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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 16, 2017 13:44:11 GMT -6
Here's a pic of the Sta on the left and the WT on the right (I raised the gain of the WT in this picture so we could see how the two were handling transients.) This was using Double attack and fast release. Might be a little different with single
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 16, 2017 13:46:09 GMT -6
The WT is definitely impressive. Might have to look into one...and the Sta definitely adds a sheen.
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Post by ChaseUTB on Mar 16, 2017 13:50:41 GMT -6
The WT is definitely impressive. Might have to look into one...and the Sta definitely adds a sheen. Ya I want a weight tank or pair pretty bad right about now. Not to mention the sustain it adds on bass/ 808s/ kick drum boom/ punch is very nice..
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 16, 2017 13:50:48 GMT -6
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Post by drbill on Mar 16, 2017 13:51:19 GMT -6
Moving to a different project with a sampled standup bass. These always sound tubby, overly bright, and overly muddy to me. I'm kicking the WT pretty dam hard. Drive, 75 input level (went to 100, that was fun. Lots of farting on the ends of notes), medium attack, fast release and roughly 15dB + of GR. I'm having to put a gate after it because it's pulling up so much crappy mud from the sample. haha!!! But man, the gate was worth it. The WT locks stuff down, and adds a very nice analog vibe to things. No digital comp can do what this is doing. No digital saturation is going to do what this does. If you want transparent, I can recommend a bunch of software plugins. LOL
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Post by drbill on Mar 16, 2017 14:00:27 GMT -6
Side note - I bought one of those DBX subharmonic synth 500 modules awhile back. Dropping that after the WT/LC25 is freaking off the intergalactic charts. I've got to get more of these things. The headroom is not great, but they are really killer for (obviously) LF stuff. A friend who'se a big time scoring mixer turned me onto them. He always runs his .1 bus thru them for extra badazz low end for the subs. And they do it in spades. the WT into one of those is off the hook, but controlled LF to the max.
Makes the standup sound like a synth bass. LOL
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Post by jcoutu1 on Mar 16, 2017 14:01:17 GMT -6
The WT can certainly lock things in place. No doubt. But I would never call it "transparent". LOL Especially in drive mode. Eric sent me the mods as well. I have yet to do them, and honestly, I don't know if I ever will. As much as I thought I would use "drive", I'm using that far less than "round". I have to wait until I have more experience on a wider variety of projects. If there was a 3 way switch (I suggested it to Eric), then I'd definitely like the option - but as of today I'm not sure I want to lose the current "drive" model for a dirtier one..... I was in the same boat as you Bill. I was on the fence about the mod because I was liking the sound and didn't want to turn this into a distortion box. I also suggested a 3 way switch. After doing the mod, I don't think a 3 way is necessary. The mod differentiates the round and drive a bit more than before, but it's definitely not over the top drive. I won't miss the previous incarnation of drive. Went ahead and modded my second unit as well. Johnkenn, I popped your Sta file into my session and you must have been hitting it harder than I hit the WT. You locked it down harder than I did. My peaks hit harder and your RMS is way up in comparison.
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Post by jcoutu1 on Mar 16, 2017 14:02:25 GMT -6
Uhhh... I guess I missed a bunch of stuff in the 30 minutes it took me to post...
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Post by drbill on Mar 16, 2017 14:04:02 GMT -6
The WT can certainly lock things in place. No doubt. But I would never call it "transparent". LOL Especially in drive mode. Eric sent me the mods as well. I have yet to do them, and honestly, I don't know if I ever will. As much as I thought I would use "drive", I'm using that far less than "round". I have to wait until I have more experience on a wider variety of projects. If there was a 3 way switch (I suggested it to Eric), then I'd definitely like the option - but as of today I'm not sure I want to lose the current "drive" model for a dirtier one..... I was in the same boat as you Bill. I was on the fence about the mod because I was liking the sound and didn't want to turn this into a distortion box. I also suggested a 3 way switch. After doing the mod, I don't think a 3 way is necessary. The mod differentiates the round and drive a bit more than before, but it's definitely not over the top drive. I won't miss the previous incarnation of drive. Went ahead and modded my second unit as well. Cool. <thumbsup> I definitely want to live with it a bit more. Are you saying you get more "grit" with LESS compression on the mod? Or more grit at MORE compression. Right now, I can get all the grit I want, but at perhaps the cost of a more compressed signal than I want.
