So I just found these plugs last night...scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll see why I'm my usually excitable self...

YAY!!!!

I'll give you a hint...

??? but whats so exciting" about it? are they any good?

i hesitate only........cause its free.....

Yeah. Any they're Windows only.

Thanks for the link. I wonder if they sound as good as they look. I'll give them a try soon.

Thanks i.

They look cool enough.....how do they sound?

hhhmmm......Antress, kinda like Antares.
Could we be witnessing the Behringer of plug-ins?

Says "Pentium" and I use AMD..

The skins sure look cool though.

I gotta admit, I'm always suspicious of plugs that look that good.

The best plugs I've heard tend to have a very basic design, since they put all the money into actual development (think the Massenberg plugs which are as boring-looking as dirt).

Still, they certainly are neat-looking. I'll give em a try.

Chris

Well...you tell me...the only compressors I used in this mix are the 3 you see there...

3 Pill Morning - Live For Today
(Right-click, save as)

Yes..it's a cover...yes, it's my new band. I threw the mix together in about an hour, so some of the balances are a little rough, but you can at least get an idea from this.

If you used one of these on the guitars, I like it..but w/e is on the kick is killing the attack imho.

Cool guitars though

I think I'm a little overexuberant with the attack on the 1176...but the 160 is on the snare and it sounds beef...I've got LA2A's and 1176's on the vocals...I think I put a 160 on the toms...

My point in all of this is that I think they sound pretty good. I don't have an 1176 in house to compare it to, but the plug definitely sounds like an FET comp of sorts...my Toft compressor (another FET) acts very similarly...they are definitely more color and flavor that the Waves RComp and C1 comps.

It's no replacement for hardware, but it's neat...it sounds pretty good, and it's FREE. Can't bitch about that.

Well, I appreciate the post, since I'm always looking for a good compressor plug. But after dicking around with them for a little while, I'm not too impressed.

No way to double-click and enter a precise number - not even a double-click that resets it to zero, as most plugs have. No, you have to "turn" the knobs with the mouse. I've been saying for years: c'mon plug makers. We don't need it to look exactly like a cool piece of analog gear. We need it to be useful. Get rid of the cute little knobs. We're on computers.

Plus, they don't sound too good. They all have this kind of muffled, "throw a blanket over the sound" quality. Kinda harsh and smudgy and cheap-sounding.

Oh well, they do look cool.

My quest for a decent plug-in compressor continues...

Chris

It's very time for hardware like compressors to come up using convolution.

Nice tune I.Combs,
Have you ever heard a band called Blind Guardian?

it's very hard to judge plugs just listening to it, who knows how would it sound with other plugs, could be a lot better ..... or could be worse.

quote:

Originally posted by bandini:
My quest for a decent plug-in compressor continues...

Chris -

Have you tried any of the PSP or Sonalksis plugs? I've got the MasterPack series from PSP and, for plugs anyway, they're pretty good. The Master Comp is more of a bus compressor but it works pretty well on individual tracks (in AcidPro at least). And the Vintage Warmer does a pretty nice even harmonic kinda thing as well as some comp'ing and limiting. Word to the wise though: a little of these goes a long way.

I also liked the Sonalksis comps but budget limited (hehee) me to buying either the PSP or the Sonalksis plugs at the time. Also, FWIW, the Wavehammer plug from Sony isn't too shabby on bass and as a drum sub comp. Not sure if it'll run in any of the non-Sony apps (Acid, SoundForge, CD Architect, etc) but it might be worth a look see. I often run it on bass tracks and it makes em PHAT.

The Sonalksis EQ is the only eq I've used for a few years now, but I never really cared for their compressors.

I've probably demo'd every compressor plug out there at one point. I still haven't found anything that sounds better to me than the Waves RenComp for ordinary everday, track-at-a-time mix use (I seldom do any compressing to the 2 bus).

And I'm not at all crazy about the RenComp. But it at least doesn't sound like *total* ass to me...

The kjaerhus plugs are free and decent when you really want to squash the crap out of something. Ditto the digitalfishphones stuff.

What I haven't found is anything that sounds even remotely as good on vocals as a decent hardware unit.

Chris

quote:

Originally posted by bandini:
The Sonalksis EQ is the only eq I've used for a few years now, but I never really cared for their compressors.

I've probably demo'd every compressor plug out there at one point. I still haven't found anything that sounds better to me than the Waves RenComp for ordinary everday, track-at-a-time mix use (I seldom do any compressing to the 2 bus).

And I'm not at all crazy about the RenComp. But it at least doesn't sound like *total* ass to me...

Chris

I totally agree. I've found the Sonalksis EQ to be the most musical for what I've tried (forget about doing anything surgical with it) and it's been my go to EQ plug for awhile now.

I'm also a rencomp comp fan. for vocals, my current goto chain is the Son EQ into the RenComp..Converesly,I really dislike WAVES C1 and only use the WAVE PEQ stuff for surgery.

For 2buss. I really like the CLA SSL4000 plugs.

Nice sound Ian

I'm all for free stuff, but for the life of me I can't figure out how you're going to plug these things into that Quad 8 that you brought home!

I'll check 'em out - thanks for the heads up man

The Kjaerhus stuff is OK. I mostly use the delay for tempo based stuff and the reverb isn't too bad. The Digital Fish Phone stuff is fun for trashy stuff. Highly recommend the PSP MasterPack for colored processing - it's CPU intensive though.

I hear ya on the hardware vs software thing. The plugs are interesting but I won't be giving up my hardware comps or FX anytime soon.

BTW, nice job on the tune Ian. Listening to it on buds right now but it still sounds big, full and punchy. I'll definitely be trying out those plugs when I get home.

They're pretty good, but no UAD !But for free, I mean...anytime !!!

Cool song Ian!
I'm going to try those plugins out, thanks!

evt