Glue Style Compressors

[nowaysj]

Hello ladies,

What is the run down for the current state of the art glue style compressors?

Looking for something with zero latency, if possible.

Tried a demo of Cytomic's The Glue way back when, when it was only a rumor, and I was (seriously) underwhelmed against something like Wave's SSL G-Master Buss Compressor. I had heard it'd gotten better. Any others though?

But, seeing as I am a lazy and unmotivated producer, I never really use compression, I'm not that familiar with this style of compressor.

Any and all appreciated, with and emphasis on free, zero latency, and occasional hand jobs as required.

[GregoryTJ]

Da fuk is a glue compressor compared to a regular compressor?

[nowaysj]

UI colors somewhat like this ^

[alphacat]

Da fuk is a glue compressor compared to a regular compressor?

A compressor you put on a bus (sometimes the master, sometimes a subgroup) to glue elements together sonically, as they're being 'squished' together in tandem.

see: http://productionadvice.co.uk/buss-compressor/

I actually use two on the master: one before the sends with the threshold & ratio turned all the way to their lowest settings (-30db, 1:0:1) and attack set way slow (100ms) with the fastest release setting available. All of this is non-RMS, btw.

Then on the return compressor (which is RMS) I have the threshold and ratio rolled all the way back (+9db, Infinite:1) with a very fast attack and slow release (0, 1000ms).

What this serves to do is both limit and expand everything at the same time. I learned this trick after reading it in Tape Op by some old timer, forget who. One of the keys though is setting this up early and doing all your mixing thru this setup, because if you try to apply it at the end of a rough mix everything changes, drastically. The other thing is to play with those a little, esp. the rolloff times, as different sets of transients push the mix in different ways.

[nowaysj]

Ruined it.

[alphacat]

[Crimsonghost]

Klanghelm Dc8c. It's cheap and can do anything.

Also, if you get it, make sure to ask tony to send you a download for the first version (V.2 just came out and has a slightly different charictaristics then v.1).

[Crimsonghost]

@Alphacat, you have a link to that article? I have the tape-op site bookmarked, but I'm lazy.

[alphacat]

@Alphacat, you have a link to that article? I have the tape-op site bookmarked, but I'm lazy.

Nah, it was in the print mag... i.e. the thing I take to the toilet with me at home and come out an hour later after having read it cover to cover.

But it wasn't too long ago - maybe within the last year. When I tried it and got it figured out it was amazing how much more present & coherent the mix sounded across all playback mediums.

[Sharmaji]

starting point:

1176 on busses

SSL on master

both 4:1, doing very little (2-3 db at most, less for the SSL)

i keep a couple of aux's open w/ 1176's on them in case thing need to vibe more together before the master, ie; drums, perc, and bass go to one 1176, vox, synths, guitars go to another. those ones do even less (1db at most), but combine them all at the SSL and sometimes.... sometimes it actually turns into music.

the basic premise holds up for any plug-in though; various levels of gain reduction-- instrument, group, collection of groups, master. Sometimes you need more/less levels, but that's the general sense. stage it right and you could probably use logic's built-in compressor and get vibe-y results.

[nowaysj]

For my purposes, vibe is asking a little too much. In this particular case, I'm looking for what I get out of the ssl G channel on drum buss, tight weight, but on a multichanneled bass. I'm not much of a multi-basser, so am a bit out of my depth. I feel that the bass is just not coming together. The presence is wrong, and the low is flabby without being weighty. I know it sounds like an eq situation, but eq isn't doing it for me here. I suppose I should go upstream to the source, but the source here is very limited.

[Icetickle]

I just put psp vintage warmer on the buss without actually limiting anything. Makes a huge difference.

[rockonin]

I have fallen in love with the Waves SSL buss compressor. I use it as a send effect to different tracks to gel them together or place it in a group/buss channel. I never place anything on the master out channel.

[nowaysj]

Indeed. My question distilled, is there a freeware version of the G channel, with zero latency?

[nowaysj]

Klanghelm Dc8c. It's cheap and can do anything.

Also, if you get it, make sure to ask tony to send you a download for the first version (V.2 just came out and has a slightly different charictaristics then v.1).

What's the diff between v1 and v2? I won't be buying anything though, spending all my money on hardware, ie food, fuel, and shelter.

[rockonin]

OP have you tried these

Density mkIII
http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/201 ... -released/

Molot
http://vladgsound.wordpress.com/plugins/molot/

Rough Rider
http://www.audiodamage.com/downloads/pr ... pid=ADF002

They're free, but not sure on the quality though.

[claudedefaren]

I'll second the recommendation for Density mkII. Great for compression on the master.

I also recommend Waves API-2500. Very very good. My second favorite compressor (next to Waves C1 - that comp can do ANYTHING).

There's also The Glue, which is very good as well. There are many accounts of it being better than the Waves SSL G Comp or whatever it's called.

[Libra]

Can I ask why it needs to be zero latency? If your daw has plugin delay compensation it shouldn't be a problem.

My favourite are the new slate digital ones. The FGgrey is amazing! Itsa little more lively than the ssl g channel comp, but I prefer it.

[nowaysj]

Cause my daw's pdc is shite!

(libra was the name of our old boat, engine was always breaking down)

[GregoryTJ]

I use Maximus for most of my compression needs, it can do expanding, compressing (multi-band or regular), limiting, distorting, noise gating, and probably more.
As far as I can tell it has very low latency and the custom compression curves are a big plus.

For when I just want to do something really simple I use FL Limiter or FL Compressor.

That article says that multi-band compression is no good for use on the master buss, I may have to disagree in some cases, I don't have a huge amount of experience though.

I have a question, are we just calling any compressor we slap on the master a "glue compressor" or do they actually have any significance over a regular compressor?