Reason Essentials as well. I'm more interested in the panning (and what makes it different to the pan/width control in the mixer). I know PT has a similar panning with 2 pan-pots for stereo signals, but I wonder what it's all about and how different pan laws may benefit a mix.

[Concep]

I agree with you guys about Gain.  I saw it in the shop for a while, and didn't really see what the big deal was.  Then I bought it on a whim the other day.  Suddenly, I'm using it all over the place for it's meter to audition different compressors and for the gain control.  Really cool RE.  Another RE that I am really liking now is Titus.  I always liked the DDL, but this thing is replacing it for me.  I like that the delay is stereo instead of mono, the dry and wet pans, plus it has that neet low pass filtering of the delay that you get from BBD.

[ebop]

The other day, I whacked a Gain just before Ozone in the master chain and boosted volume slightly to drive the limiter. Presume this is acceptable? Wouldn't know. Sounded good so I don't care

Exactly the same as lowering the threshold, but absolutely nothing wrong with it either!

Thanks Giles. I forgot to mention, I'd run out of room on the Ozone slider as I'd mixed with so much headroom but could only get 1-2 db GR. I just needed more input volume but I was happy with the mix and other settings in the master chain (M and S comps etc). So Gain to the rescue. And I started looking at the Gain meter and found it useful to find the right volume boost needed

[rcbuse]

I can 2nd this.  One of the best utilities in the rack by far.

Back at 'cha dude, having a blast and being creative with Korde - two songs based on Korde already (I'll let you know when you can hear them if you're interested). I'm also excited about the updates - could have used sustain support a few times already.

Nice.  Would love to hear them when they are done!  I'm just wrapping the update up, shouldn't be too long.

[PSoames]

Apologies for doing a Lazarus on this old thread, but it needs to be said.

Been trialling this today, and if one RE deserves the label, "absolute must-have", it's this.

Quite brilliant.

[clone]

Noob question, what is the leveler used for, is it like a limiter and when do you use this RE?

[EnochLight]

Noob question, what is the leveler used for, is it like a limiter and when do you use this RE?

I think the product videos explain this best (note that they refer to the product's original name "Curve" but it was renamed "Leveller" shortly after release):

http://youtu.be/DXkzJGhkjMg

And..

http://youtu.be/NAXH9plNNeo

[Concep]

Think of it like a compressor that works from the inside out.

[EdGrip]

Necrothread!

Help - I'm being slow. In the manual there are references to "the included combinators", but included where?

[Loque]

Necrothread!

Help - I'm being slow. In the manual there are references to "the included combinators", but included where?

Probably in the Rack Extension section of the browser...

[EdGrip]

Necrothread!

Help - I'm being slow. In the manual there are references to "the included combinators", but included where?

Probably in the Rack Extension section of the browser...

Ah yeah! Wow, I didn't know that REs without their own presets had factory combis! There's some gold in here!

[raymondh]

When I want to automate a track's volume / level, I insert a Selig Gain and automate the slider.

That keeps the SSL channel sliders completely free for overall track mixing.