New Plugin Boutique Freebies for December

[Larry Shelby]

https://www.pluginboutique.com/articles/1668

[Starship Krupa]

Oh heck YEAH to some MTurboCompLE, that so much more than makes up for my missing the Waves dbx 160 spiff.

[mibby]

Dang those are some good ones!!  I've been watching Royal Compressor too, but the UnitedPlugin prices are just too silly.  I've got Fundamental Bass and it's pretty decent too.  PB is generating some sales with these giveaways...  Wow!

[fitzroy]

Seems like an easy choice for the MTurboCompLE, although I'm not familiar with the other ones. Just how royal is that Royal Compressor? ?

[Brian Walton]

30 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

Oh heck YEAH to some MTurboCompLE, that so much more than makes up for my missing the Waves dbx 160 spiff.

interested in it as the interface seems more straightforward than many other "m" plugins.

However, ratio as a percentage seems like they have never used a hardware compressor....and to a lesser extent using attack and release as a percentage.

[mibby]

 

Just how royal is that Royal Compressor?

I demoed when it first came out. A nice character compressor.  You should give it a spin. Plus, when the demo runs out, you can still use the plugin as a saturator.  A pretty clever was to give away a freebie.

Edited December 1, 2020 by mibby

[Starship Krupa]

Well, last month, I made two purchases at PB, and the first time I opted for Animate, and the next time they again offered me my choice of the remaining 2 on the freebie list, so it's time to get one of those under $10 plug-ins we all keep in our PB wishlist so that we always have something to qualify (those deals have sold a lot of SoundSpot licenses over the years).

[mibby]

8 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

those deals have sold a lot of SoundSpot licenses over the years

Guilty!

 

10 minutes ago, Brian Walton said:

ratio as a percentage seems like they have never used a hardware compressor....and to a lesser extent using attack and release as a percentage

This is not the case at all. That is Melda's way of "standardizing the controls" as he says here from a recent discussion about MTurboComp from KVR. 

 

Quote

Basically developers usually analyze the analogue device at hand and try to simulate it virtually "the same way", but simulating individual components... I personally believe that's a nonsense. Digital and analogue domains are very different and we should stick what our domain does best. And that's what MTurboComp does. Digital systems are extremely capable, so we created a model, that should be able to simulate virtually any classic compressor. Then we took test signals taken from these devices at various settings and let the computers do the job by trying to mimic their behaviour. It does NOT emulate any noise generated by the original devices. It only mimics the behaviour. Imho it mimics the "good stuff" and leaves the bad stuff produced by analogue devices.

But of course, this is a highly "religious" area. The best way is to just try it and check if you like how they sound and how they are handled, because we also standardized the controls (since in most analog models it just didn't make much sense).

Now whether or not you like the implementation, that's entirely subjective...

[Brian Walton]

2 minutes ago, mibby said:

Guilty!

 

This is not the case at all. That is Melda's way of "standardizing the controls" as he says here from a recent discussion about MTurboComp from KVR. 

 

Now whether or not you like the implementation, that's entirely subjective...

Every article I've ever read on compressors shows the ratio as it serves a mathematical function of what is going on.  I'm not sure how a percentage plays into this.

Even if it was setup as a ratio knob or slider, in the digital realm it could be much more accurate and all points between, but could still give a reference to that.

 

Now if a compressor doesn't have a ratio knob....that is a different thing...But if you are adding a ratio knob - there is basic math involved in what it doing to the signal.  While it might not be 100% accurate in the analog realm on a particular machine, it still makes sense of the range that is expected.

 

Other controls I might agree with them.

 

 

[Starship Krupa]

10 minutes ago, Brian Walton said:

interested in it as the interface seems more straightforward than many other "m" plugins.

However, ratio as a percentage seems like they have never used a hardware compressor....and to a lesser extent using attack and release as a percentage.

That's a feature that many of their plug-ins have, you can design simplified control panels. It looks as if for the various vintage compressors they've come up with they also made panels. Click on the "Edit" button at the top and the panels will go away and you'll see the usual zillions of options. The LE one doesn't give you access to the "Edit" screen.

I wonder if that's a typo on the artwork they are using for the website and advertisements, because I have owned Meldaproduction compressors for years (I'm one of the few with any love to show for MModernCompressor, which, now that I'll have MTurboCompLE might be seeing less use), and ratio is expressed as a ratio, release and attack in mS, everything is as it usually is on compressors.

And anyone who gets MTurboCompLE, be sure to poke around and see if you can find the "psychoacoustic prefiltering" option for the detector and A-B it against the other detector settings. Really nice on a snare. MModern has it easily accessible, one of MModern's few claims to fame.

