|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 9, 2024 16:54:37 GMT -6
Download this if you haven't. I believe it was a discussion on this forum that mentioned it: www.stillwellaudio.com/plugins/bitter/That's foolproof. You just insert it and it tells you how many bits you're at. If you're over the amount you want to output to a converter or a bounced file, just insert a dither plugin.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 8, 2024 9:21:57 GMT -6
I really want to check out the Wesaudio stuff. I just got a pair of NG76s and a Rhea. They sound excellent in limited testing on a previous mix, and plugin control is a beautiful thing. I'm already looking at a Titan so I can have single-cable control over Ethernet for any of their 500 series boxes, and of course, to fill the thing up! I like the sound of that. Perhaps in the next month or two I may be in a position to start a Titan. Have you been able to compare them to some other compressors? What's your take on the Zenpro Clipalator files if you've heard them?
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 8, 2024 8:07:11 GMT -6
The whole idea of optional dither is as stupid as the idea of optional tape bias would be! Almost any digital signal processing kicks the bit depth up to infinity. The distortion will always be more audible than the dither. There simply nothing to gain by not dithering. While dither can appear to have no benefit, not dithering can come back and bite you down the line. Bob, I've really appreciated all your research into dithering. It definitely does make a lot of difference. So much so that when people talk about the sound of hardware devices, I ask them if they've applied dither. The sound differences became more apparent to me the more devices were in a chain too. People who don't dither are having to base their whole style and workflow on reacting to the distortion caused by that practice as most everyone here must know already. Just something I wanted to point out for anyone reading who has never tried dither. I'm surprised UAD has never bothered with a dither plugin. The industry doesn't treat it with any importance. The best discussion on it has taken place on this board from what I remember. Digital and plugins are definitely hindered from reaching their full potential due to things like not dithering. It'd be great if Cedar came out with one. The dither in Adaptive Limiter 2 is quite good. Something where I notice the switch between 24 and 16 less than with others. Even converting something like the 24-bit file of Perhaps by Guns N Roses was iffy. Tried it with RX and the Maat in PT. I liked the 16-bit file a lot less. I'm always using the flat dither. Well, maybe that new guy's plugin will beat everything else on the market.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 8, 2024 0:36:45 GMT -6
What source can I read this in? I've read about the IMF in books like Confessions of an economic hitman. Read all sorts of CIA books. I know people can pretty much write anything because of the weak libel laws. I've actually watched hours of deposition videos of public figures who have been sued and you just see these guys crumple when the lawyers confront them with their lack of due diligence. Or they start pretending that their memory is worse than the worst Alzheimer's patient. The most hilarious is when they pretend that they don't know what an opinion is vs a statement of fact. Years ago I read some Bilderberg Group book, the Mark Dice Illuminati Facts and Fiction, something on Operation Gladio. Lots more. Since then so much has come out about factual info and disinfo. I've never really read about the WEF though and try to qualify whatever big pieces of info that I stumble upon. Here's Ace Frehley talking about AI recently: blabbermouth.net/news/ace-frehley-explains-why-he-hasnt-used-artificial-intelligence-during-songwriting-process My opinion of the WEF is based on “watch what they do, not what they say.” 1,040 private jet flights in 1 week to a meeting of people that supposedly prioritize the environment as our most dangerous & immediate threat. So, 80% of the world’s population has never flown a single time but we’re supposed to get lectured by these rich folks that do more damage in one week than most will in their lifetime(while they also fly in hookers for $2,500 a pop but I digress..,). Once proven to be a hypocrite, I have a hard time taking direction on what the ideal future looks like from them. www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/57867/hundreds-of-ultra-short-private-jet-flights-to-davos-world-economic-forum/Thanks for the Ace Frehley article. I can’t imagine how wild it has been for someone that broke into the business in the seventies to navigate what it has become now 🤯 A lot of these people probably have some sort personality disorder from the more antisocial types. So many of the powerful only care about themselves. Just a few of them could donate to a pet rescue or a kid's hospital and make a world of difference. We're talking about people where 100k is something like .2% of their net worth. Instead they go on Youtube or TV and ask their poor fans to donate. I'm always puzzled when someone famous who has famous friends starts a gofundme for a 50k medical procedure or something when their five best buddies have all made tens of millions of dollars. My IG feed is full of one pet rescue after another that struggle to raise $1500. One powerful person makes that in an hour or less. Even if they don't want to donate, they can cut 30 second videos or something. Reminds me of when I saw this Hamilton performance at the library when the musical was out. I believe it was Mrs. Hamilton who said that the poor pay what they can but the rich always stiff her. I'm not sure who writes the WEF forecasts, but it's just a forecast. It's recommending that employers, governments, and regular people all work together to tackle the issues that will arise from disruptive technologies. Seems innocuous enough. I always try to look at the message itself as opposed to relying a lot on who is giving it. Though a good leader will always try to have the moral high ground before asking stuff of others. A lot of psychopaths and sociopaths love to weasel their way into positions of power by lying. This diagnosed sociopath named Kanika divulges all her methods on Youtube. She is very insidious. But either way, I have no doubt that the powerful are gonna tell all of us to sacrifice while they hoard wealth and pollute the planet. Our society is becoming increasingly transactional and I'm always watching for that type of behavior whether it's someone like a politician or someone I've known forever. The interesting angle about technology is that eventually these people lose the monopoly on power. Nobody being in charge could seem a bit unsettling. Matt Griffin was just talking about something that would lead to the creation of artificial humans. There was that Singularity University doc made some years about where they were starting to print DNA with a laser printer I think it was. You have to wonder what sort of horrific things some sick psycho would do with tech like that. An AI would never try to replicate psychopathic behavior I'm hoping. Ace has always been into tech along with looking out for himself. Every book I've ever read about Kiss seems to paint them as four narcissists who never trusted each other. Ace and Peter were different because of the reckless and self-destructive stuff they'd get themselves into, especially the car accidents. The Into the Void book by Wendy Moore talks about Ace and his 90s tech. Apparently he had a whole computer setup very early on in the history of DAWs. Must've been 1996 or thereabouts. He'd bring it to the hotels during the tours.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 7, 2024 23:34:26 GMT -6
