APU Software - new approach to Compression/Expansion?

[smde]

11 hours ago, Aaron Robinson said:

True, although you can also set the loudness type to RMS or Peak (or True Peak) instead of LUFS. I’ve been thinking about adding some kind of hybrid mode to use both simultaneously. But that’s just an idea so far, haven’t started digging into it. 

The meter and compressor have different demo songs used.  Both are licensed through Audiio. 

compressor: Philip Dansor - Bloom (Instrumental)

meter: Annasara - A Lifetime Rolls By

I don’t see any way to save presets, themes, or settings. Also I don’t see A B buttons to quickly compare two different sets of settings. Are these limitations due to DEMO?

[bitflipper]

RE: Bruno

Youtube says it's turning the audio down by 48%, and that the original had a loudness of 5.6dB. That's not -5.6dB, but +5.6dB, meaning 5.6 dB louder than their preferred target.

Contrast with this video, which YouTube did not turn down. Listen to the crispness of the drums and guitars, and the clarity of the vocals.

 

[Paul P]

35 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

Contrast with this video, which YouTube did not turn down. Listen to the crispness of the drums and guitars, and the clarity of the vocals.

I find the drums really thin and lifeless and the voices vague and too far in the background most of the time.

I really do not like the Mars song, not my style, but it does have punch.

 

[Niky Serrano]

All experiences, opinions and points of view are welcome! 🙂

@mibby and @antler thanks you so much for your comments!

 

[mibby]

8 hours ago, Paul P said:

...but it does have punch

That was my real point to @antler.  Just because a mix is loud doesn't mean it's "bad".  

@bitflipper  I'm shocked by how loud the Bruno song is!  But it's still an outstanding mix. The Traveling Wilburys' song has its merits too. But it is very different material and from a different time/era.

If your mix is good, you can exceed the streaming platform's normalization level, get turned down, and you still have a good mix. I don't think we should mix to whatever any given streaming platform's normalization level is just because they're telling us that is their chosen level.  We should let the song dictate how loud it should be and how much we should use dynamics to get the message across.  It's a trade-off sometimes. That is all.  I didn't mean to reignite the dynamics wars.   peaceout.  ☮️

 

[Aaron Robinson]

15 hours ago, smde said:

I don’t see any way to save presets, themes, or settings. Also I don’t see A B buttons to quickly compare two different sets of settings. Are these limitations due to DEMO?

These are all great ideas, they just aren’t implemented yet. I’ll put them toward the top of the list of things to do. Thanks for bringing them to my attention.

[Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann]

On 5/7/2023 at 8:12 AM, Aaron Robinson said:

you can also set the loudness type to RMS or Peak (or True Peak) instead of LUFS. I’ve been thinking about adding some kind of hybrid mode to use both simultaneously. But that’s just an idea so far, haven’t started digging into it. 

Interesting idea. Maybe a 3-stage compressor limiter, first stage RMS for fast "color" compression, second LUFS for slow "leveling" compression, finally true peak for limiting? And maybe add detection of lowest input frequency and show where the separation between slow and fast compression should be

[Aaron Robinson]

25 minutes ago, Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann said:

Interesting idea. Maybe a 3-stage compressor limiter, first stage RMS for fast "color" compression, second LUFS for slow "leveling" compression, finally true peak for limiting? And maybe add detection of lowest input frequency and show where the separation between slow and fast compression should be

yea something along those lines. Probably not in sequence but integrated together so the attack/release rate of the stages don’t accumulate together and get out of control. 

[Aaron Robinson]

On 5/7/2023 at 7:25 PM, smde said:

I don’t see any way to save presets, themes, or settings. Also I don’t see A B buttons to quickly compare two different sets of settings. Are these limitations due to DEMO?

I've added both of these to the latest version (v1.6.0). Thanks again for mentioning it 

[smde]

1 hour ago, Aaron Robinson said:

I've added both of these to the latest version (v1.6.0). Thanks again for mentioning it 

 Is this normal or a bug or another knee width slider needed for this end of the curve?

 

[Aaron Robinson]

8 hours ago, smde said:

 Is this normal or a bug or another knee width slider needed for this end of the curve?

 

Interesting. Looks like that’s far below source/target min so probably not directly related to knee. I have an idea what could cause this, I’ll work on this as top priority.

