Happy new year everyone. Starting us off in 2012 is a couple of sample packs from new company Samplephonics. They're a British company; a combined group of composers that approach the sample creation technique as if they'd use the samples in their own music creation. The composers are all from varying musical backgrounds too, from electronica to rock. This definitely gives a fresh look at the samples they create.
Here's the packs I got to review:
Organic loop elements
George Baldwin is a composer/player based in the UK. Amongst other instruments, he plays the rather unique chapman stick - which features heavily in this sample pack, alongside creative vocalisations, and other guitar instruments. He's played on Charlie Brooker's show , and anyone who does that has kudos in my book. Brilliant.
The samples are split into four folders of different tempi - 100, 125, 140 and 170 Bpm. Within these folders are a dozen or so (mostly) rhythmic soundscapes recorded instrumentally or vocally, layered and sliced to fit the tempo. Some of the sounds are just recorded straight, but a lot of them are processed to varying degrees. The soundscapes created are generally very lush, pretty, layered sounds reminiscent perhaps of the folktronica sound of early fourtet or simliar. Each sound comes with the layers separated, so you can mix them more to your liking if you're not keen on the pre-mixed version.
One thing I really liked about them was that rhythmically, even though they're very organic sounding, they're nice and tight, and have a really nice groove. Quantizing loops is a pet peeve, and I really enjoyed the feel of these ones. I also liked the Chapman stick. It seems to have been used fairly extensively throughout this sample pack, and I like the tone of it. Here's a track I wrote using some of the loops from this pack:
Balkansky Darkdub and Glitchstep
On a different tip -
Ivan Shopov aka Balkansky is the creator of the second sample pack. He's an electronic music producer, that has specialised in creating music that blends electronica of various kinds with eastern european soundscapes and samples. Really beautiful music.
This sample pack is aimed squarely at the dubstep end of the market. Everything is tight to 140bpm, the Dubstep tempo. There are 9 folders that cover all the elements of creating a great track - Ripping hard and heavy basslines, ambiences, rises, hits, rhythmic and melodic loops, and of course, killer drum beats. There's a lot of stuff there, almost 1.5 GBs of sound. The quality of the sound is excellent, and I think it stands out with the creativity within it. The drum beats for example are solid rhythmically, but most of them have something else going on - creative compression on a cymbal, or noise sample, that really just brings some life into these samples. I'll definitely be coming back to this pack if I need to create some Dubstep. I liked also how there were many different ambiences possible with this set. It does provide a lot of downright evil sounding bass and drums, but there's other atmospheres to tap into with the soundscapes. All the (harmonic) content is provided with key signature, so you know where you stand when blending samples.
There are over 700 loops, and unlike many sample packs, these are all extremely usable. If you need some inspiration, some of the sounds that are in this pack will really get you going!
Here's a very loose track I whipped up. Love the sounds in this pack. Excellent!
Conclusion
Samplephonics is a new company, but if they keep producing sample packs of this quality with the very reasonable price tags attached, I think they will quickly establish a good reputation in a lively market.
Price £34.70 and £39.70 respectively
... If you need some inspiration, some of the sounds that are in these packs will really get you going! ...
SoundIron is a fledgling company - and already a rising star amongst the many sample creation companies out there. Helmed by Mike Peaslee, SoundIron is creating stunning sample libraries useful in many different fields of music creation. In this article, I'll review the Requiem Lite Choral library. It was originally part of (Peaslee's old company) Tonehammer's repertoire, but has undergone some major updating and has been re-released recently, under the SoundIron banner.
Requiem lite is a full, realistic-sounding choral sample library, featuring recordings of vocalists from the San Franciscan VOLTI choir, amongst others. Requiem lite offers a full SATB (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) choir, divisi sections (male and female) a couple of Soloists, and various choral fx and ambiences thrown in (more on that later) It runs on Native instrument's Kontakt. Note though, it only runs on Kontakt 4.2.3 or later. Previous editions, including Kontakt player (the free Kontakt) will NOT be able to run it. There is talk of SoundIron releasing a version that will work on the free player in the future.
Requiem Lite is definitely not a featherweight. It weighs in at just under 6GB fully installed. Thankfully there's an excellent installer that comes with the purchase. It takes a long time to download 6GB of .rar files, but the installer remembers where you are in the download process, so if you have to stop for any reason, you can resume from where you left off. No issues. If you're not often connected to the interwebs, DVDs are available for shipping and handling fees.
