Vintage Warmer Tutorial

[matthew_]

Just found this over at the gearslutz forum, might be of use for anyone using PSP VW

okay then, i will post later how i set all the knobs and why.... but the drive @ +4 is WAY more than i have it set at (again, that will depend on how "hard" you are hitting the mixbuss), mine is usually @ -4 to -10db.... but agan, that can vary widely depending on the material im working on....

[And from a later post....]

so has everyone read the manual?

my approach will be different for stuff i mix as i probably do things differently to the individual channels than you do so adapt this to what you do i guess.

first, i start with it on the 2buss with the low @ 100hz and the high @ 8k-10k and both those level knobs at 0. the drive i start at 0 and the knee around 30, the speed at 50, the release @ 1. the mix is always at 100%. the ceiling starts at zero and the backside [he's referring to the plugin's back panel] i start with the saturations all at 0 and the release for low x4, the mid at 1 and the high at .25.

the big things to consider when using it is the saturation on the back and the ceiling on the front work with each other. the release on the back and the release on the front go together (i kinda wished these were all on the front as little knobs below the associated knobs but they arent so i flip the thing over)... but its pretty odd when i move the ceiling too far off 0 for 2buss.

big two things that i mess with is the knee and the speed first after i get a rough mix built, and i always keep tweaking this plugin as the mix progresses. for a smoother sound, turn the knee to zero but for a punchier sound go clockwise.... sound gets more hard going clockwise on that knob. the speed i generally use for attack and let the attack i want through before the limiter clamps down on the signal on the final output of it. it does work in relation to the speed knob (and the release knobs on the back) so if i get the attack i want but the release is too fast or slow, i change the speed knob of the front and then flip to the back and fine tune those release settings (kinda wish there was a solo for each band while working on it, but something to be said about not letting you solo and listening as a whole)

so now you are starting to get some compression and loudness to the mix, probably rivaling commercial releases in loudness by this time. the meters i leave always set to GR and flip between VU and PPM. but as the GR meters start moving more, that is when i start to back off the drive (or if im not getting enough compression/limiting, i add some)... now with the drive set, and i usually set this during hte loudest passages of the song because if you dont, you are setting yourself up for massive slamming when they do come. so set that drive to be working nicely during the loudest parts so they are nice and excited sounding but no pumping (which is also very easy to do)

now i listen to the balance between low/mids/highs and thats where the ceiling knob and the saturation knobs come in handy, and while back working on those set the releases right. i check the lows and see if they are getting through enough but not enough to set off the limiter overreacting to the low information. the saturation basically sets its ceiling in relation to the other two bands. a lot of times i will increase it a db or 2 but that spretty program dependant. same goes for the mids which i tend to open up a bit as well, the highs usually stay where they are.

if the bass gets that farty sound, i make the release multiplier by 4 on the low on the back and then move the release on the front until that distortion goes away, and then go back to deal with the mids/highs and usually shorten their time more. obviously the higher the freq, the faster release you can get away with, but you can also use them to your advantage the other way.

as for the crossover settings, i use 100hz because i like to focus the plugin on what is basically going to be feeding the sub and controlling that for some nice consistant level so when i bring it into my truck and the sub in there keeps pounding nicely along with the song and no odd suprises there.

the mids i generally take care of as a huge swipe from low mids to upper highs (5kish range and up) and leave the high xover point for the "air"... 10k sometimes. i adjust the levels feeding the compressor from there as to how much i want to feed it but this also reacts with the saturation settings. again, one of the reason i revisit this plugin over and over through a mix because how i alter the tracks within the mix invariably affects how the plugin is processing the result.

if you look at the block diagram, its the input feed the drive>multiband comps>limiter.... so you want to make sure your comp levels on the bands are pretty balanced going into the limiter or that will wreck havoc upon the mix.
now while i change these settings through the mix, obviously its not gonna change EVERYTHING i want it to so by putting it on the 2buss to begin with you adjust your individual tracks to take out or add things you want happening in each of the sections you define iwth the crossover points.

does any of this make any sense?

[bitter]

That's detailed! Certainly beats my 'set it to a preset, tweak a little, that sounds better, job done' approach...
Note to self: must read manual and learn to use it properly!

[matthew_]

Yeah, to be fair the manual aint actually that great.

Also, it doesnt state what kind of music he's producing, so take everything with a pinch of salt, but it does go someway into explaining what tweaking different things actually does to the sound.

Love x

[bitter]

Manual on PSP site is found HERE

I found these on DOA, good basic info:

"I don't think anyone uses presets on that one, you got to find out how compression works.
get an EQ before the vintage warmer
then blow your signal up with knee an the big gain.
change your attack and release to the attack and release of your material.
use the bass eq for killa bass
use the high eq to get it crisp
use the vu meters
use the mix to get rid of the hard compression effect ;)

be careful, the plugin boosts the bass of all material, so CUT when needed before or afterwards.
and resample when used on drums."

