Kniferide wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 11:59 pm Brainworks makes a shadow hills compressor that has the most useless layout of controls on the market. I don't care how it sounds it's a nightmare. On the opposite end of the spectrum I'd rather use a comp that had less of a character but better interface than that junky thing. The design of the tool is as important as it's subtleties when it comes to plugin design.

I've heard that about Shadow Hills. Dan Worrall has an entire YouTube video taking about how awful the interface is.

I was checking out the Klevgrand Korvpressor recently. I really liked the interface. Very innovative controls for a compressor. Invigorate is another one that comes to mind for modern, out of the box UI.

seby wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 3:40 am This is totally how I mix in the box. I build my own little console emulation system : )

Each channel is usually something like this:

True Iron>airwindows coils2>airwindows baxandal>airwindows console7 channel.

The mix buss is usually something like this:

Airwindows console7 buss>airwindows toVinyl>airwindows toTape6>airwindows Tube!>airwindows Dark (or another dither of choice).

What's the difference between the buss and the console?

I've never done side by side shootouts with the AW buss vs console plugs (I'm inclined to just trust that geek and run with it) but probably safe to assume the buss ones are more subtle/have more headroom.

I own and used a console 1 controller. but honestly it never really worked in Reaper.
I got glitches and crackles especially when tracks were armed. It took me while to figure that it’s actually that softsound plugin that causes those issues! I still have the controller if anybody is interested.

these days I’m summing my recordings through a Studer 961 mixer. I have a bunch of outboard compressors inserted on the mixer. I barely use EQ’s on the desk.
so the only plugins I use these days are VST instruments, delays and Reverbs some times.

cakes wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 6:32 am

seby wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 3:40 am This is totally how I mix in the box. I build my own little console emulation system : )

Each channel is usually something like this:

True Iron>airwindows coils2>airwindows baxandal>airwindows console7 channel.

The mix buss is usually something like this:

Airwindows console7 buss>airwindows toVinyl>airwindows toTape6>airwindows Tube!>airwindows Dark (or another dither of choice).

What's the difference between the buss and the console?

EDIT (forgot some stuff)

The aw console systems are designed to replace the channel faders in your DAW. To make it work, you leave your FAW’s faders at unity gain - in other words do not touch them.

Each aw console system consisted of a pair of plugins - a channel plugin and a buss plugin.

With the aw console systems, you need to ensure two things:

1) That you have an instance of the channel half as the final plugin on any channel not being exported/printed - so any channel that is sending to some other channel in your DAW project.

2) That you have an instance of the buss half as the first plugin on any channel that is receiving a send from any other channel.

So in the simple project blueprint in my post above, the only instance of (2) that I have is on the mix buss. But in a more complex project things would look as follows:

- all tracks that are neither sub busses nor the mix buss can have any plugins at all, but the final plugins must be an instance of console channel.

- all sub busses must have an instance of console buss as their first plugin, and an instance of console channel as their final plugin. Any other plugins must be sandwiched in between these.

- the mix buss must have an instance of console buss as its first plugin.

That’s it : )

For channels/busses that are sending out to external hardware before returning to the DAW, these break the aw console system as designed so you do not need an instance of console channel before the send, nor an instance of console buss at the start of the return.

As to whether you should dither on the way out, I would because it is unlikely to hurt.

Note also that the use of any bespoke dither plugin as the final plugin of any channel (mix buss or hardware send) requires that you disable your DAW’s default dither.

Any help????

cakes wrote: Fri Dec 01, 2023 6:28 am

Kniferide wrote: Thu Nov 30, 2023 11:59 pm Brainworks makes a shadow hills compressor that has the most useless layout of controls on the market. I don't care how it sounds it's a nightmare. On the opposite end of the spectrum I'd rather use a comp that had less of a character but better interface than that junky thing. The design of the tool is as important as it's subtleties when it comes to plugin design.

I've heard that about Shadow Hills. Dan Worrall has an entire YouTube video taking about how awful the interface is.

I was checking out the Klevgrand Korvpressor recently. I really liked the interface. Very innovative controls for a compressor. Invigorate is another one that comes to mind for modern, out of the box UI.

I downloaded The Shadow Hills demo and imminently hated it. I love Klevgrand. I have almost all of their plugs. All their beat making shit is super fun and the synths are cool too. Really creative bunch.

i've been doing this for the last few years, with the brainworx ssl 9000j as my tracking console, followed by softube tape, followed by the brainworx lindell audio 80 as a secondary mixing console. both the 9000j and the lindell claim to have tolerance modeling for micro-differences between tracks. could be true, could be bullshit.

picked up the uad native bundle during last week's sales and i'm likely going to swap out the 9000j for uad's api vision and the softube tape for uad's studer tape. still doing some a|b testing here...

I've been using Reason for so long that I forget that other DAWs aren't based around a model of an analog console.
I know it's whole thing is beat-focused, but it really is a wonderful platform for mixing normal ass guitar bass drums music.

I was working on some mixes last night with the brainworx Console N. I was reading through the documentation and there were these notes from Dirk Ulrich splattered throughout. They take the dryness out of a user manual, but some of them seem like general good advice. Being new to mixing, I hadn't considered this: one tip was to leave the HP and LP filters on default even if you're not using them, to filter out unwanted frequencies you may not hear and leaving less audio junk for audio processors and amplifiers. For those of you who have been doing this a long time, what are your thoughts on this?

From a logical perspective, it would seem like a good idea for clarity to remove as much unnecessary information as possible.

Another neat tip was adding more V-Gain to a channel that has some editing in it to give it a more natural sound.

At any rate, the manual for the console was a pretty fun read with Dirk interjecting here and there.

I noticed that the Console N is a lot more transparent than the AMEK 9099, or maybe in other words, the EQ section and the Dynamics section aren't as dramatic. I am not comparing apples to apples here, because I wasn't mixing the same song, but the recording setup between the songs I've been mixing are the same.

cakes wrote: Fri Dec 08, 2023 9:30 am one tip was to leave the HP and LP filters on default even if you're not using them, to filter out unwanted frequencies you may not hear and leaving less audio junk for audio processors and amplifiers. For those of you who have been doing this a long time, what are your thoughts on this?

I very rarely use/need a LP filter, the only times I really use them might be on heavy guitars with way too much sizzle, or maybe on overheads if I wanted a lofi sort of thing. Every once in a while in mastering, if a mix is really skewed/bright.

I don't ever use HP filters *by default* but I def use them a lot to get rid of unnecessary low crap. I'm not much into synths but I've noticed a lot of soft synths can have a TON of crazy sub junk, even if you're playing notes up in the midrange, where you wouldn't think there'd be any sub content. Just something to be aware of.

Another neat tip was adding more V-Gain to a channel that has some editing in it to give it a more natural sound.

This kinda sounds like jive. What does "more natural" mean? I've comped/edited loads of stuff and no one could tell just from listening, I'm assuming V-gain has some sort of saturation in it? Don't really see how that's gonna help cover up edits but maybe I'm missing the point.