[locrian]

46 minutes ago, mibby said:

I demoed when it first came out. A nice character compressor.  You should give it a spin. Plus, when the demo runs out, you can still use the plugin as a saturator.  A pretty clever was to give away a freebie.

Judging from the valute cited on PB's site (£103.94), the freebie they're offering is the full product, not the demo.  If true, it would be the best of the bunch (IMO).

[Hatstand]

that's my freebie from my decimort crossgrade sorted

 

[Starship Krupa]

To my dismay, @Brian Walton, the weird "attack and release expressed in %" is actually the case in many of the models. I can't fathom why he would do this. As someone who sometimes likes to set my release time to a division of the tempo of a song, this is especially bothersome.

I think I can work with ratio as a percentage, but what a MCompLEteHeadache.

I'm a "set my initial parameters to numbers that usually work for this kind of material then tune it from there" kinda guy, not a "mix completely subjectively with my 60-year-old ears and have friends politely tell me that the cymbals are razor blades" kinda guy, so I just want mS, please. These are supposed to model classic compressors but give the user greater control, why reinvent the wheel on the control labeling?

Try before you buy on this one to see if you can deal with it.

[Brian Walton]

1 hour ago, Starship Krupa said:

To my dismay, @Brian Walton, the weird "attack and release expressed in %" is actually the case in many of the models. I can't fathom why he would do this. As someone who sometimes likes to set my release time to a division of the tempo of a song, this is especially bothersome.

I think I can work with ratio as a percentage, but what a MCompLEteHeadache.

I'm a "set my initial parameters to numbers that usually work for this kind of material then tune it from there" kinda guy, not a "mix completely subjectively with my 60-year-old ears and have friends politely tell me that the cymbals are razor blades" kinda guy, so I just want mS, please. These are supposed to model classic compressors but give the user greater control, why reinvent the wheel on the control labeling?

Try before you buy on this one to see if you can deal with it.

haha...I ended up getting both the Turbo Comp and The Royal Comp.

Agree that the A/R is pretty odd to not be in ms as that is pretty much the standard, and a clear "thing" in the scientific real world.

That said, still a good value here as they have items to purchase for $5 that can get you this plugin.

I also think it would have been interesting if they had a "keep the settings' option to let you then select the different styles of COMP instead of having to re-tweak everythign when you want to try a different one.  Granted they do have more than an A/B which you can save to and then switch between.  

 

And honestly I also agree, ratio isn't quite as prohibitive as the A/R being a percentage.  That kind of stuff I find harder to hear especially not in isolation.  

Edited December 3, 2020 by Brian Walton

[mibby]

39 minutes ago, Brian Walton said:

I also think it would have been interesting if they had a "keep the settings' option to let you then select the different styles of COMP instead of having to re-tweak everythign when you want to try a different one. 

That would be useful. Isn't there a "Show Locks" option somewhere? Sorry, not at my DAW so can't check.  Pretty sure MTurboReverb has that...  Seems like a pretty easy feature request if not.

Edited December 3, 2020 by mibby

[Brian Walton]

32 minutes ago, mibby said:

That would be useful. Isn't there a "Show Locks" option somewhere? Sorry, not at my DAW so can't check.  Pretty sure MTurboReverb has that...  Seems like a pretty easy feature request if not.

Good point, there are some settings where you can go in an manually lock that individual setting (not avaialbe for all settings though).....such as the attack, release, ratio, i.e. the standard settings the comp.

 

They are more "input/output" types of locks.  That is helpful though.

[mibby]

Still a good idea to add it to the other parameters though.  Could be very useful as you pointed out.  ...although, maybe it doesn't make sense after all between the different compressor types?  ?

Edited December 3, 2020 by mibby

[Brian Walton]

29 minutes ago, mibby said:

Still a good idea to add it to the other parameters though.  Could be very useful as you pointed out.  ...although, maybe it doesn't make sense after all between the different compressor types?  ?

Indeed, it woudl work on some but not all.  Given how complicated the plugins are, I'm sure they could make it so those get grey'd out when not applicable when a comp has a fixed attack/release/ratio or one that is outside the bounds of the settings.  I mean they just seem to crave complexity as it is.  

Using the plugin makes me realize all the more how myopic my worldview is having an arsenal of compressors in hand...knowing full well none of that really matters and that the consumer of the final mix isn't going to notice a difference unless I do something flat out wrong.

[antler]

4 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

attack and release expressed in %

Could someone explain what this means please?

[Brian Walton]

10 minutes ago, antler said:

Could someone explain what this means please?

normally you set an attack or release time in milliseconds.

On Turbo Comp you have 0%  - 100% as values to adjust those controls....no actual "time" fuction, percentage instead.

 

0% is less time   100% is more time, but no idea what time value it correlates to.

Edited December 3, 2020 by Brian Walton