==

What the knobs do:

[Drive]
The Drive knob sets the input level for the limiter. It can range from -24dB to +24dB. It is active when the red
switch is in the 'On' position. The default value is 0dB.

[Knee]
The Knee knob sets the knee range of the limiter. The 0% setting indicates that the knee is "bent" at 0dB,
("hard knee") which is suitable for limiting. Mid range settings can be used to create analog tape-style effects.
The 100% setting provides a wide-range soft knee for deep and fast compression. The default value is 50%.

[Speed]
The Speed knob sets the compressor's attack and release times. The title refers to tape speed. A setting of 0
refers to a very slow tape speed or a slow limiter/compressor setting, while a setting of 100 refers to the highest
available tape speed or a fast limiter/compressor setting. The default value is 50%.

[Release]
The Release knob is a multiplier control that sets the release time relative to the Speed setting. The default
value is "x1".

[Ceiling]
The Ceiling knob allows Vintage Warmer to operate at a maximum level other than 0dBFS. This control
prevents 0dBFS signals exceeding 0dBFS even if the Ceiling is set at more than 0dBFS. The Ceiling control
interacts with the low, mid and high saturation level adjustments in the back panel. The default value is 0dB.

[Mix]
The Mix knob allows the input signal and compressed signal to be mixed in any proportion. If the Mix knob is
set at 0%, signals pass through the Vintage Warmer unaltered. The default value is 100%.

[Output]
The Output knob sets the final output signal level. This is the last operation in the signal chain. The default
value is 0dB.

[High Freq]
When Vintage Warmer is in 'Single Band' mode, the High Freq knob sets the high-shelving equalization
frequency. In 'Multi Band' mode, the control sets the crossover frequency for the high band. The default value
is 4kHz.

[High Adjust]
The High Adjust knob sets the high shelving or the high-band pre-limiter gain. The default value is 0dB.

[Low Freq]
When Vintage Warmer is in 'Single Band' mode, the Low Freq knob sets the low shelving equalization
frequency. In 'Multi Band' mode, the control sets the crossover frequency for the low band. The default value
is 100Hz.

==

Peace

[matthew_]

I think between the lot of us we could compile a nice mixing/mastering bible for a sticky? I know some people here stay away from mastering yourself, and some avoid it like the plague, but it doesnt mean people dont want to have a bash. No one is asking for amazing results, but a good bit of EQing, compression, and limiting knowledge never hurts does it?

Matt

[drwurst]

good find ... good idea bout the sticky ... but theres no one really moderating this subforum ... good luck ...
but good find...

[spaceboy_psy]

great find! I myself am scuffling with the VW's odd controls, trying to make sense of it all...

wondered if anyone could explain this to me?:

What does the ceiling knob actually do? I keep hearing people describe it as a threshold, but why does the control go both plus and minus? and why does anti-clockwise keep the volume the same, but send the Gain Reduction metre into the positive, while clockwise steadily decreases the volume, sending gain reduction into the negative..? Do negative numbers mean more gain reduction or do positives? And then the Drive knob - supposedly just increases the input gain, but it also increases the action of compression. What is a negative Drive doing, apart from lowering the input gain? It's impossible for me to make the VU metre move with knee on 0, drive on 0 and moving the ceiling. surely if ceiling was threshold i wouldn't necessarily need to adjust knee and drive just to get some compression going..??

this thing really confuses me, as you can maybe tell... It clearly is no ordinary compressor at all.

it's damn sexy though, all the same

[Sharmaji]

the real beauty of vintage warmer is the back panel-- click on the PSP info above the meters and you can really tweak the settings.

w/ all due respect it seems like the quote from gearslutz is from a guy who's trying to get the big, unruly beast of vintagewarmer to play nice and not futz up his original mix. VW can be a simple, vibe-inducing tool but it works great as a tool to really get some hair on music... it sounds to me like he'd be much happier with an L2 or something similar.

the ceiling is how high of an output level you allow within VW. if you put it above 0dbFS, you'll be clipping your output, which... depending on your mix settings, might be OK.

edit: if you turn the ceiling to the left, you're making the VM start clipping earlier--thus, the volume will stay the same but you'll have a more limited output, with tons of distortion. if you turn it to the right, you'll let the over-0-db peaks through, but not distort the bulk (RMS) of the material. -0.01 db is a good place to be-- not clipping, but not too quiet either.

the drive can be used for gain adjustments, or to really make the saturation speak-- this is where the back panel comes in.

the knee is the most brilliant part of the VM to me, that's where the real tube-limiting modeling comes into play. couple that w/ the tapespeed settings and...wow. who thought of this beast??

keep in mind that vintagewarmer isn't a compressor, isn't a limiter, isn't a tape driver, and isn't a multiband comp and/or EQ.. it's parts of all those things and there's really not much else like it out there. it's got a great balance of parameters to tweak that are really musical, but you can't approach it along the lines of attack/release/threshold/ratio. the threshold of compression goes up as the program level goes up, similar to an 1176, but you don't actually adjust the ratio. the knee adjusts how things react around the threshold but really works as a tube limiter and it's varied by the tape speed...

really it's a pretty incredible tool. the best thing you can do is play with it. the presets are a great place to start.

also keep in mind, alot of the presets are built to sound like various moments-- overdriven tape, slow tape, hard tube limiting, etc. it might help to read up on what exactly those things are, sonically, so you get a sense of what they're doing.