The GUI is a pleasant parchment looking script for Kontakt, with all the basic information on the page. There are a couple of buttons below, to toggle between performance, and Tone/FX parameters for each sound.
There are 62 .nki patches to choose from, divided into 7 folders. Most patches have different versions - such as full choir, men, women, lite, etc. So there's plenty of variety. All of the patches contain parameters for Attack, release, and tone/fx. Many of the patches have layering built in, where the choir can sing two different words, or vowels, and you can blend between the two (each of the layers selectable in-performance using keyswitching) And some of the patches have legato options. More on that later.
Sustains, poly-sustains and legato
There are several patches that allow you the use of the Whole choir in full SATB format, or in divisi sections (of Male and Female) all these patches are available in lite format too, in case your equipment is struggling with resources.
The sound quality is absolutely excellent. It's nice to hear distinct vocalists, but with the overall sound still being cohesive. 8 mic placements were used to record the choir, and those signals were carefully mixed together to give a full, balanced sound. Because it is the Lite version, there are no options on mic placement. But the big advantage of this is that you're using a ton less memory and cpu, as there is just one signal. To be honest, the choir is so well mixed, I never really missed having the placement option. There is an included convolution reverb that can be used to place the choir in different spaces.
You can play these choirs with thick full chords, or you can press a switch and change to legato mode, in which one note is played at a time. The legato mode is truly excellent. Historically, sample packs like this have fallen down when you try and connect notes together to create a flowing melodic line. The attack and release of each note would just not sound right. With the legato patches, SoundIron have got this just right. There's a little tweaking required, but for the most part, it's possible to get beautiful flowing lines from the choirs, with a very slight slide from one note to the next. What takes it over the top is the fact that you can do this polyphonically - enabling up to 3 legato lines at once. The only limit is a range parameter, that requires distance between the notes you play (the minimum distance being 2 tones). There were times when I wished the range could be closer, so I could play suspensions and resolutions to a chord. But that's a minor niggle.
These are all vowel-based patches. You can sing lines with one vowel layer - "ah", for example, or you can blend between 2 ("Ah" to "Oh") or if you're feeling really clever, you can blend between 6 vowels, using keyswitches and cross blending between the two layers you get on each patch. Each of these patches are as a full choir, with the 6-vowel option also available divisi male and female.
The poly-sustains were nice too. Gorgeous-sounding, these patches differ from the sustains in that they are based off pre-sung words, such as "adoramus, Apocalypse" etc. As with most of the patches, these are 2 layered, so you can blend between words, and change them (using keyswitch) to different words mid-performance. There's an option again to switch to legato mode, so that you can change notes mid syllable.
Soloists
There are two soloist patches - a soprano and a tenor. These patches are built identically to the 2-layered poly-sustain patches, other than being solo voices. As with the others, these samples sound gorgeous - very human with lovely vibrato, without sounding warbley or shrill. You again have the option to switch to legato to create very authentic sounding melodic lines.
It's here where I'd like to bring up perhaps the only slight issue I had with the software. It would have been really useful to be able to change the tempo of the sung words. This is only an issue with the soloist and poly-sustain patches. (there is a good attempt to resolve this with some timestretch patches, but you unfortunately have to trade tempo control with sound quality). I think that perhaps this was a decision made to keep the library cpu and memory light.
Ambiences
There are really two main patches here that are split. The 'Requidrone' patches, split into full and lite editions of SATB and divisi, create luscious brassy choral pad sounds. There's a layer for bottom and top end, in which you can change the octave and volume of each, or cut them in and out. The Vocal cues are oh's ah's and eh's, layered on top of big warm pads, and you can blend between any of them.
The second patch is a more ethereal 'Requiembiences', offered in full and light options. There are again two layers you can blend between, titled with greek letters that represent different manipulations of choral sounds. They don't sound choral, but offer nice glitchy raspy pad sounds that would go well in a cinematic score.
Choral FX
The choral fx section is extraordinary. There are some excellent body percussion patches, from knee slaps, to claps, stomps and finger clicks, rumbling feet, applause. There are dissonant and atonal vocal sweeps (think of the 'lost' soundtrack, but with voices instead of strings) there are whispered and hissed full consonants, and other tonal swells. There are some really original sounds in this bunch, that I've not seen or heard in other sample packs. And they're not afterthoughts either - I think they'd be excellent in adding tension and drama to tracks. The choral FX was a very nice addition.