What's in the WEF's interest? Usually the only places I hear about the WEF are conspiracy-based sources who won't stand behind their claims whenever they are hauled into court. Whenever they talk about someone like Kurzweil, they start making things up, lie about what's in his books, etc. There's probably legit criticism out there, I just have to go looking for it. Either way, their forecast articles don't seem insidious or anything: www.weforum.org/press/2020/10/recession-and-automation-changes-our-future-of-work-but-there-are-jobs-coming-report-says-52c5162fce/I should see if there's a newer forecast. Dealing with Covid the way societies have been is not sustainable. This article seems to assume governments would still be taking mitigation measures going forward. Now with our current wave, every person who told me "covid is over" or whatever other piece of propaganda they repeated has dropped that idea. The denial may be ending. If no one can neutralize it soon, AI and robotics will have to take on a larger role out of necessity. Brauer did some videos for Puremix that I've seen some of. He was talking about the effect of Covid being that he doesn't do a lot of attended sessions anymore. It was quite interesting hearing him explain how that changed his whole method of working. Creativity is one of the skills the above article says will still be valued. Analytical thinking. Things that require the most intelligence and raw creative skill. A lot of audio work with music requires that. Post is probably a whole other ballgame. I guess it goes back to what the consumer wants. If we look at Metallica, they figured out that they didn't need to make these ultra-complicated songs and that something simpler would make more money. Then so many other similar bands followed suit. Maintaining power…wealth and control…that is what is in their interest and they will hide behind anything they can scare people with because fear is one heck of a motivator and manipulative tool. What source can I read this in? I've read about the IMF in books like Confessions of an economic hitman. Read all sorts of CIA books. I know people can pretty much write anything because of the weak libel laws. I've actually watched hours of deposition videos of public figures who have been sued and you just see these guys crumple when the lawyers confront them with their lack of due diligence. Or they start pretending that their memory is worse than the worst Alzheimer's patient. The most hilarious is when they pretend that they don't know what an opinion is vs a statement of fact. Years ago I read some Bilderberg Group book, the Mark Dice Illuminati Facts and Fiction, something on Operation Gladio. Lots more. Since then so much has come out about factual info and disinfo. I've never really read about the WEF though and try to qualify whatever big pieces of info that I stumble upon. Here's Ace Frehley talking about AI recently: blabbermouth.net/news/ace-frehley-explains-why-he-hasnt-used-artificial-intelligence-during-songwriting-process
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 7, 2024 22:27:29 GMT -6
The WEF is forcasting the future that is in their best interest and again...no thanks. What's in the WEF's interest? Usually the only places I hear about the WEF are conspiracy-based sources who won't stand behind their claims whenever they are hauled into court. Whenever they talk about someone like Kurzweil, they start making things up, lie about what's in his books, etc. There's probably legit criticism out there, I just have to go looking for it. Either way, their forecast articles don't seem insidious or anything: www.weforum.org/press/2020/10/recession-and-automation-changes-our-future-of-work-but-there-are-jobs-coming-report-says-52c5162fce/I should see if there's a newer forecast. Dealing with Covid the way societies have been is not sustainable. This article seems to assume governments would still be taking mitigation measures going forward. Now with our current wave, every person who told me "covid is over" or whatever other piece of propaganda they repeated has dropped that idea. The denial may be ending. If no one can neutralize it soon, AI and robotics will have to take on a larger role out of necessity. Brauer did some videos for Puremix that I've seen some of. He was talking about the effect of Covid being that he doesn't do a lot of attended sessions anymore. It was quite interesting hearing him explain how that changed his whole method of working. Creativity is one of the skills the above article says will still be valued. Analytical thinking. Things that require the most intelligence and raw creative skill. A lot of audio work with music requires that. Post is probably a whole other ballgame. I guess it goes back to what the consumer wants. If we look at Metallica, they figured out that they didn't need to make these ultra-complicated songs and that something simpler would make more money. Then so many other similar bands followed suit.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 7, 2024 22:07:07 GMT -6
My prior opinions posted here haven't changed. This is one of the best reverb plugins ever made in my view. Atlantis and Inspirata are the big ones for me. I use stuff like Capitol Chambers, SP2016, and Seventh Heaven Pro to supplement. Maybe I'll try to find new ways of using the SP2016 given Dan's recent comments on it.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 7, 2024 20:44:19 GMT -6
There's already at least one great dither discussion on this forum. The consensus was to dither before a hardware insert and when bouncing, right? Someone here posted about the Stillwell Bitter plugin to see how many bits you were sending out. In PT it said 32-bits. Once I put Maat Linpro in, it read 24-bit and I didn't need to insert a dither plugin in front of each hardware insert to maintain 24-bits. Sometimes I get weird feedback if I use the Maat too much, then I switch to Good dither. The Maat maintains the clarity a lot better than any other dither that I've tried. There's a guy developing a new plugin that posts on GS. I subscribe to the thread and I don't recall there being any updates in a while though.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 7, 2024 20:35:30 GMT -6
I just noticed that Matt Griffin/311 Institute now makes weekly Future News videos on Youtube. There's just too much to get into. Tech is exponential. It moves faster and the number of emerging technologies keeps growing. It's just a ton of info to keep track of and organize. Then take that and try to deduce possible timelines for maturation of various technologies. Inevitably things move too fast for us to follow and AI runs it all. Governments won't be able to just halt development. You do that and it opens the door for someone else to gain an edge. Once resource scarcity is a thing of the past, countries won't need to try and exploit each other. But until then, everyone has to participate in the AI arms race.