 

[Aaron Robinson]

9 hours ago, smde said:

 Is this normal or a bug or another knee width slider needed for this end of the curve?

Found the issue, fixed and added a unit test to make sure it doesn't happen again. It will be fixed in v1.6.1 which is currently building and running automated tests, usually takes about 2 hours for that to complete and for the site to update. Thank you for finding and reporting the issue!

[jgarland]

I got this when clicking the link:

 

False positive or problem?

[Aaron Robinson]

9 hours ago, jgarland said:

I got this when clicking the link:

 

False positive or problem?

I submitted for a review. I don't know wtf this is based on.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Aaron Robinson

[Aaron Robinson]

10 hours ago, jgarland said:

False positive or problem?

Interesting, after submitting for review it updated to say safe:

[Aaron Robinson]

There have been a ton of updates to this compressor since this thread was last active.

Changes since v1.6.1 (last thread update)

• Textured meters
• Quick-access buttons for auto-range & breath residual
• User interface cleanup
• Simplify switching between raster types and dynamics types
• Support Dolby Atmos/SMPTE channel orderings
• Fix sidechain output!
• Improve license input visibility
• Small improvements to context sensitive help
• Disable output gain during bypass!
• Support traditional compression/expansion configuration types in addition to source => target
• Knobs, dry/wet, output gain
• Aesthetic improvements
• Support for Pro Tools
• Support mouse wheel for combo-boxes
• Condense user interface a little
• Support for macOS Mojave (10.14)
• Output types: Standard, Bypass, Delta
• Fix output offset in extreme cases
• Improved preset save
• Fix missing source knee threshold drawing
• Fix missing font characters
• Default manual reset, with a reasonable general-purpose default loudness range
• Default breath residual mode enabled
• Aesthetic improvements
• Fix mono channels when using stereo loudness types

Edited July 1, 2023 by Aaron Robinson

[mibby]

I'm glad you posted @Aaron Robinson!  I literally just pulled out this plugin last night and have been trying to get my head around what you are doing here - because it seems like a really NEW approach.  I think you're really on to something, but it is a new approach to me an I'm just not sure where to start.

1. Where should we post specific questions? (I can email, but an open dialog on a forum - KVR? - would be ideal I think.)

2. To update, do I just download the latest version here?   https://apu.software/download/

3. My use case: I would like to level a dynamic vocal using the LUFS loudness type option.

This may be a stupid question, but I'm trying to get my head around how to adjust Input Range?  Should I treat it like an Input knob and slide the Input Range around until all of the signal falls within it? How do I select the proper range? How do I select the right level? Is there Compression/Expansion happening at the Input stage?

Edited July 1, 2023 by mibby

[scook]

11 minutes ago, mibby said:

I'm glad you posted @Aaron Robinson!

me too

[Aaron Robinson]

16 minutes ago, mibby said:

I'm glad you posted @Aaron Robinson!  I literally just pulled out this plugin last night and have been trying to get my head around what you are doing here - because it seems like a really NEW approach.  I think you're really on to something, but it is a new approach to me an I'm just not sure where to start.

1. Where should we post specific questions? (I can email, but an open dialog on a forum - KVR? - would be ideal I think.)

2. To update, do I just download the latest version here?   https://apu.software/download/

3. My use case: I would like to level a dynamic vocal using the LUFS loudness type option.

This may be a stupid question, but I'm trying to get my head around how to adjust Input Range?  Should I treat it like an Input knob and slide the Input Range around until all of the signal falls within it? How do I select the proper range? How do I select the right level? Is there Compression/Expansion happening at the Input stage?

1. Here or KVR is good (there’s a thread under the new products section already). I get notified either way. 

2. Yep, that’s all you should need to do. 
 

3. Basic idea is to set the input range to cover the range you want compressed, yea. The compression/expansion ratio is based on how large the source range compared to the target range. But there is also a downward compression option now which you can switch to using the drop-down to the upper right of the source range slider.

[mibby]

What happens if my Input Range is smaller than the range of the source material? Does it compress/expand the signal at that point?  It's confusing to me.

If you don't mind, could you jot dot down like a step by step "how to" on setting this up for leveling a vocal? i.e. 1. Select vocal preset  2. Determine Input Range  3. Select desired Output Range.  4. Slide the Output range around until it sounds good.

I'll keep reading through your docs, but I would just like to see if/what I'm missing. 

Thanks!