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 16, 2017 14:04:04 GMT -6
I very well could have. I just eyeballed it and it was moving pretty good the whole time. Maybe I'll try that again lol.
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Post by ChaseUTB on Mar 16, 2017 14:06:11 GMT -6
Per my vocal being gritty, the weigh tank really does something nice. To me the Sta is a great type of sound and adds sort of a icing on the cake type of vibe/ sound/ color. One would think the WT on this particular vocal maybe too much " weight " ( added tonality ) however the weight I feel is the lower level sounds beefing up and coming to life.. It brings out more nuance and vocal character as well, so does the STA. I noticed that first in the Sta Level take how it accentuated more higher end harmonics adding the " sheen " even though it was kind of like an added presence, the weight tank does this too just differently per its design and circuit.. 🤤🤗🤑
Yup that is me drooling waiting for a poor soul to have to put up a WT for sale secondhand so I can grab one... Was going to go SA1176 blue plus SA2A mk2 but this WT is on my top list to grab now 🤠
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Post by jcoutu1 on Mar 16, 2017 14:13:31 GMT -6
I was in the same boat as you Bill. I was on the fence about the mod because I was liking the sound and didn't want to turn this into a distortion box. I also suggested a 3 way switch. After doing the mod, I don't think a 3 way is necessary. The mod differentiates the round and drive a bit more than before, but it's definitely not over the top drive. I won't miss the previous incarnation of drive. Went ahead and modded my second unit as well. Cool. <thumbsup> I definitely want to live with it a bit more. Are you saying you get more "grit" with LESS compression on the mod? Or more grit at MORE compression. Right now, I can get all the grit I want, but at perhaps the cost of a more compressed signal than I want. Same settings yields slightly more grit. The grit seems to come on a little quicker, but we're not talking anything drastic.
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 16, 2017 14:13:33 GMT -6
@jcoutu - did you raise the gain on the original file going into the compressor at all? It's a pretty low volume recording...I just left it there and turned up the input on the Sta. Anyway, here's one with "single" attack. I'll make sure it doesn't go over -15 at the peak. app.box.com/s/r6z8d3xi64vsq13sz2b8qn3qzff19o7l
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Post by ChaseUTB on Mar 16, 2017 14:16:04 GMT -6
I was going to ask if the attack was real fast or if the release was real long because I did feel the Sta was doing more gain reduction. Maybe the Sta compression curves are more apparent at the settings on this vocal. I know you ( john kenn ) use the Sta all the time on your Vox and I rarely " hear " the compression. That's kinda what I was saying with the WT round Vox file, the compression action being transparent for -15db GR... These comps comparisons are awesome and even better b/c it's my Vox so I'm enjoying this greatly! Thanks Johnkenn and jcoutu1 🤠
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Post by jcoutu1 on Mar 16, 2017 14:19:17 GMT -6
Yeah, I hardly ever want to gross something out with the comp...maybe a bass...or slamming a drum bus for parallel... As far as transparent, I meant the "slew" of the compression. Is it natural? I guess that has to do with attack and release too, but I just like a natural, linear slew rate. i.e. does it sound like a transient falls off a cliff when it compresses. I'm liking the drive as a parallel to the lead. The tunes I'm working on have a Weight Tank in round mode on a lead vocal and a driven doubled vocal through another Weight Tank in drive (in parallel with a duplicate of the double running through a cleaner chain of the 14B and SA2A). The driven double is even driven a bit before the Weight Tank with a Phoenix pre/EQ for some extra grit.
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Post by jcoutu1 on Mar 16, 2017 14:23:28 GMT -6
@jcoutu - did you raise the gain on the original file going into the compressor at all? It's a pretty low volume recording...I just left it there and turned up the input on the Sta. Anyway, here's one with "single" attack. I'll make sure it doesn't go over -15 at the peak. app.box.com/s/r6z8d3xi64vsq13sz2b8qn3qzff19o7lDefinitely didn't for the drive, might have for the clean, but I'm not sure. I bounced out of the studio, so I'll have to listen later on. Gotta grab the kid. Also, is single attack a slower attack mode?