(and the mix setting! it works amazing as an in-line parallel compressor/limiter/whatever....)

very, very pleased w/ the vintagewarmer.

[serox]

I really cannot read that:/

Think I will just stick to playing with the buttons for now. Thanks.

[hugh]

[Mix]
The Mix knob allows the input signal and compressed signal to be mixed in any proportion. If the Mix knob is
set at 0%, signals pass through the Vintage Warmer unaltered. The default value is 100%
so does this act as NY compression?
ive been looking for something like this for ages lol, is it free?[/i]

[spaceboy_psy]

Awesome TeReKeTe, thanks for the reply! SO...

There was a lot I should have clarified straight away really. I was quite tired, and CONFUSED, hence I left it at the rant ^_^

after some more fiddling today, I think I've narrowed my confusion down to that metre! See I'm a big gay "n00b" who likes a nice friendly visual representation of what's going on, like on the Sonalksis comp, and in the manual it keeeeeps saying how you have to 'calibrate' the VU metre for it to work in 'real world situations' *maybe not actual quotes*...

I think... erm... well it's on GainReduction, so I'd expect it to be on zero when there's no gain reduction, yeh? and positive when there is, yeh? so why is it often in the negative???

Do you use VU or PPM metre? and do you 'calibrate' it?

And you say the ceiling is the maximum output, but it never seems to actually affect the VOLUME, I'm just starting to see more like a conventional threshold, but with make-up gain, now after some more fiddling... Could you elaborate on how you use that ceiling control?

oh and finally: are the EQ saturation knobs on the back basically the same as the drive knob?

I'm definately getting SOMEWHERE here, keep it coming chaps!

[Sharmaji]

I think... erm... well it's on GainReduction, so I'd expect it to be on zero when there's no gain reduction, yeh? and positive when there is, yeh? so why is it often in the negative???

it goes in the negative when there IS gain reduction-- it shows you much it's taking off-- -2db, -8db, etc. most compressors work like this, showing gain reduction as a negative number.

in reagrds to your original post, you won't see any movement from the VU meters by changing the ceiling and not the drive/knee controls, because you're not doing anything to the audio.

Do you use VU or PPM metre? and do you 'calibrate' it?

I use it as VU because i want to know the amount of energy that's going out of it, not the up-to-zero digital scale. I think it defaults to being calibrated at -24db =0dbFS? i wouldn't worry about calibrating it, just leave it at it's default setting, it's fine for getting a sense of level vs. distortion.

And you say the ceiling is the maximum output, but it never seems to actually affect the VOLUME, I'm just starting to see more like a conventional threshold, but with make-up gain, now after some more fiddling... Could you elaborate on how you use that ceiling control?

the ceiling on the VW works in conjunction with the output, and it's almost exactly like that on the L2 or L1. the output of the VW is defaulted at 0db-- it means that you're neither adding volume to, nor taking volume away from, the level that's going out.

the ceiling acts as a sort of smart, brick-wall-limiting threshold--like the left-hand slider on the L2, it's where the limiting really starts. It also defaults to coming out of the plugin at whatever the output is-- in the default case, just below 0db. thus, it doesn't change volume as much as change the dynamic makeup of the material-- if you set it to -12, then you're brick-walling the material at 12db below zero, probably inducing a lot of distortion, and allowing almost no dynamics to come though.

alternatively, if you set the ceiling to a positive number, you're allowing the material to pass peaks through, and you'll clip the output if you don't bring the output down to allow for those clips.

so basically the ceiling adjust the absolute-top dynamic range of what's allowed out, and the output lets you deal with the amount of clipping that causes.

oh and finally: are the EQ saturation knobs on the back basically the same as the drive knob?

close. they adjust how much those 3 bands are saturated as you bring up the drive-- that way you can either keep the lows really clean as you crisp up the highs, and vice-versa. the release can let you adjust how smooth the compression is.

so does this act as NY compression?

exactly. lots of compressor plugs on the market do this these days, including the rocket from stillwell audio, and logic's (awesome) included compressor. none of them are free, but they're definitely worth it. i think the rocket is only like $50?

[spaceboy_psy]

'Mazin

thanks man that helps alot. Been just playing around with it for a while now, and I think I'm getting to grips.

Only thing I don't really get still - pretty inconsequencial - why does the GR metre go into the positive? just to show that the gain reduction is beginning at a... lower point?