The public beta for the upcoming FerricTDS 1.5 has been closed today – thanks for all the contributions! A final version will be released here somewhere in March.
Release notes for beta 3 as of Feb 27th, 2010:
- visual limiting indicator added
- INPUT level knob just increases/decreases input volume level now (and not compensating the output anymore)
- presets now supported and aligned
- new compiler version used
Please have a look if the new compiler benefits to the stability problems in some Cubase versions (if you were affected by that issue).
Release notes for beta 2 as of Feb 17th, 2010:
- fixed: input level knob reports as “HP” to host
- input level knob is not stepped anymore
- tape mode switch added
- internal gainstage adjustments
Release notes for beta 1 as of Feb 8th, 2010:
- zero latency processing, latency is correctly reported to host now
- 100% flat frequency and phase response, allows external dry/wet mixing
- optimized saturation and limiting performance with more relaxed sound
- limiter offers true and accurate brickwall limiting now (in 100% position)
- ~40% cpu savings (depends on actual board+cpu)
- audio crackles while loading and on/off operation fixed
- input level adjustment option added (output volume compensated)
- TRIM knob range extended to -6/+6 dB
- internal gain staging has slightly changed and output volume performance is not compatible to 1.0.2
- new plug-in ID
Reports / known issues:
- some stability issues in Cubase SX versions
- manual not yet included
This version is not backward compatible and should be installed separately to the 1.0.2 release (new plug-in ID is provided therefore). It should not be used in any actual production or performance due to the beta status and potential further issues and changes. To download a copy accept the end user licence agreement on the downloads page and go to the public beta section there. Please post any issues and reports right here as a comment.
Variety Of Sound 
Everything seems fine ! i’m gonna use it more, it’s easier now to make it sound more obviously “analog”
and still can do the same very subtle job !
very good job again !!!
thanks a lot
Awesome stuff, thanks Bootsy – this plug rocks!!
Nice one!
A question: if seems that when I turn “input” clockwise to + area, the sound seems actually to get quieter though more processed. Is it the correct behaviour?
Thats how it currently works since it’s a limiting device. So if you push it with the input adjustment dial lets say +12dB and this causes heavy limiting internally and then it gets attenuated -12dB afterwards at the output it appears to be quieter, of course.
It was only intended to bring the input onto working level and not beyond. The alternative would be to have it just as an input level adjustment w/o affecting the output volume.
Thanks for this update!
The saturation unit is considerably more aggressive now, is this intended? The amount of saturation at ~9 o’clock seems to be similar to ~12 o’clock on 1.0.2.
yes, the SATURATION knob positions does not match between 1.0.2 and 1.5 due to the internal changes.
For comparisions have a look at the output Peak and RMS performance – at similar output level behaviour the 1.5 should perform better (distortion wise).
Absolutely no issues in operation (Sonar 8.5x as host)
The new input trim works a treat and is really welcome as most of my stems have plenty of headroom and it makes it easier when using the plug-in on submix busses that are still at low levels.
It’s a beautifully balanced plug, as is the previous version, in its range of operation, but as with the previous version I sometimes wish I could turn the dynamics and/or saturation levels up to ’11’ and overcook it some more so to speak.
A minor nit is that the new input trim produces slight crackling if adjusted in real-time but it is very minor and is not likely to cause issues as once it is set at the right level for the material then it gets forgotten.
I love the policy you have of not faithfully recreating replicas of ‘vintage’ units but bringing out the best of old style signal processing, this plug fitting into that philosophy perfectly as it seems to have all the advantages of using tape but none of the nastiness involved.
I’ve noticed that it exposes some extra ‘bus’ inputs too so I’m off now to see what they are about.
For me this is a breathtakingly usable plug at any price, and I’ll gladly take this opportunity to thank you very much for it.
Soundwise superbe! 😉 Unfortunately the GUI-Bug (the Plugin-GUI gets reset after reopening the Samplitude project) in Samplitude still exists. Thank you for your efforts!
Working great in Reaper 3.22 (xp 32. No pops no crackles, even when steep modulation and automation.
Performing very well on Samplitude 11. Thanks a lot!
Hi Enano, that’s strange. Here, also Samplitude 11, the Plugin-GUI (position of knobs or buttons) gets reset after saving, closing and reopening the VIP. Although the parameters are still correct looking in the parameterdialog of the plugin ?
hmm, well its cleaner, much better compression, but i think it sounds less like type. i loved the limiter before. This beta it to subtle. i know turn the input up, but its not the same smash and slam that old one had on a snare or drum bus. There was a low end ring this one just cant do. its to nice, to subtle, not enough dirt. This is just a nice compression plug-in, its not got the mojo that old one has.
Seems stable to me though. Im some will prefer this updated version though.
I think I’m leaning to 1.0x (the latest version of that) right now. I’m running certainly abusive amounts of the processing right now, but making the the Dynamics and Saturation meters are hitting the exact same point (a crazy 20db at the highest peak)…
With 1.0x at these extremes I’m hearing a touch more upper-mid & treble transient edge, and a tad less midrange saturation. Overall 1.0x sounds a bit more open, and I’m not sure if it’s because of the transients or the smoother/less saturation of the mids, or a deeper thing with dynamics itself.
The saturation itself seems smoother in 1.0x too. If all I’m doing is saturation, I can definitely hear the extra distortion in 1.5 beta 1, and it’s a touch more gritty sounding. I’m not sure if I like it at much, but already I have a feeling I don’t.
The dynamics are mostly improved though, I will say that. The kick drums are eaten much less now, and it has much less of a “dynamic adaptive bass eq” feel to it now. 😉
Can I guess that the CPU decrease was mostly because of lowering the oversampling in the saturation algorithm?