The Phrase builder
This is a standout tool that is excellent for creating clear (allbeit non-sensical) phrases very quickly. It's intuitive, easily accessible, and will create superb phrases with minimal tweaking. Here's a video of it in use:
The phrase builder is included in the marcato and staccato patches. Short (again excellently recorded and mixed) vocal bursts that can be tweaked with sustain, attack and delay parameters. It's a bit of a shame that the phrase builder isn't included in a larger part of the sample pack, as it's a very strong tool to be able to quickly create dramatic sounding phrases.
Convolution reverb
This is also a nice addition from SoundIron. As well as the more expected cathedral, hall, and stairwell presets (All of which add lovely ambience to the choir) there are the more unusual sounding fx-type reverbs with equally unusual sounding titles, such as smear, iron drag and shnivering? Regardless of the titles, the ambiences created are pretty inspiring, from subtle filter delays, to what sounds like a massive thick plate reverb. For the more out of the ordinary usages of choral samples, these could really inspire the writer.
Here are the demos from the website that showcase the various elements of Requiem Lite:
Conclusion SoundIron make it clear what their intentions are with the software, that..
"Requiem Light is intended for users who want a professional choir library at their fingertips, without the usual tradeoffs. It’s designed to excel, whether dropped into the most resource intensive orchestral scoring templates or loaded on a laptop for composing on the road or use in live performance settings."
I think they achieved their aims. Working from a laptop, I think you'd find this choir more useful than some of the others out there, as it doesn't take up much cpu bandwidth, yet the sound quality is, as expected from SoundIron, excellent. It's a full, yet clear sound that captures vocal detail but still sounds grand. The excellent convolution reverb with impulses gathered by SoundIron only adds to the strength of the library. The legato phrasing really stands out. On top of this, I think the addition of the Choral FX, and the Phrase builder combine to provide an excellent choral package that you'd find quickly indispensable in your sample arsenal.
Price $314 for download only (add shipping and handling if you want a DVD)
...the sound quality is, as expected from SoundIron, excellent. It's a full, clear sound that captures vocal detail but still sounds grand...
full and balanced mixed down sound from 8 mic positions
not heavy on CPU or Memory
phrase builder intuitive and useful
Choral FX a very nice addition
LOVE IT OR HATE IT
for a beautiful sounding SATB choir that you need to be able to dive in and quickly get up and running - this is excellent. If you're going to be spending more time, and want deeper adjustment, especially with phrasing, tempo and mic placement, you'll need to look at other options
CONS
sung latin words at a fixed tempo
phrase builder limited to certain patches
Kontakt 4.2.3 or later. NO free player. (Although they're working on a locked player release)
Goldbaby - the super indie sample creator from the other side of the world, has just released a new sample pack of a variety of analog and digital synths. There are 166 sounds made from over 1800 samples all in 24 bit, and can be used in Kontakt 4, and EXS24. (The raw samples are available if you want to use within another sampler.)
The synths used represent a fairly wide range of sound and history. From classics such as the Roland Jupiter MKS 80, through to the fresh-out-the-oven OP-1, from Teenage Engineering. Other synths from Moog, Dave Smith, Yamaha, and Ensoniq are represented well here.
The sounds are split into 5 different folders -
1 layer Mono 1 layer Poly Drums FX *Multi Mono *Multi Poly *Kontakt only
With the Kontakt sample pack set-up, each preset has been worked through the Kontakt engine, and the important parameters are right there at your fingertips - the Amp and filter Envelope, filter choice, from Kontakt's excellent sounding filters, voicing, LFO, and master volume. It is possible to dive deeper into the Kontakt's architecture to meddle with the sound more, but it's recommended to start another patch if you're going to do that, as it may mess up the lovely GUI. Unfortunately the Multi-layers aren't available for the EXS, however there is a work-around; more information on that on Goldbaby's site (see below).
Within these 5 folders there's a wide variety of sounds - pads, bass, fx, string, leads, bells, hits, etc. all labeled according to the synth they came from. And what a great sample pack it is. The sound quality is fantastic. Warm squelchy analog in one corner, meets crisp digital brilliance in the other corner. I saw a glimpse of a UBK fatso in one of the promo pictures, but whatever else these synths were run through really did the job. I did a quick comparison of the Slim Phatty samples to my own Slim Phatty, and I thought they were excellent - very hard to tell the difference!