The big question to ask here is what are the consequences of AI for those of us engaged in audio? Loss of work, obviously. The audio world has been one of the first to lose work due to tech in the 21st century starting with Napster. I've heard automated consoles required less people in studios where previously several people had to turn knobs in real time. The DAW allowed for less personnel too, I've also read. AI seems to just be the latest development that can improve efficiency but also cut labor costs. Establishing a timeline of when AI will develop to a point where human engineers and performers are no longer needed is a good thing to focus on. But ultimately it depends on what the public is willing to pay for.
Going back to 1999, I was very surprised that people were willing to just download mp3s left and right. They didn't care that they were ripping off bands or listening to things with damaged fidelity. Streaming isn't much of an improvement. We could argue that streaming is worse because now anyone with something like $9.99 can access decades worth of music that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and a herculean effort to acquire. Previously, consumers had to just buy what was available. If their vinyl or tape wore out or if they scratched up their cds, they had to obtain new copies. A lot of the time those were not convenient to obtain. So, they just bought something that was easily obtainable instead.
Finding new music that you want to listen to can be a task in itself. I have to wade through dozens and dozens of new releases to find one thing I may want to listen to. It feels like work. Then a ton more stuff comes out before I'm tired of what I just found. Previously record labels were gatekeepers of quality and radio and MTV were gatekeepers of public exposure. If the year is 1998, I know there's a good chance I'll like something on Nuclear Blast or Century Media. In 2005, I counted on Frontiers and MTM. Now we still have Frontiers and a couple labels, but the quality is a lot less consistent and the albums less distinct. There's also all sorts of releases from less established entities. Not a lot of it is breaking new ground, at least from things I follow. If anything, the quality of the writing and engineering keeps declining. The consumer doesn't need to chase new music. Therefore, the people who would hire us are not getting paid or are paid a lot less. Audio forums are full of posts concerning reduced budgets. A lot of new artists do stuff themselves out of necessity.
Legacy artists largely don't bother recording new material. The public is willing to pay exorbitant prices to see live shows that often involve backing tracks and occasionally even lip synching. The demand seems much higher for events than recordings. Much of this demand is fueled by social media and people wanting to post pictures of themselves at these events. Advertisers keep using music from the past. I'm not sure what their attitudes are concerning use of AI to create music for their marketing plans. I could see them designing an AI song that some algorithm has told them checks all the boxes. Why pay for "Don't Stop Believin" if you can generate a song for free that yields superior results? Record companies can make new AI music, but there has to be an audience for it. We all know that if it gets to the point where labels are generating their own music that consumers being able to do it won't be far behind.
Didn't some big music names just sell the rights to their writing methods to some label or other corporation for AI usage? I know this goes on in the worlds of banking and law. GPT4 already beats 90% of people at the bar exam. People I know have been approached to be the source of algorithms that could be used to analyze data. More and more paralegal type work is being automated. Perhaps everyone in every industry should have contingency plans lined up, but that isn't even realistic. We've had a problem with lack of new industries for years, if not decades. We still have a problem with bottlenecks where the 30 and 40 year old can't advance because 70 and 80 year olds still hold top positions.
The legal questions about copyright and AI are important. It's going to get into a lot of tricky nuances. Debates about who really owns what writing methods. Debates about how unique they really are. Lady Gaga never got sued by Madonna or the writers of "Don't Turn Around" as far as I'm aware. If that's considered acceptable, then AI creations that are highly derivative are also going to have to be considered legal.