In 1.0x when saturating lots of sibilant treble, it seems to be more clear and focused and defined, where in 1.5b1 it seems to just increase the sibilance and “splashes” more harmonics around. Yeah it definitely sounds more distorted too.
np: Moby – Feeling So Real (Westbam Remix) [Feeling So Real Remixes] [05:55][44.02MB][1040kbps FLAC][44kHz Stereo]
Check out this track with like 20dB peak of saturation, and you’ll easily hear what I mean, when those open hats come in. (btw, that is an INCREDIBLE tune)
My vote would be for -A- “fixing” that added “grit” (or having two versions, one for tracking, one for mastering), and -B- for letting a bit more transient edge through so it sounds like 1.0x again in that regard (it’s not a big change, i’m a very critical listener and transients differences are one of the things i hear most easily).
Otherwise I like the changes. I can see the changes made in the dynamics frequency/response curve. I dig it.
I don’t use the limiter at all. It’s not recommended for mastering purposes, unless it’s your final limiter and you like the sound. I definitely wouldn’t try to use another limiter after it. But I could see how it could be useful in partial percentage if you’re needing to attenuate the signal into a clipper.
Cheers Herbert.
I tested this beta version a lot and compare it to the v1, in fact i feel like it’s now a whole different plugin.
i agree with what Aaron says it’s more of a nice compression plugin right now. the character is a lot softer.
And like Herbert said, i find the DYNAMICS part more convincing and better in all aspect in the beta version.
But i prefer the SATURATION part of the v1.
The Input sensitivity is welcome and add a lot of flexibility.
Anyway i see myself more addict to the v1 because of this unique SATURATION.
I’m not using the LIMITER too.
Thanks for sharing such great plugins anyway !
Jazzy
Very good ! Nice density effect. Thanks for the input trim, its essentially for this plugin ! The saturation does something very subtle. Is it just adding harmonic content or has it an influence on the dynamics ?
Thanks again !
Also agree with the idea of making it a little more “un-subtle”. It would be nice to have the possibility of getting a more greasy, punchy, funky sound.
Anyway, a top notch plugin. No one comes close, the Voxengo and PSP are almost laughable in comparisson.
Can you elaborate on that?
Well… I’m talking about the more “obvious” analog sound, punchy, gritty, almost lo-fi.
Examples:
The “smoothing” that this plugin performs is nice, but it would be good to be capable of doing the opposite, adding punch, grease, dirt, you know what I mean.
I really wouldn’t call the saturation subtle when using extreme settings! Try the plug on a drum bus and turn the saturation all the way up – it’s brutal 😀 If you want even more, you can just put several plug-in instances in series.
So please leave at least the possibility to have really subtle settings as it is now – otherwise, the plug-in has no sense to me anymore, because I use it as a plug-in for busses.
It sounds great now.
But I can confirm the bug that Martin Johann has described above me: in Samplitude 11, the GUI doesn’t remember the settings and therefore the knobs always return to their default positions after reloading a saved project or after drag+droping the plug-in instance to another track. The settings stay saved ‘under the hood’ nevertheless.
But this is not new to 1.5; it has been the same with 1.0.2.
Thanks for the (detailed) reports so far – much appreciated!
I still think that most of the concerns about the SAT changes comes from different internal level treatments and I will see how to adopt that in the beta2 to have it more close to the 1.0.2 behaviour.
Fact is indeed it’s more relaxed in the bass response as mentioned by some here and thats by intention of course.
Be aware that this wasn’t never intended to be a lofi sort of effect, so I’m (still) ignoring reports/requests in that direction.
The issue in Sam11 will be reported back to Synthmaker.
Herbert, please dont think that its lofi that we are talking about here, indeed version 1,5 is better in that can be used more subtlety because of the input.
in this new V.1.5 , the hats and crashes stick out like a normal compressor plugin, they seem closer to the speakers, with the old version, they could be pushed back in to the mix away from you. That is very powerful, i like the idea of having more control, with the input. But you have taken what was unusual and made it sound very common.
Indeed this is a different plugin now. If so many people are happy with the original, enough to win the KVR with it, why are you changing it to sound different? “If it ant broke, don’t try to fix it”
Its one thing to make a plugin that is subtle, but to make it only subtle is very limited, can it be subtle and obvious when pushed? Shouldnt the engineer have the choice of being able to use as little or as much as he likes?
Please dont take it down the same path as TesslaPRO which is also an amazing thing, but would be used by a lot more people if it could do more than just subtle.
Dont think im ungrateful for your time and work, you are doing a great job, im just being 100% honest with you, and i think a lot of people feel the same.
SO the bass response has changed. that’s why a snare doesn’t have that same whack! sound that the old one had.
People will always want to abuse a signal, take an 1176, some use it subtlety with no compression just running something though it, some will push in all the buttons and crank it! how good would the 1176 be if it only did one of the other?
TO be very simplistic the sound of the new version is clear, and hi end, but there are many plugins that already can do that, like DENSITY. the old one had a warm woolliness that was so right on so many things. Ive never heard anything do what it can do, it tames harshness, it makes thin things sound phat. I love it.
Don’t worry too much about requests, and still do what you like cause it’s what make your plugins so good.
After all we got both plugins : v1 and beta1.5 so we got the choice anyway !!
thanks again!
Well I like it very much! I found the previous version a little OTT and not really analogue/tape sounding. This for me is much closer and mush more usable and believable.
Thank you bootsy and Patrick, you just keep getting better and better.
Hi,
well this is an excellent plugin!! much better
than the previous version.I’m a former audio mastering engineer and i can clearly say that
the sound of ferrictds is very “analog”.
