ThrillseekerLA explained

What is needed to get clear from the start is that every compressor will sound different, the controls will act differently, and some will be better at doing certain types of compression than others. While the basic controls like ATTACK and RELEASE will have a similar function, the resulting change to the sound may be totally different.

David from www.learndigitalaudio.com has made a deep and comprehensive article about compression and ThrillseekerLA. Don’t miss to read the whole thing over there at his site which contains lots of examples and explanations. Theres also a PDF document available.

tasty meal preparations with Density mkIII

Since precise routing and stuff like that is not taken down into the cookbook as of now, here are some exciting tips and tricks to experiment with and maybe to obtain a different approach to cook audio with Density mkIII.

Starter

As a starter just use the default preset and dial in huge amounts of compression right with the DRIVE knob. Now mix this back to the dry signal by using the DRY:WET option to obtain a thick sounding result (New York style compression). Since the COLOR option ignores any DRY:WET settings one can dial it in afterwards to thicken the soup even further. Hmm, tasty!

Second course

Set DRY:WET back to a 100% wet signal but also pull RANGE back to the left so that there will be no gain reduction anymore. There is no compression anymore now but one can still use the MAKEUP knob to drive the gain of the non-linear circuits. Use this and experience a hot (driven) meal.

Main course

By finishing the second course, you not only have a sophisticated non-linear amplifier now where you can dial in the coloration with the COLOR knob to taste. You also can use this in M/S mode to adjust the stereo imaging in a quite unique fashion just by adjusting the amounts of saturation per channel right with the MAKEUP knobs. Omph, I’m feelin so wide now!

Dessert

Just dial in again some amounts of compression by turning RANGE clockwise, maybe full to the right but RELAX the attack times so that some transients can pass. Those will be eaten now by the non-linear amplifier as an added sugar.

Espresso, anyone?

major mkIII update for Density bus compressor released

announcing Density mkIII – providing depth and dimension, mastering grade

As hinted earlier in a facebook post, the TesslaPRO update will be delayed and probably released after the summer break – it is just not there yet. Instead, a major update for the Density compressor plug-in already made it and it will going to see the light somewhere later this month.

So, lets talk about the Density mkIII update. During the last two years or so I’ve received quite a lot of feedback to the Density mkII release – mostly coming from mastering engineers – on how to improve its dynamic response towards todays mastering needs. Some very early efforts did not made it but with the learnings from the ThrillseekerLA compressor design and the emerging stateful saturation approach everything was possible, all of a sudden.

preFIX 1.0 – out now!

preFIX – getting those alignments done

preFIX – final teaser and release info

preFIX - gate and expander section with detailed sidechain fitering options

the gate/expander in use

written by susiwong

A basic gate has a single parameter, the threshold – when the level is above the threshold the signal passes unchanged, when the level drops below the threshold the signal gets switched off, simple as that. Attack time ideally should be as fast as possible without causing clicks or distortion, so it’s preset to a sensible compromise with most gates, a few good gates even offer you a choice of two settings. Knee, hold and release determine shape and speed of the fade out, release is responsible for the overall decay time, knee changes the behaviour around the threshold level, helping you avoid the dreaded “motorboating” effect where the gate switches on and off rapidly. Think BSS or Drawmer gate vs Alesis compressor …

Hold simply specifies the “reaction time” from the moment the signal passes the threshold till the begin of the gain reduction – critical to preserve as much meat as possible from drums or keeping guitar decay intact. This is mostly what separates the good from the bad and the ugly. Last is the “range” or “floor” parameter, it sets a certain minimal volume to which the signal gets attenuated when dropping below the threshold, instead of being muted completely. Very helpful when you need to reduce the background noise between a singer’s phrases for example, much less obtrusive than muting the track completely. Set the floor so the background noise gets masked well enough by the music, often 3dB or 6dB are enough. This technique is also known as downward expansion, paired with a longer release and soft knee it’s often used for distorted guitars (with slow decay), too.

Some good gates offer sidechain filters allowing you to “zero in” on the important part of a complex signal, take a tom mic of a multi-miced drumset for example, where a lot of similar signals (bleed) are fighting for control. Difficult even with sidechain, impossible without. Worth noting that these filters do NOT influence your audio signal, only the signal used for detection, hence the name sidechain. And finally an external sidechain allows you to even borrow a signal from another channel to trigger your gate – the creative options are huge.Unfortunately not all hosts have this implemented in a user-friendly way. One popular example is tightening up the bass by triggering its gate from the kick.

the beauty of opto-electrical compression

Opposed to VCA, Variable-Mu or FET based approaches, opto-electrical compression takes advantage of using a light-sensitive resistor and a small light emitter (a LED or electroluminescent panel) to obtain a gain reduction voltage in the sidechain path. This technique is well-known to add some smoother gain riding characteristics to the signal because of the specific attack and release response which comes from the inertia and inherent memory effect of the photoresistor element.

compressor gain control principles

A short compendium on digital audio compression techniques.

Basic compressor configurations

Compression vs. limiting

Technically speaking the same principles are used in audio signal limiting and compression processors but just the transfer curves and envelope follower settings are different. Ultra fast attack rates and high ratio amounts are used for limiting purposes which causes just very few peaks to pass on a certain threshold.

In digital implementations limiting processors can be more strict due to look-ahead and clever gain prediction functions which guarantees that no peak information passes the threshold. That is called brickwall limiting then.