I recommend going through the sounds individually, as I think that the choice of presets really displays the sonic qualities of each synth. The presets are aimed vaguely at the electronica vibe (of course there's the almost compulsory Dubstep Bass in several varieties), but the huge advantage of this sample pack is that the sounds really have a nice edge over other softsynths, because of the filthy rich analog signal path they've endured. Don't get me wrong, I love a good softsynth, but I'm still not sure they can quite capture the full richness of true analog - which this sample pack has in spades.
There are some really lovely sounds in there. There were a few that really stuck out to me: I particularly loved the analog brass samples from Yamaha's CS-10. It's a mono instrument, but the advantage of sampling is being able to play poly! But perhaps the highlights of the sample pack for me were the FX samples. They are awesome hits, rises, drones, mostly tempo-synced, and still lush and warm with analog tone. Instantly usable stuff.
Conclusion If nothing else, if you can't afford the thousands of dollars to purchase the hardware - this is a great chance to compare the tones of a small set of some fantastic synths. After listening, I'm definitely keeping my eye on Ebay for a couple of choice tone makers. With the 'VOL 1' extension on the title, I hope this is an ongoing collection that will deepen the choice of sounds from the present keyboard line, and extend the range of keyboards. The sound quality is Excellent, and for instant 'go-to' sounds that you might need to pop in to tracks, this is a great addition to the arsenal.
Price $49
... With the 'VOL 1' extension on the title, I hope this is an ongoing collection that will deepen the choice of sounds from the present keyboard line, and extend the range of keyboards. ...
Gorgeous lush analoguy warm vs Crisp digital brilliance. Really well captured sound.
wide variety of presets representing a wide history of synthmania
Kontakt and EXS24 ready
LOVE IT OR HATE IT
If you want a good selection of usable classic sounds from a rich variety of classic and modern synths, this is a great selection. Obviously if you want more out of one particular synth, then you should go get that instead!
CONS
You need the full version of Kontakt 4 to use the sample
Audio Damage have just released the Filterstation plugin; a stereo filter and envelope follower combined. Modeled somewhat after hardware filters such as the Sherman Filterbank, the Filterstation contains several different filter emulations, routing and modulation options, for creative filtering of your audio
The filterstation follows neatly with the Audiodamage design style - the GUI is dark with bright and inoffensive orange highlights, a very simple layout, and extremely clear numerical readouts of all the parameters.
An XY window contains a graphic of the 2 filters - the axes representing the resonance and frequency of each filter. It's possible to click and drag each filter separately in the window, or click the link between them and drag them in unison.
The 2 filters are available in several tasty flavours - lowpass, highpass and bandpass, with emulations resembling the Moog filter to the MS-20, straight 2, 3 and 4 pole filters and several different versions in between, all selectable from a drop down menu. They sound great and there are a few differences in the tone and vibe of the filter algorithms. There's also an analog saturation slider to increase grit.
The 2 filters can be routed 3 different ways - serial, parallel, and stereo. Serial routing means filter one's output goes into filter 2's input, then out. In Parallel, the same signal goes through filter 1 and filter 2, then the outputs are combined to one signal. Stereo is one channel per filter. It's good to flick between these options as the routing options can create very different sonic results.
For modulation, there is an LFO, that is assigned to the frequency of one or both of the filters. There are different waveshapes, from the usual sine, triangle, square, to slightly more unusual spike and 4 fixed pattern shapes. Enough variety to keep you playing. As well as the LFO, there is a simple envelope follower, with attack and decay controls.
Each filter has envelope and LFO amounts that can go negatively or positively, so that the LFO and envelope can affect each filter differently, and even have the opposite effect, if one is positive, the other negative.
There are a couple of interesting additions to filterstation:
One that you don't see very often, is a sidechain input. The sidechain runs into the envelope, and uses the incoming audio to affect the filter envelope. So drum hits could trigger the filtering of a big bass sound, for example - an interesting alternative to sidechain compression.
The other interesting addition is the Midi control. Not only is filterstation fully automatable within DAWS, but it responds to midi note input too. The filter frequency will set to the pitch of the midi note you play. If you set the resonance fairly high, you can get some interesting results!