Are we trying to reach some type of consensus opinion of what course of action to take at the moment? A very worthwhile discussion, but extremely complex. Governments are very reactive as Bill has indicated above. They will have to do something with the massive automation of jobs that's around the corner. I believe it was the WEF that forecasted that something like 50% of jobs would be automated by next year.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 7, 2024 5:24:05 GMT -6
Hypothetically speaking, would you guys trade your audio career for infinite or near infinite resources, the ability to have any medical issue solved, the ability to become augmented, a cyborg, or something better, full immersion VR, and to experience things that would be more stimulating than anything we can imagine? I think most wars are over resources. They're done with a scarcity mindset. Crime is done to obtain resources or a thrill. Both crime and war will be a thing of the past at some point. We already have some basic gene editing today. Eventually that will evolve into something better than Gattaca and we can weed out antisocial disorders. Movies like that are just an exercise in thought because they only accelerate one aspect of technology and leave everything else locked into the time period it was made in. Even something like Star Wars feels like its world has limitations of 20th Century America. They've got cybernetics and light speed but people still age and drink blue milk? They don't even have cell phones..hah
Let's say AI does cause demand for audio services to drop and rates to plummet. Do we need a contingency for that? Audio won't be the only field where automation happens. Everyone can't go become a plumber, there will have to be a UBI amount that is a livable income. I think the more complex engineering and song-writing will take a lot longer to replicate than these formulaic modern pop songs. But we've already lost so much of that complex stuff because musicians either can't find band members or don't have the resources to make it. We could see a renaissance of Master of Puppets quality work at some point if there are people out there with a desire to create still. So much of our modern DAW music sounds fake and robotic as it is. AI may kill the demand for that and create demand for more complex things. That MOP kind of quality writing and engineering does not exist in modern music really. If I recall, Kurzweil forecasted that by 2070 or 2080 that currency would have no value anymore.
There's really no harm in pushing your skills and knowledge as much as possible. I think we're seeing the worst of the dog eat dog race to the bottom in audio right now. The people who are really dedicated and keep going will be the ones who stay relevant the longest. And there will probably be communities with different levels of technology. So maybe if you want to live in 1995 indefinitely, you could do that and there will just be some provision for people to get access to 2040s medical care. This isn't gonna be something where everyone's jobs are automated and we're all in breadlines begging some terminator for a weekly ration.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 6, 2024 21:13:34 GMT -6
Check out these headlines from the latest articles:
AI GETS BUSY HELPING RESEARCHERS CREATE THE FIRST SYNTHETIC BLOOD PLASMA
WALMART’S SUPPLIERS WOULD RATHER NEGOTIATE WITH AI THAN A HUMAN
THIS NEW AI TOOL FROM HEYGEN DUBS YOUR VOICE IN SEVEN LANGUAGES
IN BIZZARE TWIST SCAMMERS ARE SCAMMING SCAMMERS WITH SCAM GPT’S
THE FIRST 247 AI NEWS CHANNEL FINALLY GOES LIVE
IN A FIRST A HACKER IS DEMANDING FULL CONTROL OF A MAJOR COMPANY
There was more stuff. An Ultrasound printer printing organs inside a body. Researchers at Indiana U connected a sort of artificial cortex made from brain cells to a chip packed with electrodes and it could learn. Even beating AI at solving certain math problems. It's called Brainoware. It's looking like we're getting closer to being able to augment ourselves with cybernetics and other things to vastly increase our own abilities. There's just so much going on with emerging exponential tech. It's all connected, so it's tough to look at something like AI and think about it in solely in terms of music. Just because that's assuming music itself won't be completely reinvented with things like the DAW and stereo sound becoming archaic. Very few people could begin to really give a qualified answer as to what happens with all these emerging technologies.
I included the last headline after I read the article. There will be a need to go back and use older technologies or even methods that don't rely on any tech at all in order to keep things secure from hackers. There's really not a huge point in thinking about AI in music aside from how it integrates at the moment and whether you'd rather sell your stuff and do something else while your gear and plugins have some value. The future is really beyond our control. By the time a natural human can be considered obsolete for audio work, a big percentage of current jobs will have been automated, resources won't be as scarce, and prices should have fallen a ton on most things. Eventually AI and augmented humans will be running everything, but that's obvious enough. The average person I know outside of the Internet always tries to forecast the future based on the past. Imagine trying to forecast the future in 1924 without having any real knowledge of the emerging technologies of the time. Television technology had a lot of advances throughout that decade, but the average person of 1924 probably had no idea what was around the corner. Eventually we'll see a radical redesign of human society, much as our society today is radically different from say 1850, but this will be even bigger. I'm not really worried about AI doing something horrendous. AI isn't going to have random robots shooting up buildings or anything.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 6, 2024 2:45:35 GMT -6
I've already written a lot on the topic in other discussions here. Not much else to add. In short, hundreds of emerging technologies are about to radically change the world. Mostly for the better. Modern AI is already creating singers and songs. It will rapidly get more sophisticated. With things like the trades, we've got 3d printing and all sorts of new construction tech that will radically cut costs while increasing efficiency and quality. At the same time that jobs are automated, resources and everything else related to necessities grows in abundance. The need to work will start to drop significantly along with prices. We'll have a lot more control over our time. With studios, it will start with AI doing some basic stuff before it gets to the point where it's extracting the nonlinear qualities from hardware and tape perfectly and then allowing you to use them however you wish. You'll just tell it what to do for the most part. Like if Acustica's methods were completely accurate. I could see them adopting tech like that before the average user ends up being able to do the same thing.
