Syntrillium Backup Forums :: View topic - Best compressor plug-in

richj55 · Posted - Fri Feb 07, 2003 9:08 am

What is the best compressor plug-in to use with cep?

Syntrillium M.D. · Location: USA

Well, this is indeed an open-ended question. CEP's internal compressor (part of the dynamics processor) has a great sound to it, and is very functional, but slightly difficult to use (if you're just starting out with compression)

With that in mind, are you looking for a tube-compressor emulated plugin? Something like PSP Vintage Warmer might be a good choice. Then there's others like Waves C1/C4 - part of their Gold Native bundle. Awesome functionality and sound, but a bit pricey.

You might also look at the dB-Audioware series. Very simple, fairly inexpensive, but good sound and good functionality.

--Syntrillium, M.D.

Graeme · Member Location: Spain

While I would hesitate to say it was 'the best' - I would certainly support Syntrillums's recommendation of the db-Audioware products. You can find out more about them on www.db-audioware.com

VoodooRadio · Location: USA

And.... I can support Synt's recommendation for the Wave's bundle. Yes, pricey.... but you get what you pay for!!! Wink

Craig Jackman · Location: Canada

I've used them all I think. I love the Waves C4, and didn't mind the db-Audioware too much, tried the Sonic Timeworks Compressor X, but I got rid of them all (except for C4 for it's multiband attributes) and just use the Syntrillium compressor now. It sounds as good as anything else. I don't like the graphic display ... my mind just doesn't function that way for a compressor, but click on the Traditional tab and voila ... compression the way I understand it.

The only compressor plug ins that I thought were really good were the original Waves Renessainse compressor in optical emulation, and a TC Electronics plug in compressor that sounded really good when squashing something to death. In the end it was just easier to use the "freebie" that was already there in CEP, and the sound didn't suffer a bit.

richj55 · Posted - Wed Feb 12, 2003 2:30 pm

Thanks for all of your help. I think I will use the freebie for now.

monopoli · Location: Netherlands

the best freeware compressionplugins I've found are VST-plugins, but I use them with a VSTwrapper, all the time

they're here :

http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=1

VoodooRadio · Location: USA

I can't suggest any for "free", but the Waves RCL is IMO the best I've come across yet. Wink

ozpeter · Location: Australia

The link provided by Monopoli is interesting. There is a 'Normalizer' plug-in on the site which is nothing to do with normalising in its commonly understood meaning. It's to do with 'denormalising', which is a new one to me -

"Denormalisation is an issue with some audio hosts that don't switch off the plugin's audio task when the song is stopped or a track contains silence (or with instruments: no key is pressed while a sound decays).

The problem happens when the CPU (precisely: the floating point unit (FPU) inside of it) detects extremely small numbers and wishes to process them with the same precision as usual. Then it switches into 'denormal' mode which is another way of representing small floating point numbers with the available bit range.
Converting between the two states takes a lot of time for the FPU and thus might cause heavy load jumps."

The blurb continues after this - that's a taster - I wonder whether this is yet another pot of snake oil? Any comments?

- Ozpeter

VoodooRadio · Location: USA

Snake Oil!!