Glue Compressor - it's damn good, right?

[stevemac]

Hi everyone,

Recently I've been going through an exercise to cut down FX plugins and learn certain ones inside-out. I've sorted my choice for EQ, Reverb and Delay and now I'm looking at compression.

Anyway, I was testing Glue Compressor against a variety of Waves plugins:
Waves CLA-76
Waves CLA-2A
Waves SSL Bus Comp

Now these are all different styles of compressor (1176, LA2A & SSL) but I felt the best all rounder, and often the best sounding, was the Glue Compressor! I tested against a few things; bass, drums, parallel.

I must admit I was surprised given the price of these.

I will freely admit that whilst I understand compression and techniques more than most, I have never been a big user of it so I wanted to make sure I'm not missing something here to be honest. Do more experienced compressionists here agree that it's pretty damn nice??

cheers

[Samuel L. Jizzle]

I prefer the regular compressor. More precise, more flexible, yet easier to use.

[Michael Hatsis]

I personally love it..its a pretty crazy compressor...tons of character,def my favorite character comp... I know its supposed to be a bus compressor but I use it all the time to make things smack and add some transient shaping snap to single sounds. Also, the Clipper is amazing. lots of times I just bypass the compressor and use the clipper to make stuff sooooper loud. or use em both in combination.
its def not a bread and butter compressor though, If I need typical compression stuff Ill use the one from Live 8 and if I need some real smooth stuff Ill use the Live 9 comp. Live 9s is a bit too smooth for me for most of the stuff I do.


Edit*** also, I have no clue how true to a SSL Bus comp it is but I don't care at all. Sounds amazing either way

Mike

[stevemac]

Also, the Clipper is amazing. lots of times I just bypass the compressor and use the clipper

How do you do this? Is it like using an 1176 on 1:1 ratio and driving the input to add distortion??

[TomViolenz]

Also, the Clipper is amazing.

I wish Cytomic would have added that as well to their redesign of EQ8. Or even better: one for each band
The sounddesign possibilities would have been endless!

[Michael Hatsis]

Also, the Clipper is amazing. lots of times I just bypass the compressor and use the clipper

How do you do this? Is it like using an 1176 on 1:1 ratio and driving the input to add distortion??

There's a few ways to do it. since there is no 1:1 setting on the Glue, I usually do it like this:
- turn on the 'soft' button
- set the range to '0' - that basically say's "Don't compress"
- Hit the 'Makeup' Knob - that will drive the signal into the clipper

[Michael Hatsis]

Also, the Clipper is amazing.

I wish Cytomic would have added that as well to their redesign of EQ8. Or even better: one for each band
The sounddesign possibilities would have been endless!

Just put one after the EQ. A Multiband Clipper ( w the glue clipper ) would be cool though. obviously u can make one w racks.

[stevemac]

There's a few ways to do it. since there is no 1:1 setting on the Glue, I usually do it like this:
- turn on the 'soft' button
- set the range to '0' - that basically say's "Don't compress"
- Hit the 'Makeup' Knob - that will drive the signal into the clipper

Of course, I always forget about the range option.

I like it even more now.

[Richie Witch]

Did you know... that the native Ableton Glue Compressor is actually Cytomic's the Glue? It was given 4.5 stars by Music Radar and listed as one of the top 15 compressor vst's in their roundup late last year. Ableton partnered with Cytonic to use their plug-in. So that's one reason it sounds so good!

https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/cytomic ... rtnership/

I just happened across this when I was thinking about trimming down my own list of vst's and wanted to find a solid compressor as my go-to plug-in. This was on my short list to buy when I discovered I already have it! LOL

[Samuel L. Jizzle]

#facepalm

[stevemac]

#facepalm

?

[Angstrom]

Also, the Clipper is amazing.

