multiband compressor recommendations - as in i need some

mosca · Post by **mosca** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 10:55 pm

preferably free but hey ho

what do you recommend

mosca

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 11:39 pm

xp/win2000 or osx?

randyh · Post by **randyh** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 2:08 am

mosca wrote:preferably free but hey ho

what do you recommend

mosca

If you're mastering your own stuff, I recommend you not use one at all. Most pro mastering engineers consider multi-comps more of a surgical tool used to fix something really wrong in a mix. They generally just use a really really nice single band compressor and eq to do their work. Multiband comps are considered kind of "dirty" because you have to split the signal into bands which ends up coloring the sound.

When I found this out I was so relieved because I have never been able to get a good sound out of a "normal" multiband compressor like C4. It always seemed to just squeeze the life out of everything. The only time it was useful for me was when I had to fix an extremely poorly produced track that was written by someone else. So everything the pros said basically lined up with my own experiences.

Before I make any specific recommendations though, I need to know if you're on PC or Mac. It would also help if I knew what style of music you are producing/mastering.

EDIT: Actually, another important thing to ask is what you're using it for. I assumed you're going to use it for mastering but maybe not. A friend of mine who does a lot of acoustic recording uses multi-band comps on single tracks all the time. He finds them much more useful for tracking than mastering.

-r

mosca · Post by **mosca** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 9:05 am

its winxp

essentially - im using say 3 or 4 drum tracks (breakbeats and simplers) and because there are several kick drums happening at the same time the bottom end can become quite muddy - i just need to tighten it up a bit.

this is purely for my won stuff - it's not going to be released anytime soon so i wouldnt be using a pro mastering suite

cheers
mosca

randyh · Post by **randyh** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 2:07 pm

mosca wrote:its winxp

essentially - im using say 3 or 4 drum tracks (breakbeats and simplers) and because there are several kick drums happening at the same time the bottom end can become quite muddy - i just need to tighten it up a bit.

this is purely for my won stuff - it's not going to be released anytime soon so i wouldnt be using a pro mastering suite

cheers
mosca

The answer to this dilemma is most definitely not multiband compression. you'll just end up with more "under control" mud. You need to remove the bass from all of the loops but 1, whichever one has the bass you like. Put a high-pass filter on the other parts to remove the low end. You might get away with 2 parts having bass but you have to eq them so that they're not colliding.

With that said, here:

http://www.ismusic.ne.jp/slim_slow_slider/vst/
(scroll down to C3 multiband compressor)

and if you want something better but not free:

http://www.voxengo.com/voxformer/

it's made for vocal processing but can be used for other stuff. Most importantly it has a 2-band compressor that's extremely easy to use. It's got lots of other stuff there too you might find handy. I'd recommend soniformer (voxengo's other multiband comp) but I've always found it pretty confusing.

-r

mosca · Post by **mosca** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 3:04 pm

cheers man - appreciated

mosca

montrealbreaks · Post by **montrealbreaks** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 11:54 pm

A pretty cool multiband compressor is the PSP vintage warmer. Yeah, I use it on full mixes (guilty) but then again I use it REALLY sparingly - and use it to limit more than compress.

One thing I can suggest with a multi band compressor is to use it for breakbeats where you have totally different drum kits hitting totally different beats back n' forth... for instance, two totally different drum samples in legato mode, or using the crossfader to slap 'em back n' forth.

The multiband compressor keeps the two samples at the same sonic levels relative to each other across the frequency spectrum, reducing the perceptive changes to the mix when you switch beats. This perceptive difference can be a good thing (think a clean, dynamic beat interrupted with a band pass filtered distorted and compressed crunchie roller) but sometimes you want it more transparent. That's when multiband compressors REALLY come through.

With three bands, try to find your ideal cross over points: Compare the two kick drums in a wave editor, and check out the initial transients. If they're nice and sharp (real drums or mid range sine wave kicks with a sharp decay envelope) use the higher freq kick of the two to figure out the frequency range of that transient. That will be your low/mid crossover point.

this way, you can isolate your kicks as one unit, and when you slip back n' forth between 'em, you won't cut off the transients of one of the kits or samples.