It clearly beats the elysia mpressor plugin and goes head to head with the tubetech cl1b plugin.
The new input control is very useful.You can play between it and the trim control to produce a sort
of parallel compression aka NY compression.
Trust me the transients really start to come out!
I’ll use it for use on my little mastering projects.
The only remark i have to make is that the sound
becomes a little bit brighter.Is this caused by internal oversampling process??
By the way thanks for a wonderful plugin!!!!!
cheers
Francesco
I’m coming back for a 2nd report here having had chance to finish a new project with it in place.
I had first thought the dynamics and saturation knobs were still not aggressive enough which I’ve found is certainly not true of the dynamics knob there’s plenty there! Once I got the hang of the attenuation options on the input side of things.
The saturation although much more ‘effective’ than 1.02 I still think could benefit from going into the realm of sounding like being pegged into the red if required.
I know it’s not supposed to be a ‘filth’ inducing solution but just having the option of abusing the signal to the extent of the over-saturation available with tape would have its uses. There’s plenty of range on that big knob to go from many shades of subtle to just about but definitely over saturated.
Having said that I’d take it as it is and it would still be one of my most frequently used plugs.
I’m still exploring the sidechain options now which I’m sure is going to yield yet another layer of usefulness too.
Kudos on another superb plug. btw Density is another staple I now use most times in preference to its UAD ‘Precision’ counterpart.
“Bootsie’s FerricTDS came out on top, a PC VST effect for adding tape-style dynamics, saturation and limiting”
Then again this plug is supposed to be a tape emulation of some sorts, no?
“The FerricTDS concept was based on all my previous work in the area of digital audio saturation,”
Sooo, why omit all the different anomalies of the beast?
“However, I intentionally didn’t implement some of the known side effects of tape, such as noise, crosstalk or frequency and phase distortion.”
“I wasn’t that much interested in those effects but just the plain dynamic behaviour.”
And yet again:
But if you did it would be a terrific tape emulation that no one’s ever done before…
And not to confuse things too much: this is an excellent plug without a shadow of doubt!
well….. thanks again mister!! i had my doubts before it came out. but now…. guys,wow!
i like your beta. i really like it. i don’t care if people like to abuse of the big beautiful knobs and get an unpleasant sound. the new beta does it but we all should know when it’s really necessary. as always you considered a lot the presence of sweet spots,just like in hardware stuff. personally I never found myself using it on basses or drums since i use generally clean sounds or my tube comp-preamp. BUT
i can say that on guitars i liked more the previous version of saturator(brighter),while… surprise of the surprises… the vocals!!!! oh my god, just a little bit of a good clean presence eq (sorry,not yours then,even if it’s one of my favourites) and they take a short walk in the 60es!found the secret of cheap graet vocals,i’m ready to conquer the world, all I need is a beautiful vocalist…ehm… in any case let’s be serious for just an instant. it’s two different flavours and i ben that at the end we’ll have a complete series of differnd colouring plugims that suits perfectly every taste( so why don’t you simply put a control to switch between the various versions?if this doesn’t mean to change the plugin’s latency it shouldn’t be a problem)in this case i suggest you to change the green color to a custom one every time that you build a new relase,just not to get confused.(i’ve seen that you have already saturated it a little bit).
Then: I don’t know how ferric manages the stereo field through all the saturation stages,but I found it modifying the stereo field overcompressing (squashing,actually) one of the two channels’ high freqs. for a common exemple,let’s play Feist’s “So sorry” with the full saturation injected in.(and besides that,listen the marvelous results) is it intended to work in this way? if not,well consider to give the opportunity to unlink channels as in the density plug. i feel i could like and use it, but not always. and maybe because of the brighter behviour of the predecessor, this happens only in the new one. Finally, here’s the lfirst little easy-to solve-complain: did you set the input knob with a step of 3db on purpose? i found it not really useful,since it’s unprecise and lacks in smoothness.
anyways, i can’t wait for further relases. first of all a new channel strip eq-preamp.
thanks,
thanks for all the work you dedicate to all of us.
enrico
– L/R behaviour is not changed in respect to 1.0.2, maybe this is the gainstaging issue again
– the input is indeed stepped in 3dB steps but I can change that for beta2
Really great. I like it much more, and it uses a bit less processor. The saturation really sounds incredible. It has easily taken the throne of tape saturation plugs.
But I have one question, and one suggestion.
Question: How exactly does the limiter work? Is it essentially turning the saturation knob into a limiter?
Suggestion: a stand alone saturation plug. I will always be using a bus compressor that I love, like the Waves SSL or Abbey Road 12413, so I don’t need compression in my tape saturation plugin. So if you can reduce CPU usage by making just a saturator, I would love it.
If you just need the saturation just leave the other knobs in leftmost position.
I really like that it has a better presence in attack and overall little bit brighter sound. Fantastico.
varosound Says:
– the input is indeed stepped in 3dB steps but I can change that for beta2
It would be really cool yes !!
yeah i like the idea of having 2 versions a hot and smooth version like the new one. or indeed a switch between the both.
ok, I really got to test this plugin tonight and spend some quality time with it.
I tested it along side some big name plugins and non of them could get the effect I was getting with this beta 1.5
ON Piano this thing sounds amazing. It added attack to the start of the keys but also compressed the decay. Now what is different about this plugin is that it does not change, the signature of the original sounds, its sort of a super clean compression.
All the plugins could do something similar, but they added a woolliness and lots of colour, and rounded off the edges, this is what compressors’ sound like. All of them sounded different in the way the compressed, but they all had a likeness to them that sounded softer, Softube and PSP sounded amazing on the piano track i was working on.
