Compressor Colors

[Magnus EmilssonParticipant]

Hey.

So I did a little test of a few compressors on a drum loop to compare color, the settings are not necessarily matched, I dialed them in to get a fair amount of color from each. Each track is run through a FabF L2 on transparent setting to level match the tracks (lufs) and avoid digital peaks.
I included both the Waves & UAD API 2500, the Waves one gives more color in this test, because I didn't drive the UAD one hard enough.

I recommend downloading and lining them up in your DAW so you can switch between them easily.

1. Clean
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ig2wtkatoj6p80u/Comp%201%20Clean.wav?dl=0

2. bx Elysia Alpha Compressor
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cw22j3yea18kyeq/Comp%202%20Elysia%20Alpha%20Compressor.wav?dl=0

3. UAD API 2500
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v5pm7s09lbb02uo/Comp%203%20UAD%20API%202500.wav?dl=0

4. UAD 1176 Rev A
https://www.dropbox.com/s/54pavttd3wvk73h/Comp%204%20UAD%201176%20Rev%20A.wav?dl=0

5. Softube Summit Audio TLA-100
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a8mbcdoctafufka/Comp%205%20Softube%20Summit%20Audio%20TLA-100.wav?dl=0

6. Waves API 2500
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4wrks6k6s19iriw/Comp%206%20Waves%20API%202500.wav?dl=0

7. Cytomic The Glue (SSL Bus Comp)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5xjqya5o6bnbl8w/Comp%207%20Cytomic%20Glue%20Compressor.wav?dl=0

/Magnus

• This topic was modified 4 years ago by Magnus Emilsson.

[Mark HoldenParticipant]

Hello Great Idea Magnus

I think I'll drop them into a session for comparison to see how it works

Mark

[Mark HoldenParticipant]

Hello

Well the Two stand out ones for me were 4 and 7 seem to help the punch as well as keeping the snare ring with it coming up to high. 5 boosted the snare ring a little too much here for me. I didn't hear a huge difference with 2 maybe brought the ring out across the kit a bit. 3 and 6 I liked but 4 and 7 had the edge for me.
Obviously each has there place and there will be a song that leans towards choosing each of them for their merits.

Mark

[Paul MotionParticipant]

Nice one Magnus, what a cool little test! Can you include the raw loop, without compression so we can add other favourite master bus compression for further comparison? 🙂

[Magnus EmilssonParticipant]

The clean one can be used, that one is untouched.

[Paul MotionParticipant]

Doh.. that'll teach me not to read properly. 🙂 Thanks Magnus.

[Paul MotionParticipant]

Hi,

Following on from this great little idea from Magnus, I ran the original clean drum loop through a few compressor plugins myself. I went a slightly different direction to try out a few things.
For each compressor I have 2 settings, one fairly light for a final mix bus and a second quite heavy as you might do for a parallel drum compression. I've included screens for each of the compressors. Quite a few Waves so if anyone wanted to do further comparisons with non Waves that might a cool thing to do. 🙂

I tried to keep the settings as close as possible where feasible. I found a few dramatic differences between small changes, ie. the difference between 250ms & ~100ms release time on the BSS was significant with the heavy compression.
I had a McDSP ML4000 Mastering limiter on before the compressor to catch any peaks. -1.0 threshold, -1.0 ceiling, low knee. A screen of the settings for that is also included.
Screens - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IVo3gOMCfUuaiB7ksvUi8dnCP46l1h_B

As with the original post from Magnus, probably a good idea to download them all and line them up in your DAW to compare.

1. Waves SSL G Bus Compressor
Light - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vAAEJ-1eMmo47chvGOic6GKf2HTccuiY
Heavy - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SsIM1WIZ3LKWDjCr8Yz5wQY0M29fUvUZ

2. Brainworx Acme Opto XLA3
Light - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IkUwNsOvReZe7G-xa5OReJY9m_iEHCUp
Heavy - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Zg_kj7dcIXlTcV5TeQ-S_KEqKkGASchw

3. Waves API 2500
Light - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KQQX2xwPvMel4Axk1COlCr1y7Eyf_GpD
Heavy - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qkL-38tNUpStgdNdMt3ovhT-wI3ODSXc

4. Waves Abbey Road TG Mastering Channel, (Dynamics only & no widening or drive)
Light - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1r89MyF4yFZ7UKNYviHy0rXzDHXGyezvJ
Heavy - https://drive.google.com/open?id=12kfjvTD91tO0C-OWyQrUPWtJKYtmw8XF

5. Waves BSS DPR402
Light - https://drive.google.com/open?id=16YDjjOx32XsgRh35yXQvVKgCehTFwNVy
Heavy - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cP8nwY5rVWbWzsCIgpbf9QTbzQypxdVz

6. Klanghelm MJUCjnr
Light - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1V54m6Ga7JTRT36WG2Gcbtsm1cKsgbKHL
Heavy - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1P9FkIykK6s4-Fv3E1G-N6PK3mC3KfmKW

7. Waves HComp
Light - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DNiITAR35uC0_w3C8bnH28rFywiuup4w
Heavy - https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xiWbEWDGZOq-SuK93EFKEm_-5PaakcZv

Enjoy!

Paul

[Magnus EmilssonParticipant]

Nice Paul!

[Mark HoldenParticipant]

Hello

Lovely I'll be having a coffee over these when I can

Mark

[Kevin MaParticipant]

Awesome, sharing, thanks, Guys.

Maybe a Pultec 670 added will be nice. :):)

[Paul MotionParticipant]

yeah.. got a couple of new plugins since my last post. will see if I can do another pass....
I don't have the Pultec though. Happy to take delivery if you fancied sending me something Kevin. 😀

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