I wish Cytomic would have added that as well to their redesign of EQ8. Or even better: one for each band
The sounddesign possibilities would have been endless!

well, Cytomic's clipper (in the Live version) is a 2x oversampling waveshaper. Cytomic's shaping is described like this in the manual

is a fixed waveshaper. It is in effect a zero attack time, zero release time peak level compressor which fixed infinite ratio and medium knee. It is linear up -2.0 dB then has a smooth curve to -0.5 dB and then is horizontal.

the Ableton Saturator is also an oversampling waveshaper (I think it's also 2x). You can pick out a curve somewhat similar to the one described in Cytomic Glue. I'd guess at the one called "medium curve"

All waveshapers are very susceptible to frequency aliasing, so the higher your sample rate, the more likely you'll get nicer results.

[TomViolenz]

Also, the Clipper is amazing.

I wish Cytomic would have added that as well to their redesign of EQ8. Or even better: one for each band
The sounddesign possibilities would have been endless!

well, Cytomic's clipper (in the Live version) is a 2x oversampling waveshaper. Cytomic's shaping is described like this in the manual

is a fixed waveshaper. It is in effect a zero attack time, zero release time peak level compressor which fixed infinite ratio and medium knee. It is linear up -2.0 dB then has a smooth curve to -0.5 dB and then is horizontal.

the Ableton Saturator is also an oversampling waveshaper (I think it's also 2x). You can pick out a curve somewhat similar to the one described in Cytomic Glue. I'd guess at the one called "medium curve"

All waveshapers are very susceptible to frequency aliasing, so the higher your sample rate, the more likely you'll get nicer results.

I appreciate the input, but I guess what I really want is the soft clip (or wave shaper as you say) for each band of EQ8. That way I could drive the lows hard, leave the mids alone and gently drive the highs. If I would want that in a static device, then sure I could set it up in a rack. But I would like to move the frequencies and gains of all bands with knobs in real time. Determening how hard I drive each band with the gain of that band. Setting this up in a rack seems impossible, because the additive volume would change all the time when I move the bands in the different EQ8s around. AND I wouldn't have that great visual representation of all bands in the same window. I have been thinking about how to achieve something like this for a while now, but nothing satisfactory came to mind.

[stevemac]

I appreciate the input, but I guess what I really want is the soft clip (or wave shaper as you say) for each band of EQ8. That way I could drive the lows hard, leave the mids alone and gently drive the highs. If I would want that in a static device, then sure I could set it up in a rack. But I would like to move the frequencies and gains of all bands with knobs in real time. Determening how hard I drive each band with the gain of that band. Setting this up in a rack seems impossible, because the additive volume would change all the time when I move the bands in the different EQ8s around. AND I wouldn't have that great visual representation of all bands in the same window. I have been thinking about how to achieve something like this for a while now, but nothing satisfactory came to mind.

Fab Filter Saturn could be a really good investment for you. Whilst it's a multi-band processor rather than offering EQ curves, the amount/quality of distortion types and the ability to really shape each band is unrivaled IMO.

Every band has dynamics, volume, 10 or so high quality distortion types, tone shaper, blah blah blah

It's one of the few plugins that is used on every project, it's seriously good. I don;t even use the modulation capabilities of it and that's one of the main attractions! Although the modulation is off topic.

[Angstrom]

I appreciate the input, but I guess what I really want is the soft clip (or wave shaper as you say) for each band of EQ8. That way I could drive the lows hard, leave the mids alone and gently drive the highs. If I would want that in a static device, then sure I could set it up in a rack. But I would like to ....

But the "bands" of EQ8 arent crossed-over parallel processed bands, they are simply all operating on the same stream. In short, there are no separate " bands" to operate on. Just one stream. The difference is in volume/gain parameters on that single stream. Unless you are refering to the gain difference, in which case see below *

There are a lot of ways to implement frequency specific shaping, there are some features buit directly into the saturator itself under "color", which has a one-band parametric sweep and a bass boost.

If you racked three parallel, and map them to macros, you'd get a 3 band parametric saturator.

* If you need more complexity than that, you could put a flat saturator in a chain with a utility set to invert, make a new parallel chain with EQ8 and saturator. Now this rack will be silent, only the frequencies you boost will saturate.

(note, you need the flat saturator to compensate for saturators uncompensated oversampling issues)