FERRIC TDS1.5 doesn’t sound like those at all. Not like a normal compression even though this is what is does.
If you want to compress something with out adding significant colour, then this is the one.
The original FERRIC did something similar, but with out the finesse, A/B-ing them I can hear that it was a dirty flat version, not at all as open and much less life than 1.5.
That said, I still like the original for way it handles high hats. But this new one might just be the best compression plug-in around. I’m shocked out how clear it can make something.
It doesn’t do woolly and fat, it opens out the sound in a really pristine way.
It seems stable and indeed used much less CPU.
I liked having the saturation on as well after this test and it added some grit that was cool.
I think this might be perfect on vocals, cant wait to try.
I had nearly everything on full apart from the limiter and saturation at 3.0clock the input was driven to about 2.
I think this is going to be used a lot. I have to say this is the cleanest compression you can get in a plugin hands down.
Thanks again for you wonderful work.
I used the FerricTDS 1.5 beta in my new remix. I just can say: GREAT !!! Thanks for the plugin. All the best.
yeah i think it’s in the new bass management the main difference.
anybody here says that the beta one is better on bass freqs, but…. am i the only one who found it smashing basses many times more than the prev one? i keep on testing it on final mixed songs (this time the great American Analog Set’s “Punk as Fuck”, and i know perfectly this isn’t the best use i can do of this plugin, but it helps a lot when it’s time to see the different behaviours through the spectrum… and the old one creates much more harmonics in the higher part,preserving de facto the dynamic structure of the sound.(meaning that if you smash the bass you destroy totally the overall dynamics of the song,while addindg harmonics to the highs modifies the transient’s response, sometimes even increasing them,and from that point on, destroing them all. i mean,this is how waveshaping works!).
At this point it could be a good idea to add an internal mix control too.
i know that your aim was to build a concept plug,simple and effective, but you can’t find a single sweetspot suitable for all the kinds of music.
i had the impression that your plugin distorsion module works moreless in the same way of a fixed preset of the crysonic’s spectraq. can it be?
at this point i suggest as the blockfish plugin, a main page with the actual controls, and a back page with the additional finetunings, with a few presets direcly available on the main page. at this point a hot tape could be simulated instead of changing the freq resp,simply adding sat to the low,and so on
suggestions for the finetunings? a “tone”control for the ditortion (OR, as Softube has done on their focusing eq,a “tone preservingcontrol”), the possibility to exclude completely the limiter, a stereo link, and a simple fader that can morph betwheen two harmonical “hand seleceted” blends that you personally prefer, so that is possible to adjust it for every taste.
(and a led for clipping at the input stage,so you can omit the bypass function,since there would be already the mix control)
what do you think?
it would be something completely new, and versatile,yet maintaining a great semplicity.
but… i know perfectly that is easy to speak if it’s you the one who does the dirty job, so just let me know if it is a bunch of bad ideas 😀
enrico
With this new version Saturation knob(if using without dynamic knob) doesn’t work. I just feel VERY LITTLE difference in my headphones, but believe me, it’s not saturation. Just try a/b compression and you hear what i mean. So this version adds a volume and nothing more. People, check this plugin, before telling, that it’s better. First version was best and added to mojo my material.
Of course the Saturation is working on its own and it actually does so very well. Keep in mind that a good saturator is not that obvious in the very first place but lowers the peak performance at similar RMS level without introducing that much dirstortion. So if you are onto judging different saturators or settings then always have a look at the peak and RMS meter.
A common pitfall is to see the label “saturation” and expecting heavy distortion in the very first place. If you expect that, just take the amp sim lane.
@enrico,
I don’t think that everybody find the v1 better.
And for me the beta is clearly better, like i said first, the beta is more obviously “analog” sounding. And overall it’s a better plugin than the v1 with a more broad range of applications.
I just find myself still using the v1 for it’s unique SATURATION knob. There’s no problem here, as in my mind it’s a different plugin. not a simple evolution with added features, but a different sounding plugin all together.
the bottom line is : is like both of them.
can’t wait for the channel strip too…. we all already know it will be awesome, even if we know nothing about it.
Bootsy this beta is simply stunning! much better than v1…dynamic treatment is REALLY AWESOME!!!i know you have not created Ferric to be used as a compressor,but…man this is THE BOMB as compressor, period. Level dynamic while retain punch and clarity and, if one want,setting the recovery to max it can pump in an indescribably musical manner that is PERFECT for drums(for this is, in my opinion,far superior to DensityMKII…) !
The input knob is an essential bonus of this release,you can really squeeze out every drop of analogrms from Ferric using this and the trim knob to compensate.
Please Bootsy, don’t change a comma from this beta in the final version.
If in your channel strip will be such a compressor…woooooaaa!!!
Thanks for the generosity!
I like the dynamic part now – it’s punchier, but yeah, saturation in first version was better.
Only just heard about this one, and looking forward to running it up later on.
ARe there any plans at all for either a VST3 version, or maybe a 2.4 MultiChannel version, please? I would pay good money for that.
There are no plans for both, atm.
Though I already thought about multichannel support for epicVerb but don’t see the advantage in a dynamics plugin where each channel is processed the same.
That is very sad news indeed.
Multichannel dynamics processing is very much a required thing, and not all channels should be treated the same, with the same settings at all.
This should never be the case for any multichannel plugin – why would I want the same compression or dynamics processing on the rear channels as the front channels? Why would I not need to have the option to process L/R and not C, or all 3 if I decide to do so?
Currently to compress a multichannel mix requires expensive hardware, or an unsupported plugin set (Surround Edition) or else plugins where all parameters have global operation – the sole exception is Voxengo.