There are some useful presets to get you started, and it's easy to save your own presets, and transfer them across different platforms without any problems. Here's a video of me messing around with Filterstation on a simple synth pad.
Here's a track I made whilst messing around with Filterstation. There's an instance of Filterstation on every track, and one on the master buss.
Conclusion I think Audio Damage have created a great little plugin here. It doesn't have many bells and whistles, and while I would have liked some different modulation routing options, I think that it would have taken away from the brilliant simplicity of the plugin. It has fewer options than some other soft filters out there, but it does a few things very very well, sounds excellent, is super intuitive, and doesn't break the bank. Great job Audio Damage!
Price $49
... it does a few things very very well, sounds excellent, is super intuitive, and doesn't break the bank. Great job Audiodamage!...
If you're looking for a fairly simple automatable filter, with a great sound, this is the one for you. If you're looking for more complicated plugins with loads of bells and whistles, loads of Mod and LFO options, there are many other plugin options out there.
Reverb – an indispensable tool for sound engineers, one that has been through countless mutations over the course of recording history. While any and all recordings benefit from the subtle embellishment of a little reverb “space,” the effect is sometimes applied in dramatic doses. Be it from a room, a plate unit (like the venerable EMT 140), a digital rack unit (like ones made legendary by Lexicon), or a state-of-the-art plug-in, reverb is squarely cemented as the quintessential sound processing tool of pros and joes alike. It seems that software reverbs have been through just as much permeation as their hardware counterparts. While much fanfare has, in recent years, touted the value of the impulse response, many artists and producers have been leaning toward the more obvious, algorithmic reverbs lately. A rising star in the field, Valhalla DSP serves their latest update to their lauded Room plug-in, version 1.0.7. The update adds new “Dark” chamber and space modes, bringing a new dimension of grit, warmth, and girth to the already popular reverb plug. While plentiful in both the hardware and software worlds, it seems that truly great, certifiably useful reverbs are few and far between. Thankfully, Valhalla has done so well with their reverb plug-in, that it is quickly gaining ground as the foremost in the field of algorithmic reverberation units. Room is a cross-platform (Win/OSX 32/64- bit) plug-in available in both VST and AU formats, respectively.
The plug-in's interface is decidedly simple, concealing a strikingly robust feature set. With a typeface that is loud and proud, the intuitive controls also benefit from mouse-over tooltips for each parameter. These controls are smart and include the expected sliders for Mix, Pre-delay, Decay, High Cut, and Depth. These basic controls work in conjunction with the intriguing and powerful 'Early” and “Late” dialogs which are switchable, allowing both views to occupy the same screen real estate. It is in these reflection - algorithm controls that Valhalla Room really steps out from the rest of the pack. The knobs let the user adjust various settings related to the respective elements that make a reverb (quite literally) what it is. The “Early” view allows the user to adjust the relative “size” of the space and control the amount of modulation ,among other useful features. The “Late” view offers the user all that, plus adds filtering and crossover options for increased realism.
Sonically, there is something beautiful, musical, and precise (yet not surgical) about the sound. The new “Dark” modes are aptly fitted to their moniker, offering a warm wash of ambiance to treated tracks in a truly ear-pleasing manner. The original room and chamber modes from the plug are just as useful, too, from subtle room-sized emulations to massive chamber and hall emulations. Whereas in the past, most reverb units were hit-and-miss in terms of consistent quality between their included room types, Valhalla demonstrates incredible consistency between room modes. The large, small, bright, and dark types are all distinct from one another, and distinctly useful. This consistency makes the $50 USD price-tag of the Room plug all the more irresistible. Like many sound fanatics, I have been using impulses for some time now, and had come to feel that those technological wonders might well be the pinnacle of reverb on a budget. Valhalla Room has cast doubt in that direction. Not only does the plug-in sound great, it is also light on its feet. In my Intel I3-equipped laptop, the plug-in performed on under 2% or CPU in each instance, allowing me to treat tracks and buses in a variety of working scenarios. That kind of performance negates most of the impulses out there. From the resource efficiency, to the clean interface, great sound, and tool-tip implementation, everything about Valhalla Room simply screams “tightly coded excellence.”
Conclusion As in life, variety is the spice of reverb, and while it may not truly replace every other unit out there (notably absent are any “plate” reverb-like sounds), Valhalla is a worthy addition to any plug-in collection, and can quickly and easily become the “go to” reverb for practically any sound engineer.