There are videos on Youtube about our "on demand society". That will only grow. People with bands will be able to buy digital versions of people. You want Slash in your band, only $99 for the algorithmic audio-only version. You want the full immersion VR Slash that will interact with you as if the real Slash was there, that's $999. People will go in and jam with their AI VR fantasy bands and then record using 1:1 copies of hardware and new AI devices that are a combination of several hardware pieces, like a Pensado Eq. That's if they even want to record and mix and all instead of just having the AI spit something out. AI will also be able serve as a producer, like an AI of Bob Rock and then some new producer characters created by the AI. Like I've said before, I think human-created music will become a genre of its own. But there will come a day when no one can tell them apart. Already the songs that most heavily use AI blend in very well.
We're only one year out from 2025 and that's a big year with forecasters. 1995 had some game-changing stuff happen that most people didn't see coming.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 4, 2024 22:19:38 GMT -6
I've got enough UA to where I didn't even get anything from the last sale where it would have cost me $80 for any 2. If the newer plugins had DSP releases, I'd be more tempted. What would be better is if UA released hardware with either way more powerful DSP chips or with triple or quadruple the number of Sharcs that the Octo has but for $299 max. At this point, I'd rather get some Wesaudio pieces for a Titan over time than to buy lots more plugins. UAD lost some mystique going native, though it's good for us. It just turns UAD into another plugin company in the eyes of many. If they could also somehow break new ground in emulations by using DSP hardware that can exceed the single core capabilities of modern cpu processors, then they'd be back on the cutting edge. Still lots of ground to break.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Jan 4, 2024 16:09:11 GMT -6
I really want to check out the Wesaudio stuff. In the Zenpro clipalator, I thought their 500 series stuff was just about as good as anything else in there. Hyperion seems like it could be up there with things like the PQ and the Buzz Req. It certainly has a lot of functionality. On the compressor side, I didn't feel like Rhea or Dione were out of their depth against the Unfairchild or SPL Iron. Prometheus also sounded tremendous. Wish they had clips using more eqs considered top of the line. Right now I just use the PA PQ since it held up so well against the Massive Passive at Access Analog. It would definitely be something if the PQ plugin and Hyperion and Prometheus end up holding their own against the real expensive stuff. There's a guy on Youtube who did a comparison with the Soma hardware and PA plugin. The hardware definitely had a bit more fullness to it, but it wasn't like compressors and saturators I've heard where the plugin is maybe 40-50% there. Eqs might be much easier to accurately model if they're reasonably clean. The Curve Bender on the other hand, is a case where the hardware is very different. A guy on Youtube added other plugins to try and match the hardware and while it got closer, it was still missing a decent amount.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Dec 30, 2023 2:42:52 GMT -6
I'm curious how your opinion would change when applying dither. When I've listened to the bounced files, the differences were not subtle. The Portico II and Fusion probably provide the most opportunity for drastic changes out of anything I've tried. Which silk are you using? I think for me only the red one did anything I found useful. The compressor on it...I found it good but not sure if I'd say it's one of the best. I've only ever worked with an early serial number SH, not the modern version. Supposedly it's quite different. I'd rank it above the Manley Vari-Mus on AA and in line with the Alpha or the Stamchild MKII. Eventually we'll be able to use AA's Alpha without having to pay for the whole Magic Garden. That will be interesting. Getting back to the Fusion, I usually use it without Vintage Drive on. VD is not bad, I just don't feel like I need it. The way you set the Violet eq matters a lot. For the longest time I had been doing 30hz and 20khz. Lately it's been 50hz and 20khz. We'll see if I keep it there. Space I usually set at the first dot and put Width just below +2. With the HFC I usually have the not to far off from the far left position and the x-over set a little above 14k. Transformer I usually leave on because of the energy it gives. When it comes to the HPF, it's something I experiment with occasionally. Fusion is usually the first thing I'll have in a chain. Ah that's very interesting. I didn't mess with the fusion for too long on there because as you know, it costs money haha, and I was getting some really great sounds out of the Neve stuff. I'm sure if I had spent more time with it, I would've found a nice sweet spot on the drive. Overall, my quick impression was that any knob I messed with on the MBT just sounded good and did something musical, whereas when I played around with the fusion it felt like I could make it sound cool, but it took a lot longer to dial something in. Again, just my first impression. For the MBP, I used one of their presets and just fiddled with the attack and release a bit, added BLUE silk, and it made my mix immediately pop out of the screen like HD. It was like I was swimming in the rhythm all of the sudden. Maybe there are ways to make other compressors sound like that, but I haven't heard them. The blue silk added a crazy low end that wasn't even present in the track beforehand, I found it to be very pleasing to the ears. I did try the V9 Manley Comp too, which sounded very gluey like it made everything seem very soft in a pleasing way. It didn't quite give me that musicality and character that I found in the Neves, but that could also be because I only played with it for about 10 minutes. Have you