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.

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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

updates available for BootEQmkII, DensitymkII, FerricTDS and NastyVCS

The bug fix releases are available for:

• BootEQ mkII 2.1.1
• Density mkII 2.0.3
• FerricTDS 1.5.1
• NastyVCS 1.0.1

This are Win32 releases only (SSE2 or higher) and are bug fix releases which addresses the following issues:

NastyDLA – released today

NastyDLA – a classic chorus echo device with tape-delay simulation, is released today.

The free download for Windows x32 and VST compatible systems is available via the download page or just click here instead and please acceppt the end-user license agreement.

Related links:

• NastyDLA – final teaser and release info
• NastyDLA – technical architecture
• NastyDLA – some tape delay fun
• NastyDLA – first public audio shot
• introducing NastyDLA
• the classic chorus echo device

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.

when writing here about some tech stuff …

… some readers immediately suppose that this will turn into a VST plug-in later on. I just would like to comment that this ain’t the case in general and I do this just to avoid some unnecessary expectations and disappointments. When writing here about some tech stuff this is always related to something that I’m currently digging in a little bit deeper and to me it’s a perfect way to sort some thoughts (and sometimes to close them for now and a while).

epicVerb 1.5 major update available

epicVerb digital reverberation simulator

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.