The worst sounding compressor

[Ganool]

Although I do appreciate transparent compressors when dealing with vocals - I have a penchant for odd, lo-fi compressors, especially when shaping the sound of drums. My latest favorite setup includes an Ensoniq DP/4 with a chain like this: compressor, vcf distortion, compressor, compressor, and it works wonders on drums.

Since Scope is perfect for this kind of sound processing - this is on top of my lift of things to try out.

What compressors have the least transparent sound and are prone to pump?

/C

[astroman]

I suspect one can tweak Aderns FatCat to be pretty muddy and pumping (not really tried THAT yet...)
but one of the most sh*tty squashers is the IK Multimedia Ampeg SVX plugin (native)
(strangely it sounds quite good after all... characteristic ?)

cheers, Tom

[Ganool]

I suspect one can tweak Aderns FatCat to be pretty muddy and pumping

Funny - I was actually eying that one! Will download and experiment. Damn - I can't wait until I get my new sound card so I can start creating all my mad chains. That's what always bring down my Mac to its knees and I have to start freeze tracks.

/C

[spacef]

you will certainly not be able to replicate an Ensoniq distortion with Scope or anything else.... all their effects are pretty unique and sound through the hardware anyways (I have the EPS 16+; which has the full range of effects of the DP4). But scope has different sounds that are great too, mixing all together you will make your sound more interesting.

[Ganool]

you will certainly not be able to replicate an Ensoniq distortion with Scope or anything else.... all their effects are pretty unique and sound through the hardware anyways (I have the EPS 16+; which has the full range of effects of the DP4).

Hey SpaceF - I just found an old version of your Blackbox software on my Creamware system! Very nice. You haven't thought about making some compression tools aimed for sound design? I'm sure you could come up with some interesting solutions

I totally agree with you that the Ensoniq effects are unique, especially the distortion is absolutely gorgeous! I also got hooked with Ensoniq with the EPS 16+ back in the day. But I'm not after replicating the sound of Ensoniq - I have a DP/4 right here on my desk, but rather effects that have different qualities.

I don't want to throw dirt on people emulating old signal processors, there seems to be an never ending demand for Pultecs, SSLs, Neve and Universal Audios - they are all fine. But from my personal perspective - these are utterly boring. The other day I was actually looking for some old Alesis nano compressors, Peavey multieffects, and stuff from Boss in the 90s. I'm very curious on how they will distort the sound when pushed hard.

The same goes for digital reverbs. When I was creating a soundset for the Waldorf Largo, I was amazed on how artificial the built-in reverb sounded - but together with the wavetable synthesis - it worked very well. The other day I was experimenting with my ASR-10 - the 44.1 kHz reverb = sleeping pill. But the "normal" ASR reverbs were great! Dirty and with character.

/C

[spacef]

Hi Ganool,
No , there is no dynamic effects in the blackbox.

But now, there is the modular III and IV from SC, and you can think of what happens in a compressor, and create something that will work like a compressor, and introduce some "mistakes" in it.

There are two methods:
- an envelope follower with the output amplitude inversed (so it goes down when volume goes up)
- an VCA triggered by audio: if volume > threshold, then switch to VCAed circuit: the VCA source can be an enveloppe follower, or an ADSR (ADSR is more complicated because it triggers the same enevlope each time, so it might actually sound strange). Myself, in the modular mixer sidechain modules, i use VCA triggered by envelope follower: it makes compression, expension, gate....

I think Atom is the one who posted a "compressor" made that way in the modular patch section.
Find it or contact him for more info


And yes, me neither, I never found a reverb that sounded as interesting as the Ensoniq reverbs: even with their imprfections, they have something that can't be found elsewhere, and that translate extermely well in any mix. even the resonance you can get on snares and stuff like that was interesting ....
It's all the imperfections of those effects that make them so great (the phaser, you can do crazy stuff with it).....

[astroman]

imho you can't do much in Scope (or any similiar environment) regarding compression ... of REAL signals.
They passed an input stage (usually an opamp) with a definite dynamic response, passed on to a converter with a ... you guessed it...
Then comes a bit of numeric processing - ok at THAT point you have all the freedom in the world.
But that's on completely different time-scale regarding the signal.

No idea what an analog compressor performs in that regard (I lack the gear to measure) - certainly far from perfect...
In particular from the bass point of view I find it strange that noone ever complained about clicks and distortion in ANYTHING that does fast envelope processing, be it Vinco, Transient Designer or FATCat.
Imo it's 'natural' due to the time a cycle of a (for example) deep 'E'-string needs to complete... and I'm far from complaining.

But it shows that you really HAVE limits in processing such stuff in realtime.
I'd really like to try a real 1176 in that regard... just don't want to spend the cash for relevation atm

Anyway, I noticed that while trying to use Vinco as a limiter against too hot levels, which is a legitimate use imho.
Possibly an idiotic approach because the hardware might fail and click as well... dunno... but I'd expect it (at least) to be less harsh if distortion is inevitable (probably due to afforementioned time constraints).
I'd also assume the analogue performance to be extremely unpredictable in that domain, as there's not much of an envelope to follow anyway. With higher notes that#s a different story, tho.

My bottomline is there's stuff that makes few sense to emulate, as it's either unpredictable or way too complex.
I have a funny device from a company called Novanex, sold as a 'bass practice amp' for home use (a 5 Watt, 8 inch cube).
Well, it hardly does any bass at all... but that's not the point.
It's got an integrated poweramp chip with such a sh*tty tone, that it's purely amazing. Empasized by a Philips cardboard driver...
You just can't emulate that soundprint, it REALLY sucks, but is totally cool. It's cutting, harsh, earbleeding... fortunately the level is limited by nature...

So my ultimate tip to Ganool would be hardware again... there are early dbx compression units that usually sold with tape recorders in the 70s - that will most likely be more appropriate than our cool digital stuff.
I'm fully with Mehdi regarding strange and special units...

cheers, Tom

[Ganool]

In the late 80s early 90s lots of really odd stuff came out in the market. While I have a penchant for all Ensoniq - what else is in the same caliber? Effect-wise I mean.

[spacef]

nothing