decided what converter you're going to use long term? I'm not sure why exactly, but the same file I ran through Access Analog when checking out the Fusion last year sounded much cleaner when run through my Fusion and Aurora N with the same settings. Their Fusion was also hooked up to an Aurora N. Things sounded much cleaner on my equipment. Someone tried to scam me by selling me a "mint" broken Black Box and it too sounded a little different, cleaner as well maybe. The main tubes still worked but the alt tubes didn't, meters were busted and falling inside the case, one of the tube casings was loose inside, the air button was broken, and they had taken screws off the top and not put them back in. But I returned it before Klarna could charge me since the guy didn't want to cover the repair costs and nor did he have any insurance. Then he tried to tell Ebay that I broke it. But all our messages pointed to the opposite. I even told this guy to pack it with heavy padding in a heavy duty box. Instead he shipped it in a flimsy used box with no padding with the Black Box upside down. You have to really watch for scammers selling you broken stuff on Reverb and Ebay. Luckily I have Deltronics near me and they've been able to fix stuff. I had them talking to Josh at Stam about doing repairs. That could be helpful for Stam owners. All these pieces have a learning curve. They all have different chemistry with different devices. The Portico II can maybe do the most of the multi-function devices. You could probably just use that and plugins to get a good sound. It'd be good if someone with a WesAudio chain could run some stuff through it for you. Used Portico IIs are around $3500 last I checked. You could get a Titan with a couple things for that. At Access Analog, I preferred the Culture Vulture 15 over the Black Box. It was better at keeping your balance intact. But you couldn't do a lot with it before it was too much. Their SPL Vitalizer is quite good. Silver Bullet was really nice. The saturation from the Cranesong Hedd really makes that Magic Garden chain come to life. The free Daking comp is good as well but the thing has always been in use every time I've wanted to use it this year. There's still a lot that they have which I haven't tried. When I do try things, I'll do a 15-20 second snippet of a song. The only way to feasibly use Access Analog routinely is to get one of their unlimited subscriptions. They have one for $34.99 where you can use the Porticos unlimited. Eventually those will end up being occupied as much as the Daking I bet.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Dec 29, 2023 22:59:29 GMT -6
Try the Fusion too. I've tried adding the Portico II to chains I made with the Fusion and a saturator and compressor and it got really phasey if I started using the SFE a lot. They seem to switch the converter that the Portico II is attached to. The first one is now going to an Aurora N. For a while I think it was on the Antelope when it had been on the Aurora originally. There's a guy on Youtube who compared his Portico II with Access Analog's and the one from Access Analog sounded much better, probably due to superior conversion. You may not need both. The more experience you get with this stuff, the more you'll uncover different things you can do that you may not have been initially aware of. Or maybe you'll find something else that you like better. Try watching the videos for the WesAudio stuff. Hyperion can be pretty transformative. The Portico II's SFE is basically a M-S eq I've read and the Wes stuff has M-S. You may even prefer a combo of Rhea and Hyperion over the Portico. There's combos of gear I've preferred over the basic settings I used with the Magic Garden chain Access Analog has. Maybe if I wanted to spend $500 to buy several hours to learn it, I'd prefer the MG. Too bad there's no chain store where you could walk in and try this stuff like a Guitar Center. I'd just encourage you to keep testing things and researching before using up your budget. Especially if you're not planning to keep buying hardware. Testing is always best because you never know when some Youtuber or even forum poster on one of the big audio forums has been compensated to promote something. Have you tried putting a dither plugin before your first hardware insert or the Analog Matrix plugin? As far as I know, Access Analog does not dither anything. Download Bitter by Stillwell, it's free. That will show when you're outputting 32-bit to your converter if you're using 32-bit float or anything above 24-bit. The Maat Linpro was my favorite of the dithers that I tried. For some reason I can't use it over and over though. When I want to add a piece of hardware onto a track I just committed through other hardware, sometimes I get weird feedback from the Maat on the committed track. So, then I use Gooddither instead. Your stuff will sound a bit different when outputting the correct number of bits. Standard practice seems to be to not use dither, at least from what I see on Youtube videos. Take that for what it's worth. This forum has about the best dither info out there if you search it. Oh no I didn't dither anything I sent through. I tried the Fusion. It seems cool, but compared to the MBT it doesn't sound anything close to the same quality. Honestly, nothing I tried on there had the mojo of the MBP or the MBT. I'm trying a lot of stuff, there's just something about those Neve units... They add something that others don't seem to do, especially to the genre of music I'm working with. They are just such different units, with some crossover, so obviously I was joking when I said I needed both, but it's a hard decision. On one hand, I think I'd probably use the MBT more because I could punch up so many sounds with it, use it on pretty much everything. But then I'd be missing out on the incredible musical compression of the MBP which honestly doesn't even sound real. I'd rather have that thing any day over a Shadow Hills, no offense to any SH users here, but the mojo in that compressor is just insane. It's