Surround is here to stay, and there is a need for these tools.
Whats the problem with just using seperate stereo compressors on e.g. the two front and the two rear channels plus another mono one on the center?
I dont know if I have the right to make a wish,but if you are planning a channels strip,please pay attention to the LF.
Your Boot EQ is fantastic,but I can make up my mind about what I think about thre LF,I feel the lack of a real LF “thump”,of course its just my personal opinion,but if its possible……..
Beta 2 is up and features some internal gainstage changes which makes it more comparable to the 1.0.2 version (but not matched 100%).
I understood that the old algorithm is preferred in some situations and so the old algo is included as well and you can now switch between both “classic” / “modern” in beta 2.
Be aware that the loudness performance is not matched 100% comparing to the old version due to all the reworks under the hood and it is not possible to achieve this in principle because of all the non-linear behaviour.
So keep in mind to make adjustments towards equal peak and RMS levels when A/B comparing to the old version with your specific audio material.
I just tested it quickly on the headphones (not with my proper studio monitoring system)
And it seems like it’s the best of both right now !! i’ll test it on situation on a mix this night.
I can just congratulate you another time, for the quality of your work, your generosity and your care of users feedbacks in the developpement.
Thanks !
Absolutely beautiful.
I had wondered how you were going to accommodate all the differing requirements especially around the preferences for saturation. Simple! Incorporate the merits of both versions.
My little niggle of being able to get the saturation into a nicely overdriven situation has been addressed by the removal of the steps in the input level as I can now get it to drive just about into the zone as required whereas it was a bit either, or, before.
In fact that little tweak has made the biggest difference to me, now when you raise the input level you can hear clearly where the plug is starting to bite and adjust everything else to taste from there.
Fantastic.
well done, ill test tonight
Did I mentioned that we could potentially blend the two algos instead of switching them? Could be a cool feature for the next beta …
man, you’re spoilin’ me… ” a simple fader that can morph betwheen two harmonical “hand seleceted” blends that you personally prefer, so that is possible to adjust it for every taste”
it really honoured me… i get addicted to every single version of this plug of yours, so i think i’ll wait until the new relase, otherwise i will never finish to write my thesis… i’m seriously thinking to make another partition to avoid playing with your plugs! ahahah!
great
enrico
Woaah !! i just came out of a mixing session right now, and the new Ferric was standing on the master buss !!!
What a difference it make 8-| !!!
This things will be guilty of the dust on my good old Revox PR99 Mk3 !
This beta is just 100% satisfaction for me !
The Blend (‘knob’ i suppose ?) can be cool too,
but right now i can’t believe my master buss sound so cool, warm & funky !
Can’t say enough thanks Man !
Blending might be cool, although the CPU use would be 60% higher in some cases, right?
The main thing I notice right off is it’s only possible to switch “Classic/Modern” on the whole “device”. Not separately for Dynamics and Saturation.
The changes otherwise are spot on. It really does help a ton to have that input knob, and have it be as adjustable as possible. (like being able to hold down shift key to slow it way down)
And the gain overall itself is almost perfect now, where bypass is pressed there’s usually no changes in the loudness on the 2-track. Of course it can’t always be the same since it’s non-linear, so props to getting it as close as you have. Goes to show how well tuned everything else is.
not 60% but somewhat around 20%.
It gets better and better. Actualy i use ferric more in the manner of an SSL BusComp than as a tape-sim. Without Saturation dialed in, its the best Mastering Compressor ever, especially for Orchestra music. And believe me, i would never run an orchestra through a tape. So bootsy has good chances to create the best SSL Compressor emulation in the world. Do it !
cant wait to try the new version!
i assume the new beta 2 always uses the improved compression everyone is raving about and the ‘classic/modern’ button just switches the tape saturation sound?
yes
also “some stability issues in Cubase SX versions” which versions? all well with wavelab 6?
fantastic work 🙂
CHEERS!
Well I need to know from you guys out there if there are any more problems left with the Cubase SX versions. Watch for problems when removing the plug or when closing a project. Earlier, there where some reports for SX 3.1 on that.
One thing that should be noted is even with the final limiter on 0%, there’s still a protection limiter afterward. So be very careful with the input gain knob setting, to make sure you’re not hitting that final protection limiter if you’re not wishing to brickwall the audio coming out.
What might be nice maybe is a “light” that turns on when the brickwall limiter is active? And perhaps a few lights for the knob limiter gain reduction?
-3dB (orange)
-6dB (orange)
-9dB (yellow)
-12dB (white)
protect (red)
or something like that. just thinking out loud.
i second that idea, would be fantastic for a red light to come on if you hit the final protection limiter!
i think this led is a cool idea too.
I can assure you that no brickwall limiting occurs if the LIMITER knob is set fully CCW. And the saturator alone does not catches all audio peaks guaranteed.
The limiter indicator seems to be usefull indeed – I will have a look at it.
You’re right.
Then what is limiting/clipping when the input is raised enough so the incoming audio goes above 0db?
Because if I adjust the inputs so they are causing say 9db of saturation, it sounds way different (more limited/clipped & distorted) than leaving input at unity and adjusting the saturation amount up to 9db.
Why is that?
Hitting the input hard affects both saturation and dynamics and the overall behaviour. The sat knob just changes settings for saturation control.
Amazing plugin.. only problem is that it seems to cause Pro Tools LE to crash every 20 minutes or so 😦 Hence why I’m downloading the beta to see if it’s any better. I MUST BE ABLE TO USE THIS PLUGIN!!!
PEACE
The beta doesn’t work on my Cubase SX3 (as well as all your latest plugins releases).