Price $50 USD
...everything about Valhalla Room simply screams “tightly coded excellence.”
Dave Gamble, owner of DMG Audio, has drawn on years of experience at Novation, Sonalksis, Brainworx and Focusrite, to come up with the vision and creation of Compassion - a highly flexible and configurable dynamics processor plugin, that fits into most DAW's in VST, RTAS and AU format. On the website, DMG state that their aim in creating Compassion was to make a plugin that was 'a model of dynamic processing that included all the different schools of design', so that you didn't have to have several different compression plugins for different uses, but could go to Compassion for it all. At the same time, it was to be simple to approach and intuitive to use.
Overview
Upon opening the plugin, there is a good-looking and straightforward GUI in the same colour scheme as DMG's first plugin (Equality) The parameter controls are as you would see in any compressor: threshold, ratio, attack, release and makeup gain. These are the basics for any compressor - how much you want to squash the signal volume, how quickly, and how fast to 'un-squash' it. The attack and release start at a ridiculously fast 0ms, and work up. There's also auto-release, and auto-makeup gain buttons, enabling quick level setting depending on what audio you have passing through.
A large section of the plugin is taken up by a graphic display that scrolls the audio waveform as it passes through the plugin. As you go to work on the compression, the visual clearly displays what part of the audio is being affected, and how much compression is happening. For someone starting to get their head around the concept of compression, this is an extremely useful tool. It's also possible to directly grab the waveform and alter the amount of compression just by moving the mouse up and down.
A preset menu contains 15 presets with no fuss titles: main buss, heavy drum compression, bass squash etc. I would have loved a few more presets utilizing some of the other aspects of Compassion (more on that later). Within the same section is another menu entitled 'Mods'. The mods are killer - instead of being straight presets, they are 'character' additions to whatever compression you dial in. They are presets of parameters that affect the colour of the sound, not the compression, and are intended to emulate, in the opinion of the creator, the characteristics of any classic hardware compressor you can think of. So in practice, you dial in your compression, then select the 'mod' from a selection of 30, with names like Opto, FET, classic british style, etc. It's a really great way to compare different flavours of compression from over the years.
There's a dry/wet mix knob - which I found useful to easily recreate the NYC parallel compressed sound, without any setup. There's a sidechain button, to let the plugin know to look for external audio to trigger the compression. This isn't standard on many compressors, and is a welcome addition - I find sidechaining extremely useful in many situations. At the top of the plugin is also a menu bar that contains an A/B comparison menu that actually goes up to H, providing 8 different settings that you can save, then audition through.
More than modelling
Gamble writes that although Compassion started as a modeling compressor, it quickly became more than that, and with the addition of the Advanced settings, there lie the extended capabilities of Gate/expansion, upward compression, transient design, deep sidechaining, clip limiting, and shaping of attack and release curves. So in the menu bar is another button that opens a lower window containing all the (80+) parameters for more advanced options that enable all these different dynamic processing elements.
In this advanced window you'll find:
- Two EQ's (one sidechain, one main) - Deeper parameters for Threshold, Ratio, attack, release, and auto release (such as envelope shapes, for attack and release) -Transient design and clip limiting.
There's too much here to go into all of it. But I'll dip into a couple of them, to give you an idea of the depth of the capabilities of this plugin.
One EQ is for the sidechain. You can get really specific on what frequencies you want to trigger the compression. So for example you could EQ out the mid and top frequencies on an incoming drum mix signal, meaning that the main trigger for the sidechain would only be the kick drum, instead of kick, snare and hihat. The other EQ is for the main mix, input and output, which provides more flexibility in the kind of sound that you create - (you could isolate a certain frequency range in the dry mix; add it to the wet mix and boost a certain area of the sound.)
The transient designer and clip limiter are sections that I really liked. Once compression's been applied to sound, you sometimes find that you've lost some of the edge and snappiness of the sound. This is especially true of percussive rhythmic audio. The transient designer here enables you to bring back some of the attack of the sound, enabling a more aggressive, driving sound to the audio material. I found this particular transient designer really useful, not only bringing back the snap on the snare and the click on the kick, but going beyond and enabling deep transformation of sounds. The parameters on the transient designer include attack level, sustain level, attack and sustain envelope speed, and envelope follower. Here's a quick clip of different settings on the transient designer on a simple drum loop:
And here's a track I wrote, using Compassion plugin on several tracks, and on the main buss.