It's hard to do the same "attack frequency" trick with the mid/hi crossover, because of the complexity of the waves, but try to isolate the snares from the hi-hats n' cymbals. Again, doing this will ensure that your snares are at an equal level when you switch back n' forth.

Naturally, you may have to EQ to correct things, but hey - that's life.

mikemc · Post by **mikemc** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:23 pm

Set up three return tracks. Put the audio clip you want to experiment with in an audio track, out to sends only. Put all the sends on the audio track to 100%. In each of the return tracks effects chains, have Live's 3 band EQ and Compressor 2 in that order, where in each of the returns turn on the EQ one of Low, Med or Hi: three discrete bands with separate compression. Not exactly economical cpu wise of course.

spiderprod · Post by **spiderprod** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:42 pm

i m addicted to the steinberg mastering edition vst plugins .the multiband sound good to me

feyshay · Post by **feyshay** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 5:53 pm

I like Montreal's rec's. I also like the 3 separate compressor for low/mid/high.
PSP Audioware won't refer to their Vintage Warmer as a multi-band compressor, but you should definitely try that out. It seems more than and less than a multi-band compressor. Whatever the case, your sound will always be improved. Gotta pay for it.
If you want 32 different "bands", you could go with Voxengo's Soniformer. Pretty impressive, although it can get CPU intensive (expectably so with that much modulation). That'll cost you too.
I was not impressed with the freebie multi-band, although I tried out several of the recommended ones.

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:06 pm

mosca, i know you're looking for free... but at least try out iZotope Ozone trial. Its more than just a MultiBand compressor, there's also a great reverb in it (kinda piggish tho), a maximizer, a great EQ/Spectral comparison, and 2 other dynamics/fx. all for $200. so when you look at as a 6 part plugin, $200 aint so bad. Plus the interface is incredible.

http://izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/

mosca · Post by **mosca** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:00 pm

thanks guys

lots of homework for me

mos

montrealbreaks · Post by **montrealbreaks** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:19 pm

AdamJay wrote:mosca, i know you're looking for free... but at least try out iZotope Ozone trial. Its more than just a MultiBand compressor, there's also a great reverb in it (kinda piggish tho), a maximizer, a great EQ/Spectral comparison, and 2 other dynamics/fx. all for $200. so when you look at as a 6 part plugin, $200 aint so bad. Plus the interface is incredible.

http://izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/

The wierd thing with the Izotope Ozone is the LATENCY it adds. It changes depending on what parts you turn on...

For instance The Vintage Warmer always adds around 8 milliseconds on my computer at 256 samples (it of course depends on your system, sample rate, sound card, sample buffer size, etc etc etc). The Ozone added a MINIMUM of 17 milliseconds with the loudness maximizer on. However, just using the multiband compressor and nothing else, I got it down to 3 milliseconds.

AdamJay · Post by **AdamJay** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 8:11 pm

yea, and its wierd that all that latency is in the Loudness maximizer.
since i also own Waves L2, i found myself rarely using the Loudness maximizer in Ozone.

I find myself using the EQ (i love the snapshots feature), Stereo Imager, and occasionally the Harmonic exciter. But i do it all very subtley.
My master chain also has PSP VW, Waves 4-band TransX on occasion, and Waves L2 with IDR dither. For me, i find character in using multiple plugins subtley. It can really make for a full, unique sound.

montrealbreaks · Post by **montrealbreaks** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 9:33 pm

AdamJay wrote:yea, and its wierd that all that latency is in the Loudness maximizer..

Possibly some sort of look-ahead limiting, the buffer size of which is dependant on the program material?

multiband compressor recommendations - as in i need some

multiband compressor recommendations - as in i need some

Re: multiband compressor recommendations - as in i need some

poor man's duct tape multiband comp...

multiband