Trying to copy Ferric Beta within Cubase5 mixer (to
another channel) crashes Cubase
Just FYI
I don’t have test the limiter before, but it seems like it only work with the Input setting between 0 and +24dB ?!
When the Input is on the left side, it seems like even with the limiter fully engage, there’s no limiting at around 0dBFS
I’m in Ableton Live8, maybe it’s just a bug with Live, don’t know.
If your signal is just around 0dBFS and you lower it further with the input dial then the limiter does not work because its threshold is set to 0dBFS.
Ok, it’s a little bit confusing, but i understand.
So to use it in the master buss just before the dither we better just leave the input dial at 0dB. and eventually change the gain with a little plugin before Ferric.
Amazing plug, nothing else to say… Well, I used it today on my latest demo-session, I inserted it on every track. It gave awesome punch and weight!
Amazing!
The Ferric 1.02 actually does have more dynamic grit, the new Ferric sounds much cleaner and has lost the grit when the sat and dynamics is pushed to the top. The new ferric 1.5 can get dirty , but starts to sound harsh when pushed to similar limits.
Bootsy could you put in a tape warmer, like with tape speed, 15 ips and 30 ips. It would give it a more tape emulated sound, I like the dynamics but the tape emulation seems to be a little on the weak side with the entire tape emulation dynamic process. It seems to be more of a dynamic emulation, rather than tape emulation. A tape speed 15 to 30 ips could push the ferric into a better all around tape emulator. You could also add an eq on it similar to the MCDSP analog channel.
I like the Ferric but the tape emulation is not quite there.
dear simon,
i think it’s not even intended to give other tape emulations than saturation and compression.. usually in the other plugins,the 15 to 30ips switch is intended to modify the eq response,that here is always flat(on purpose,since mixing the dry and the wet would cause phase cancellation), and the precision of the compressor(that is achieved by distortion) and in this case you can simply play with the relase knob and rising teh two bog ones…or even choose the darker new distortion blend. concerning the eq settings, there are tons of presets in a lot of free convolution plugins, for example if you look hard you can find an old relase of colortone free..until new release it will require the free pluggo runtime,but it provides cool features.
finally there’s a public beta testing for soundtoys’ decapitator, really similar to what you were asking for, but… try it, and you will see how much is better bootsy’s plug. as usual, they wanted to do the step longer than the leg (dunno if in english you say that too..)and i can bet it will cost hundreds of buks!
viva la varietà del suono!
😀
enrico
Agree with you a lot, however, virsyn Vtape sounds the most like tape become of its Flutter Knob, this is very subtle but realy gives it the tape like sound. Its well known this is the closet to tape there is in a pluing, But, many also agree that it is too low fi to be of any use on the Mixbus. If ferric had this it would be king
suggest to look for the free js reaplugs nonlinear script by cockos,or the MTremolo then, it’s another present for you . the fact is that i really believe that bootsy wants to give us the best freedom at every cost. this is a colouring plug made to be the best possible transparent,as the best tape machines, if you want more just look for it.. the aspect that made bootsy win the contest was his originality in applying well known processes to obtain an effect in a field often carachterised by absence of substantial improvements,even in the commercial domain. the wow and flutter,besides that, requires a further improvement,since the way it’s made by virsyn introduces delay. and have you ever heard of a colouring effect that can be mixed in realtime with the dry signal without introducing any delay or phase distortion? it actually affects the frequency loudness perception,still leaving the spectrum flat… that’s magic,people, don’t even ask to bootsy to modify it!
and always think that the main reason because we are meeting here is that we are creative! so find your own way to get your results, this is a good starting point.
if you want to continue this topic, just
keep on asking…
enrico
Coolsprings, I happen to disagree with you, the reason Bootsy won was because his Plug was the best out of the rest of the plugs out there, which it was. Nothing could touch his plug, it was a very impressive and expressive open sounding dynamic engine. Now with that said, his plug was open, but was pushed as tape, not frequency/dynamic loudness, his plug lacks the full tape sound. Bootsy just added a tape mode on it and it is a great improvement.
Bootsy comes here to read real world opinions about his product, so I am thinking he enjoys the comments. There is nothing wrong with what these others are saying and I agree with them. The ferric would be king of the pack with more emulation. A tape speed process, feedback, rec level, noise, and hysteresis, would greatly improve the tape emulation.
Flutter as well could help, maybe a switch for flutter could add to the emulation.
Whether or not there is delay is unimportant because all DAW’s have Compensation. What the people are asking for is more tape emulation on the Ferric, which is fair.
What the rest are asking for is a process which we dont have, a tape emulator, with the openness of a bootsy product, which would make his Ferric king. I agree with the rest, the emulation should be improved.
I have products that improve dynamics and loudness, what the native products lack is a tape emulator that is high fidelity, which bootsy’s products are.
agree with you.
but
for live applications it’s still important to maintain the lowest possible delay, and concerning the other emulation aspects missing in ferric, you have mentioned a lot of them. who’s supposed to choose the right flavours? there are too many variables from this point on. bootsy created a good core, uninfluent under the aspect of cpu processing, that can be considered the basis for every tape emulation. which tape should be emulated? with which reel type? should he give 234 impulses,dynamic responses and saturation patterns?
i onestly would hate something like that. what if you don’t need any or even one of them?you would have an tank-processor with a limit in itself: the path of the signal is always fixed. (i must put an errata corrige,here:in the previous post i intended the mvibrato for the flutter effect.)what i mean is that bootsy tried to find his way to emulate the most difficult part, and he got a great result. what happens after, mechanical noises, fluttering, hysteresis,phase distortion and masking can be easily emulated using other stuff.don’t be lazy: find your favourite chain,and you’ll be the best. because it will be yours. then use a plugin merger (there is one free by budde),mix them together, and voila your all-in-one solution with ferric on its throne.it won’t have a good gui if you aren’t an illustrator’s pro, but it will sound great.try.
enrico
Cool springs, I dont understand your need to be so against improving a Vst made precisely for tape emulation.You state that bootsy tried to emulate the hardest part and got it right, I beg to differ. I dont think he got the emulation right and so do many others. The dynamics on the ferric is impeccable, but the tape emulation on the ferric is not there.