a very difficult choice. I think if the MBT was a bit less and I could buy a really nice stereo bus comp with it, that would be a no brainer for me (but I will definitely keep scoping a lot of different stuff out before I make any decisions). I'm curious how your opinion would change when applying dither. When I've listened to the bounced files, the differences were not subtle. The Portico II and Fusion probably provide the most opportunity for drastic changes out of anything I've tried. Which silk are you using? I think for me only the red one did anything I found useful. The compressor on it...I found it good but not sure if I'd say it's one of the best. I've only ever worked with an early serial number SH, not the modern version. Supposedly it's quite different. I'd rank it above the Manley Vari-Mus on AA and in line with the Alpha or the Stamchild MKII. Eventually we'll be able to use AA's Alpha without having to pay for the whole Magic Garden. That will be interesting. Getting back to the Fusion, I usually use it without Vintage Drive on. VD is not bad, I just don't feel like I need it. The way you set the Violet eq matters a lot. For the longest time I had been doing 30hz and 20khz. Lately it's been 50hz and 20khz. We'll see if I keep it there. Space I usually set at the first dot and put Width just below +2. With the HFC I usually have the not to far off from the far left position and the x-over set a little above 14k. Transformer I usually leave on because of the energy it gives. When it comes to the HPF, it's something I experiment with occasionally. Fusion is usually the first thing I'll have in a chain.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Dec 29, 2023 19:40:07 GMT -6
Well I just messed around with the MBT and the MBP for a while on access analog and now I need to save up so I can buy both.... Try the Fusion too. I've tried adding the Portico II to chains I made with the Fusion and a saturator and compressor and it got really phasey if I started using the SFE a lot. They seem to switch the converter that the Portico II is attached to. The first one is now going to an Aurora N. For a while I think it was on the Antelope when it had been on the Aurora originally. There's a guy on Youtube who compared his Portico II with Access Analog's and the one from Access Analog sounded much better, probably due to superior conversion. You may not need both. The more experience you get with this stuff, the more you'll uncover different things you can do that you may not have been initially aware of. Or maybe you'll find something else that you like better. Try watching the videos for the WesAudio stuff. Hyperion can be pretty transformative. The Portico II's SFE is basically a M-S eq I've read and the Wes stuff has M-S. You may even prefer a combo of Rhea and Hyperion over the Portico. There's combos of gear I've preferred over the basic settings I used with the Magic Garden chain Access Analog has. Maybe if I wanted to spend $500 to buy several hours to learn it, I'd prefer the MG. Too bad there's no chain store where you could walk in and try this stuff like a Guitar Center. I'd just encourage you to keep testing things and researching before using up your budget. Especially if you're not planning to keep buying hardware. Testing is always best because you never know when some Youtuber or even forum poster on one of the big audio forums has been compensated to promote something. Have you tried putting a dither plugin before your first hardware insert or the Analog Matrix plugin? As far as I know, Access Analog does not dither anything. Download Bitter by Stillwell, it's free. That will show when you're outputting 32-bit to your converter if you're using 32-bit float or anything above 24-bit. The Maat Linpro was my favorite of the dithers that I tried. For some reason I can't use it over and over though. When I want to add a piece of hardware onto a track I just committed through other hardware, sometimes I get weird feedback from the Maat on the committed track. So, then I use Gooddither instead. Your stuff will sound a bit different when outputting the correct number of bits. Standard practice seems to be to not use dither, at least from what I see on Youtube videos. Take that for what it's worth. This forum has about the best dither info out there if you search it.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Dec 29, 2023 16:18:27 GMT -6
Has anyone else compared the two different versions of the Manley Vari-Mu that Access Analog has? V9 always sounded a lot better to me. I'm definitely curious who these MEs are that get it done with headphones since my living space makes it impossible to use speakers and treatment. Being able to get some experience with top grade hardware killed off about 95% of my desire to keep buying plugins or cheaper hardware. Now I treat every purchase with a lot more scrutiny. It has to really add something big like the Cedar Adaptive Limiter 2. That thing is great as a finishing tool to balance a master when converting to 16-bit. I'm not using it for level, so I can't say if it does that any better than a Pro-L2. If I had an unlimited budget, I'd love to build a setup like Bill has. But that's a pipe dream for me. So, I have to try and find the smallest number of things that make the biggest impact.
What often is not mentioned anywhere is how limiting cpu power is on the potential of ITB mixes. You can't just load up 100 instances of Satin along with lots of other great stuff and hit the play button. Maybe no processor in existence could handle that. Committing and freezing isn't a great option because you can't hear how all these things sound simultaneously. I find that I have to be a lot more careful with plugins. If I use a good piece of hardware to take the place of one or more plugins and commit, the resulting track is usually pretty easy to work with. Hybrid mixing yields me much better results just by replacing the plugin compressors and then using stuff like Fusion on certain sub-mixes. It's a really time-consuming process though.
