Live's Compressors

krank · Post by **krank** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 4:32 pm

Any of you prefer Live's compressors over freeware plug-ins like CamelPhatFree or Blockfish?

The reverb is another no-go for me.

Yet I kind of want to like everything in Live.

Please convince me.

Thanks.

DJ VAKIS · Post by **DJ VAKIS** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 4:39 pm

I think live's compressors are good,to me.

frankie123 · Post by **frankie123** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 4:40 pm

I was pretty impressed by blockfish. I think it is a better compressor then the abletons stock compressor.

Pepehouse · Post by **Pepehouse** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 5:32 pm

Live compressors suck!

M. Bréqs · Post by **M. Bréqs** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 5:47 pm

The compressors and the EQ3 are the only really mediocre quality effects in Live - everything else is pretty solid.

For character I enjoy Blockfish, Vintagewarmer (in single band mode), and George Yehong's limiter (don't remember the name, the L1 simulation).

For transparency, I use the mda compressor and limiter. They're CPU light as well.

I generally only use Live's compressors as auto-levelers - fast attack, very low ratio (1.2 to 1.5), low threshold (-30 or lower) and the longest release possible. I keep one on problematic channels with clips of different volumes... It's just so that if I set the channel fader to -8, I know it's not going to jump to 0 db if I trigger a louder clip, but the light ratio and slow release ensure that I won't colour the sound.

krank · Post by **krank** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 6:05 pm

M. Bréqs wrote:The compressors and the EQ3 are the only really mediocre quality effects in Live - everything else is pretty solid.

For character I enjoy Blockfish, Vintagewarmer (in single band mode), and George Yehong's limiter (don't remember the name, the L1 simulation).

For transparency, I use the mda compressor and limiter. They're CPU light as well.

I generally only use Live's compressors as auto-levelers - fast attack, very low ratio (1.2 to 1.5), low threshold (-30 or lower) and the longest release possible. I keep one on problematic channels with clips of different volumes... It's just so that if I set the channel fader to -8, I know it's not going to jump to 0 db if I trigger a louder clip, but the light ratio and slow release ensure that I won't colour the sound.

Thanks for your input.

I've used Blockfish and W1 a lot too. I was looking to get into the mda and the mdspCompressor before my computer crashed. New machine is an Intel Mac, which is why I'm kind of reviewing my plug-in situation.

You like Live's reverb?

DJ VAKIS · Post by **DJ VAKIS** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 6:16 pm

Use what ever you like,and most important use your ears.There are many plugins out there,but dosen't mean you must buy all of them,just get the ones that you like.

M. Bréqs · Post by **M. Bréqs** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 6:30 pm

krank wrote:
You like Live's reverb?

I'm not much of a reverb fanatic, like most audio enthusiasts are. For me, I use reverb only very sparingly, so quality is less of an issue than CPU power... And Live's Reverb on 1st class is easy enough on the CPU and quality enough for me.

But again, reverb isn't very important to me...

krank · Post by **krank** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 6:36 pm

DJ VAKIS wrote:Use what ever you like,and most important use your ears.There are many plugins out there,but dosen't mean you must buy all of them,just get the ones that you like.

I stand in awe.

evildick · Post by **evildick** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 7:36 pm

Lives Reverb is pretty thin sounding but it works nice on percussive sounds.

Nice algorithmic Reverbs are:
- ArtsAcoustic Reverb
- WaveArts MasterVerb

qbical · Post by **qbical** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 8:36 pm

You can make it thicker by adding some flanging or phasing effects to the chain... Works great...