The little improvements he does and keeps doing could make the ferric what it is specified as, which is a tape emulator. He doesn’t have to do it, but this is the criticism and suggestions of many here.
If tape emulation could be easily done with other products, I and many others here wouldn’t be on this board talking about a tape emulator. No product natively with the exception of UAD’s fatso jr has anything close to hi fidelity tape.
There are amazing tape emulators in Pro tools, but on native, there is a lack of tape emulation. The ones you keep mentioning are low fi, they cant be added to a master because they degrade the sound.
in cubase 4.5 i think it caused some weird behaviour. 1st instance worked fine. tried adding another and nothing appeared in the insert slot. tried to add other plugins and they would not appear either. cubase seemed to keep on working but could not add other plugins in the inserts.
also, another plugin, nebula, the GUI went messed up and the dials did not appear right after.
i can’t be 100% sure it was ferricTDS beta2, but i use the machine everyday and it has never happened before i used ferric.
its amazing software, i really hope you can fix these bugs!
Yes, I had the same problem.
Nebula was inserted on the master bus, and I was
trying to duplicate FerricTDS between mixer channels
by Alt-Copy’ing it. I’ve reached the 10th instance (I
Think when Cubase just crashed…)
Doing the same (Alt-Copy’ing in Cubase mixer insert
slots) on a virgin project did nothing. I think it is
a memory thing (“fighting” on it maybe ?…)
Ferric was intentionally focused on just the dynamic treatments (and probably ever will be). If you are after some typical tape style frequency and phase distortion effects it’s a good idea to use a convolution plug-in with some decent sampled tape IR’s upfront or behind Ferric. There is excellent stuff out there, even for free.
Just a quick question:
Any plans for a 64bit version?
hi ,
here with ableton live 8.1.1 no problems until today.
ferric on track and/or subtle use on the mix bus put some great relief and warm .
just one word :fabulous …as all your plugs .
plus im waiting with an extreme exitement the released day of your chanel strip… héhé
all the best for all ,
I’ve just implemented the LED indicator for the limiter and probably gonna prepar a beta 3 to the weekend.
One question to you: I’m currently boggling on making the input adjustment knob to just act as a plain input leveler (and not compensating then the output as well as it currently does). What would you prefer?
A) INPUT level knob just increases/decreases input volume level
or
B) INPUT level knob increases/decreases input volume level and accordingly compensates the output volume
A) INPUT level knob just increases/decreases input volume level
The dedicated output volume knob under the VU meter should be left the duty of compensating the output volume. This, together with the Limiter’s LED will help prevent and indicate clipping the plug-in internally when over-driven really hard at the input. Some people might desire that or might not check how loud the input signal to the plug-in is. For those who don’t want to clip the plug-in internally by accident, letting the output volume knob do the output compensation gives the user the control over that.
Thumbs up for all the good work and effort.
A) INPUT level knob just increases/decreases input volume level
without a doubt! i think, here we all know that we have to compare at equal volume when doing change in the dynamics of the signal.
B) INPUT level knob increases/decreases input volume level and accordingly compensates the output volume
why not have the automatic volume compensation? am i missing something here? what is the advantage of not having this? if there is an internal overload led that flashes on then there is no problem anymore.
is it possible for you to fix the cubase issues, or is this synthedit problem? getting it 100% working for everyone is the most important thing 🙂
for me the main reason why i prefer A)
is because the automatic compensating, depending on the source, can induce a slight change in the perceived loudness, and we can’t adjust it if it’s fixed by design.
Having the possibility to adjust this, is something we are used to with about anything else.
But for me i doesn’t really matter so much, i can do what i want with the beta as it is.
what abouit a switch to change between compensated/non compensated?
My vote goes for B.
+ 1 yes a possibility to switch will be niice !
for me switch could be ok too, but it adds another control. waves in its limiter implemented a three-control interface using only two faders: if you click in the middle you change both the values at the same times… you could put the input and output knobs together on one side,and a hidden control visible as a led that chandes the in-out rate compensating and turning from green to red in function of the limiter, so you would get both the advantages without turning the whole plugin into a button-cake
(w creative english)
in any case it’s not so important for me, this feature. i would prefer an internal mix control since many hosts don’t support it (eg live,cubase etc.)
Hi,
auto-compensation looks to me like a preference, why not simply adding a LED and the text “autocomp” next to the output button? Click the LED and it enables autocompensation while lighting up green or so. Click again and autocomp turns off. Visualy that’s more obvious than a switch and could take less space.
Besides, it really is a thing of beauty!
Release it already!! 🙂
The LED is welcome, i like the fact that now the limiter is really limiting at then end of all.
There’s no more the issue of the limiter fully engaged and still audio above 0dBFS ! that’s what i expect when i see the word “limiter”.
I only find that the -6,+6dB Trim knob is now a little bit to small range, if i wanna drive the plugin harder. 18dB or 16dB instead of 12dB may be just what is needed to be more comfortable in most applications. In fact is just the attenuation side that feel a little bit too small for me to get a certain sound without changing the loudness too much.
This plugins is marvelous anyway.
Thanks a lot !