Conclusion
This really is an excellent dynamics plugin. There's way more to this plugin than I could cover in this article. DMG has done a great job at giving the choice between using Compassion as a basic compressor, and diving into the plugin as a really controllable dynamics processor. I learned a lot about dynamics processing just from playing round with different parameters and listening. This plugin is a fantastic addition for anyone to stock up their dynamic processing plugin collection with. It is possible to tweak sound clinically and with subtlety, and yet also be able to really sculpt and design the sound you want with the material you have. The only thought I had was it would be great if there were a larger supply of presets/mods to tweak for those on a time crunch.
Price 149 British Pounds (roughly $245 in today's delightful economy...)
... I learned a lot about dynamics processing just from playing round with different parameters and listening...
If you're looking for a one button compressor, a la Waves OneKnob, this is not for you. If you're looking for a deep do-all dynamics processor, you won't do much better than this.
CONS
The only weakness is the menu/preset system, which sometimes doesn't seem to reset properly if you change presets.
It'd be great if there were more presets, and mods ( maybe even a forum for users to add theirs?)
Native Instruments has partnered with Swedish modeling wizards Softube to release Vintage Compressors. Their VC76, VC2A, and VC160 are based on 3 studio classics, the Universal Audio 1176, Teletronix LA2A, and DBX 160. Softube has a very successful track record of high-end hardware modeling which has garnered endorsements from the original designers of gems like the Trident A Range EQ and Tube Tech CL1B, so I was excited to be able to dig in to these effects, and I'm pleased with the results.
In addition to faithful emulations of the original features, all models include an expert panel (accessible via a disclosure triangle on the right edge) that reveals a Dry Level fader, a Side Chain button, and, on the VC2A and VC160, a Low Cut Filter on the detector circuit. These additions are welcome improvements on the originals, and extend the functionality quite a bit. The Dry Level allows for simple parallel compression without having to go through any additional bussing. Note that Output can still add gain to the signal, even when Dry is at %100, so pay attention to the interaction between these two controls. The Low Cut is very handy for things like preventing a robust kick from triggering the gain reduction on a drum loop while controlling wild crash cymbals nicely.
I will provide descriptions of each compressor, followed by several example clips. All clips have been normalized to distill the plugin effects from the changes in volume.
VC2A The LA2A is an electro-optical tube compressor. This design tends to have a slow response and impart general warmth to the signal. The VC2A behaves accordingly. It is the simplest of the bunch, with just gain reduction and output knobs, and also highest on the immediate gratification scale. Set the gain reduction, raise the output to taste, and you're good to go. One of the best uses is on vocals. This clip is dry, then through the VC2A.
Notice how the compressed signal is fuller. The VC2A evens out the 2 phrases and brings out the body in the voice.
The manual suggests using the VC2A on guitar, bass, and vocals. Notably missing are drums, presumably due to the slower response and lack of precise control. However, I really like how the VC2A sounds on a stereo drum submix. It can add a subtle big room sound. Sometimes it was useful to have something faster (like the VC76) in front of it for tight transient control, and then to use the VC2A to fatten things up.
VC160 The VC160 is especially adept at accentuating the attack of sounds while generally tightening the decay. As such it is well suited to individual drum sounds or percussive bass. It can act like a transient shaper with automatic envelopes that just happen to work well in a lot of music. However, it's possible to go too far and choke the life out of some material, so use with care.
The following clip is a slap bass loop dry, then through the VC160. Because of the tightening of the decay portion of the notes, it can sound like a bit of the low end is removed. This is not always bad, as it can help parts fit in a mix or remove tubbiness.
VC76 The VC 76 has the most control of the bunch. It can be a lot more surgical and powerful, but it's also the easiest to abuse, so don't get frustrated if the results aren't quite as immediate as with the other two. However, it's still pretty tough to get a bad sound out of it if you spend a few minutes getting it dialed. Universal Audio lists the attack/release times of the original 1176 as follows:
Attack: 20 microseconds to 800 microseconds
Release: 50 milliseconds to 1.1 seconds
Even at the slowest setting, the attack is VERY fast compared to a lot of other compressors, so adjust your use accordingly. Adding a bit of dry level can help if you lose too much transient information. Also note that he Attack and Release are "backward", just like the original, i.e. 1 (CCW) is the slowest, and 7 (CW) is the fastest. I found Attack=3 and Release=5 to be good starting points for most applications.