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Post by ChaseUTB on Mar 16, 2017 14:25:01 GMT -6
Yeah, I hardly ever want to gross something out with the comp...maybe a bass...or slamming a drum bus for parallel... As far as transparent, I meant the "slew" of the compression. Is it natural? I guess that has to do with attack and release too, but I just like a natural, linear slew rate. i.e. does it sound like a transient falls off a cliff when it compresses. I'm liking the drive as a parallel to the lead. The tunes I'm working on have a Weight Tank in round mode on a lead vocal and a driven doubled vocal through another Weight Tank in drive (in parallel with a duplicate of the double running through a cleaner chain of the 14B and SA2A). The driven double is even driven a bit before the Weight Tank with a Phoenix pre/EQ for some extra grit. Now that is what I call vocal mixing... keep killin it man 😀 STA Level With program-dependent time constants, the Double mode comes closest to the behaviour of the vintage original, whereas the Single mode expands both time constants for a very slow response, yielding maximum transient punch. The Triple mode, however, combines faster attack values with a more responsive, yet still quite slow, release, making this option particularly suitable for vocal compression. This combination of pretty fast attack and rather slow release characteristics (which is a typical quality of another legendary compressor, the Fairchild 660) means that even the fastest of vocal transients can be kept at bay reliably, while at the same time the moderate release prevents the signal from pumping and exhibiting other unnatural artifacts. Despite the program-dependent nature of the compression, the results can still be adjusted to some degree by finding the most appropriate setting on the release switch. This is why the RMS was more in the double : As with most variable-mu compressors, this one works with a pretty soft knee. Much of the original gain reduction is restored very quickly after the signal falls below the threshold again, yet for the last few decibels the VU needle takes longer to return fully to zero, especially after heavy gain reduction. The result is a quite ‘musical’ behaviour that allows the Sta-Level to ‘breathe’ with the input signal. In single mode, the release C is 1 uF + 0.5 uF or 1.5 uF. The double mode hangs the 1 uF capacitor from a 10 Meg resistor. This provides an intelligent dual time constant where the .5 uF gives the fast attack/fast recovery and the 1 uF sets a variable gain-riding plateau. The triple mode uses double recovery and decreases the 56K attack R to 4.7K. Per SOS and Phil from Retro Bad ass design from the 1950's man
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Post by Johnkenn on Mar 16, 2017 14:31:04 GMT -6
@jcoutu - did you raise the gain on the original file going into the compressor at all? It's a pretty low volume recording...I just left it there and turned up the input on the Sta. Anyway, here's one with "single" attack. I'll make sure it doesn't go over -15 at the peak. app.box.com/s/r6z8d3xi64vsq13sz2b8qn3qzff19o7lDefinitely didn't for the drive, might have for the clean, but I'm not sure. I bounced out of the studio, so I'll have to listen later on. Gotta grab the kid. Also, is single attack a slower attack mode? Yes, slower
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Post by stormymondays on May 29, 2017 12:03:31 GMT -6
So, what's the verdict on the Weight Tank, now that you've had some time to get to know it. Must have? Nice to have? What's your preferred application?
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Post by drbill on May 29, 2017 15:50:16 GMT -6
My thoughts remain unchanged.
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Post by ChaseUTB on May 29, 2017 20:07:55 GMT -6
I want two real bad, actually 3 or four so I wouldn't have to print shit. I could mix live with all the inserts and Weight Tanks running. Have wa76 biting peaks and then weight tank on round mode for more leveling and tube sheen. Then tucked underneath the lead is a parallel in drive mode adding that substance and far I say weight holding everything locked into place...
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Post by stormymondays on Oct 24, 2017 14:23:03 GMT -6
So I finally got one! The idea is to dedicate it to bass mix duties, although I'm sure I will be using it on a bunch of stuff. It arrived today just in time for a mixing session with a double bass. It took mere seconds to get a fantastic sound! I think it can be one of those boxes that you can't make sound bad if you tried. So far, I'm impressed!
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Post by jcoutu1 on Oct 24, 2017 14:59:25 GMT -6
So I finally got one! The idea is to dedicate it to bass mix duties, although I'm sure I will be using it on a bunch of stuff. It arrived today just in time for a mixing session with a double bass. It took mere seconds to get a fantastic sound! I think it can be one of those boxes that you can't make sound bad if you tried. So far, I'm impressed! Congrats man. Still loving mine. When I ordered, I was a little worried that they'd be too hairy and not flexible enough, but they've been great for me so far.
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Post by drbill on Oct 24, 2017 15:23:55 GMT -6
Awesome!! My two are in constant mix use here. Great investment. Enjoy!
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Post by jacobamerritt on Apr 14, 2018 14:12:36 GMT -6
Any of you guys compared the Weight Tank to the Grove Hill Liverpool first hand? Both seem cool... But not much feedback around on Grove Hill on RGO.
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