I would have preferred to keep the auto-compensated input knob. However now when it works as a simple input gain I must double that the output trim range is not sufficient (-6dB not enough).
Ferric still crashes my Cubase 5.1.1 upon inserting
multiple instances into Cubase’s mixer slots (by
Alt-copying them).
Everything is fine up to the 13th instance. then
Cubase crashes… I can post crash log, if you want
Thanks
OK
There seem to be some clash with another plug.
Loading TDS onto Cubase mixer on a virgin project
enables me to load them plugs freely (I’ve loaded 16
and I’ve stopped)
On my crashing Project there are some NastyLF (some
enabled, some disabled). I unloaded them completely
(along with other disabled/unused plugs) and I could
load 15 instances this them around.
Then came the crash.
I must stress that my ASIO meter hovers around 25%
I’ll keep reporting (if that helps)
OK
Now it’s confirmed on my system :
Virgin project —>
Open 48 empty audio tracks —>
Load Ferric into the first track insert slot —>
Alt-Copy Ferric insert slot to insert slot whthin Cubase 5 mixer —>
Upon reaching the 34th instance (on my system – Q9550), the system will crash (ASIO meter is FAR from
100%… its pretty far from 50% , either…)
I hope this will be sorted out…
It’s very good news! FerricTDS – realy good compresses a dynamic range.
Thank’s for your all plugs – they are very qualitative and beautiful.
From Russia, Tatarstan with Love!
Thanks a loOot. You make us the life better. And your epicVerb rocksss too!! From Spain with Love 2!xd
Bootsy your plugs are great, thanks.
Me and a friend Just did a song using all your plugs.
It’s a satirical song and we did it in several hours, but it came out pretty good. The delay was “classic delay” but we gave it a “TesslaSE treatment”
It says smile to the camera, you can hear it here:
attention!!! the song is in Hebrew, lower your listening volume to avoid hearing damage or damage of speakers or any other equipment.
plugins: bootsy, guitar suite, Kjaerhus Audio- Classic Delay, RGC Audio- Triangle 1&2 and E-MU Proteus VX.
Golan
What is the track count of your Ferric instances (if
any) ?
To my dismay I have found that the original Ferric suffers from the same phenomenon !! 😮
I don’t get people… Ferric is a “Tape Dynamics Simulator”… and as such should be inserted on EVERY track… but if you have over 16 tracks on a BUSY project… this thing goes KABOOM !
It just renders the plug unusable…
BTW – other plugs that I’ve tried (Nasty VSD and EQ) seem to be ok (I have tested with 48 empty audio tracks)
As it is, for the “WAH !” factor, it is EXCELLENT.
But for real-life job… it still some mileage to do…
Eytan,
I took a look at the project, it was on the acoustic drums loop and on the bd@bass subgroup but it was bypassed for that group (not disabled and as far as i know, it’s steel consuming resources when bypassed), it just felt better with the Tesla se on +9. When I was working analog, I also had to think how to apply my tools (not enough comps gates…) and I find that sometimes it’s good to have less options, it’s just keeps me from over doing, it also saves time. lets say you have a hardware LA2- you should happily put it on the vocal track instead of thinking ‘oh way can’t I put it on the bass guitar.’ it’s all about using your resources wisely. looking at the project, there were inserts plugs on bypass mode all over, because we did it on the fly, so the ferrictds wasn’t a problem here.
Also I don’t think I’ll ever use the same plug on every track, the variety helps me to distinguish track from each other.
Hope I’m making sense here,
Golan
You’re suppose to put it on every track?
Yeah, it’s in the rule book. Haven’t you read it yet? 😉
Tony, you’re such a N00b !
I bet you produce Psychedelic trance, don’t you ??
Why don’t you make REAL music, like Britney Smears,
Beyondsa Knowhers and James Morrissey ??
Waves HQ is not far from my home (been there a few
days ago) – Me tells you do competition !
😀
Seriously, all I point is that Ferric crashes in some
occasions (and apparently it’s not just with my system).
FYI
heheh..
Well,
this beta is even better than the previous ones!
Fantastic sound!!! I really like the subtle effect
of compression you can achieve with this plug.
I’m starting to use it more often during my mastering session.Big Kudos to bootsy!!!!!
Really really in love with this plug.
Thanks!!!!!!!
You may get this a lot these days, I don’t know, but I’m really hoping for a 64bit update to FerricTDS. This a badass plugin, and a vital part of my guitar mixing chain. And given that I’ll be moving over to 64bit Win7 soon, I’m hoping to maintain 64bit as much as possible, without the need for jbridge if possible.
All your plugins are excellent, but FerricTDS in particular makes it’s way into every project I do that has guitars in it.
Thanks for your hard work.
hi, first of all thanks for your all your already classical and magical plugs !
second, your generosity and humanity are very beautiful and rare nowadays…
third, the latest ferric version is really wonderful ,on a track or on a full mix :it adds 3d analogish’s soul to the sound, make it like it is came out from hardware thing…
for me, i can define you by two words : generous genius !
and i forget to mention how your associate in creation is talented too for his beautiful guis !
all the best for all !
and im waiting your new vcs plug with lot of exitation héhé
tschuss !
just want to add a little something..
for me , i hope the final version will be not very different from this last beta…
i find it very fantastic !
what a great saturated compressor wow !!!
by far the best mixing plug ive discovered since lot of months or years .
it can make at the same time: mixing, mastering, subtle work and huge, massive, radical…as a transformation’s fx, work
i hope in the future your plugs will have this choice between : subtle and “hard/transformation” treatments .
i find the choice in the treatment it is what make a plug/hardware classical and legendary !
salut !