This clip demonstrates how the VC76 can add snap and girth to a bouncy acid line (courtesy Audiorealism ABL2), then how the VC160 can tighten the decay. The clip is dry, VC76, dry, then VC160.
In the next clip I use all three compressors to contrast their tendencies. The progression is dry, VC76, dry, VC160, dry, then VC2A.
Observe how the VC76 can absolutely manhandle the drums. Of course it doesn't have to be this extreme, but I like it. The VC160 treatment is more subtle, just stiffening it up a bit. Lastly the VC2A adds some gentle room to the loop.
But wait, Guitar Rig? My biggest criticism of Vintage Compressors is that they run inside Guitar Rig Player, the Guitar Rig GUI that NI has started to use for other products such as the Traktor's 12, Reflektor, and Rammfire. The main problem is that Guitar Rig takes up a ton of screen real estate, and can be cumbersome on a smaller laptop screen. It adds unnecessary complication, and there are some setup tweaks (enable L/R channels, disable limiter and gate, make sure input/output gain are at unity) that you need to keep in mind. However, there are simple workarounds (create templates with default settings, minimize elements of Guitar Rig), and a few silver linings that I'm starting to like quite a bit.
Running inside Guitar Rig complicates saving presets, though it does allow for new options. I like to keep my presets organized in folders. In Logic, I now have to create several extra folders in order to keep my presets separated by compressor, e.g. guitar rig/compressors/VC76. On the other hand, I can group presets by role, and mix and match between the 3 compressors, e.g. guitar rig/compressors/bass (and have all my VC76, VC160, and VC2A for bass in the same folder).
One of the nice things about the Guitar Rig interface is that it allows me to have all 3 compressors in 1 instance of GR. I can then easily switch between or combine to find best results. Most of all, if you have Guitar Rig Pro 4, you can quickly create complex effects chains with other Guitar Rig effects. Highly recommended!
While I would prefer to be able to run each plugin without the Guitar Rig shell, I'm more than placated by the additional creative options that this arrangement creates.
Tips and Tricks Precise adjustments can be tricky with the front dials, but by switching to Controls View in Logic (wherein the GUI is replaced by numbered faders) you can make more precise numerical adjustments.
If you need to get clinical about comparing compressed vs. dry, it's helpful to use a gain plugin in front of Guitar Rig when the compressor is bypassed in order to make sure your dry signal has the same peak level as the compressed signal. This way you can be sure that the compressor isn't just making things louder. On the other hand, sometimes life is too short for A/B comparisons, so just go with what works for your mix.
All models allow a 1:1 ratio (or 0 gain reduction on the VC2A, effectively the same thing) so you can use just their color or distortion characteristics. I like to run synths through Moogerfooger pedals with the Mix=0 (i.e. dry) with the drive cranked. Using these plugins in this manner provided me with a more convenient way to achieve similar results.
Here is an example of this technique. First the ABL loop dry, then through the VC76, VC160, and VC2A. The VC2A can get especially ballsy.
The cumulative effect of using these tools across many elements of a mix is where they really shine, even when the individual effects are used subtly.
The meters (like VU meters) are sluggish, and the program dependent compression contours take some tweaking, so use your ears not your eyes to dial the mix.
I use Novation's Automap Pro on most of my AU plugins. For some reason the automapped versions did not show he side chain selection menu in Logic on my Mac Pro, though it was available on my Macbook Pro. (To be clear, I'm referring to Logic's internal side chain selection drop down in the upper right corner of the GUI, not the side chain button in the Vintage Compressors). I don't know if this problem is due to Logic, Guitar Rig, Automap, or pilot error, but I've read that others have had trouble with sidechain operation so I thought it would be worth mentioning.
Conclusion Native instruments and Softube have done well. Up until recently some of the best vintage emulations required hardware acceleration, and/or were fairly spendy. They've provided solid versions of these 3 iconic studio tools in the native format at a reasonable price. Vintage Compressors have found a place in my go-to arsenal for dynamics control.
As soon as UA can catch up with back orders, I'll have a 6176 and UAD card. I look forward to comparing the hardware, UAD versions, and the NI versions. In the meantime I'm quite satisfied with these options.
Price 229$/199 euro
...solid versions of these 3 iconic studio tools in the native format at a reasonable price...
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