Access Analog is upgrading some things so that it's easier to use with slower Internet connections. If they grew their userbase significantly, there'd be too much demand for the equipment though. Maybe they'd buy more, who knows. Hopefully they get more eqs, just so we can see what ones far exceed the quality of the plugins.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Dec 29, 2023 5:49:45 GMT -6
Ever taken a look at Access Analog? They have two very legit mastering chains and a lot of other stuff. Black Box HG-2. Silver Bullet. The Portico II. Fusion. Massive Passive. Lots of stuff and they're always adding things and making improvements. If you have decent credit, you could use Affirm or the Vintage King card to finance something long term, some guys there know how to do 48 months on most anything. Get a couple things from Looptrotter or IGS or one expensive top tier piece. Maybe your budget could go up if you did 48 month financing? Building a Wesaudio Titan system could be cool and fit your budget. Maybe a Titan system and plugins could do the trick? Try comparing the PA SPL PQ plugin to the Massive Passive if you check out Access Analog. I felt like they were comparable in quality, much more so than any of the MP emulations or whatever other eq plugin I compared it with. Identifying the best emulations can allow one to prioritize other things OTB. There's a video of the Dangerous Compressor vs Kotelnikov I think it was. They were extremely close most of the time from what I remember. For 5k, you'd have to have multiple pieces that are under 2k each, or even closer to $1500 each. It's a really tough call.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Dec 20, 2023 12:48:31 GMT -6
What do you all think of this tool? I've got an Artist Mix that I can manually ride faders, but sometimes feel I lack the experience and time to do it properly. I just made some posts about this one in the plugin sale thread, you'll see my settings there. I've done a little more experimenting in the days since. One thing I will add is that it doesn't seem necessary to use on aux tracks that house your sub-mixes. Waverider makes fader riding work like a compressor. A person could not pull off automation like this anywhere as fast. The way it works with my clip gain moves and plugin setup makes it so I rarely have to edit the automation later. Waverider TG also creates very different results from the original Waverider. I don't think it's anywhere as easy or good.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Dec 15, 2023 14:45:21 GMT -6
Waverider works through HUI. I believe it has to be the last insert and that you may need to watch latency of plugins placed beforehand. I was working off old automation that wasn't even following the hardware compression I added though. Usually I keep the soft range ratio almost at the far left and loud range ratio arrow almost at the far right. Park level around -20. Classic mode. I'm using V3 but I don't think V4 had any real changes beyond the layout and some updates for MAC OS. It's pretty flexible if you use conservative settings. You just have to try settings and see what works for you. Watched a demo. Seems like best practice is to use it first and then either print it or do all the plugins/effects on a bus. Makes sense. I set Threshold around -30 on loud and -40 on soft. You have to deactive DSP plugins that are inserted before it if I recall.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Dec 15, 2023 14:37:00 GMT -6
Quiet Art is having their 50% off sale. Yesterday I was trying hardware compressors at the mix stage for the first time. It was a real eye-opener. All of a sudden my mixes were significantly wider, popped out of the cheap speakers, better punch, better clarity, more natural frequency balance. Anyway, after I hit the commit button, I noticed the faders were moving. It had turned automation back on that I had written with Waverider some time back. And it sounded really good. Stuff that I had been having issues with keeping the volume even now was almost perfectly even. Before when being completely ITB at the mix stage I felt like Waverider and plugin compressors were too much. The plugins that I felt held up the best were MolotGE for tracks and Mike-E on busses. Those must be on sale. Quiet Art also has Defaulter for Windows now and I am going to try that. quietart.co.nz/I've never had a tool like this but always been curious. It looks amazing. What's the catch? (Talking about Wave Rider). Waverider works through HUI. I believe it has to be the last insert and that you may need to watch latency of plugins placed beforehand. I was working off old automation that wasn't even following the hardware compression I added though. Usually I keep the soft range ratio almost at the far left and loud range ratio arrow almost at the far right. Park level around -20. Classic mode. I'm using V3 but I don't think V4 had any real changes beyond the layout and some updates for MAC OS. It's pretty flexible if you use conservative settings. You just have to try settings and see what works for you.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Dec 15, 2023 12:50:38 GMT -6
Quiet Art is having their 50% off sale. Yesterday I was trying hardware compressors at the mix stage for the first time. It was a real eye-opener. All of a sudden my mixes were significantly wider, popped out of the cheap speakers, better punch, better clarity, more natural frequency balance. Anyway, after I hit the commit button, I noticed the faders were moving. It had turned automation back on that I had written with Waverider some time back. And it sounded really good. Stuff that I had been having issues with keeping the volume even now was almost perfectly even. Before when being completely ITB at the mix stage I felt like Waverider and plugin compressors were too much. The plugins that I felt held up the best were MolotGE for tracks and Mike-E on busses. Those must be on sale. Quiet Art also has Defaulter for Windows now and I am going to try that. quietart.co.nz/
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Dec 8, 2023 22:25:05 GMT -6
I've read some of the manual. You have to do some very specific routing with it in a DAW. While I didn't read the whole thing, it seemed like it would be possible to get it to interact with most every track. It doesn't have digital recall like a Bettermaker or WesAudio device, so I'm not sure how you'd switch settings from one thing to the next. Or if the controls are meant to go across the whole mix only. The impression I got was that it was more akin to a hardware version of a concept similar to Pro Tools Heat. It appears to offer signal coloration across the summing input pairs and the master bus. Dangerous makes great stuff. The Silver Bullet is more appealing to me, although I still get a ton of use out of my OG D-Box, albeit more as a center section. Not really bothering with summing OTB at this point. I went through the manual some more. So, it's talking about routing mono tracks along with the stereo stuff. Routing certain types of instruments to certain inputs on the 2bus+. I guess some of fx are only for going across the mix. Maybe you could pick and choose what tracks get what fx for those that work on individual tracks. The manual could be a little more plain English and step by step. There's some hints in it about stereo imaging, so looks like it can manipulate the stereo image some. There's a lot of inputs for other hardware. The impression I got was that it's an extremely versatile box. It's a ton more intricate than the Fusion and has a bit of a learning curve. Fusion is very simple.
|
|
|
Post by viciousbliss on Dec 8, 2023 15:33:39 GMT -6
I honestly don't know much about the 2 Bus +, but I heard what the color circuit's transformers did to a mix, and it had that hard to recreate big console sound. I've read some of the manual. You have to do some very specific routing with it in a DAW. While I didn't read the whole thing, it seemed like it would be possible to get it to interact with most every track. It doesn't have digital recall like a Bettermaker or WesAudio device, so I'm not sure how you'd switch settings from one thing to the next. Or if the controls are meant to go across the whole mix only. The impression I got was that it was more akin to a hardware version of a concept similar to Pro Tools Heat.
|
|