A different kind of compressor (reaktor ensemble)
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 7400 posts since 17 Feb, 2005
I was very intrigued by some ideas on envelope followers I read and I have decided to make this compressor for a show and tell. It uses a slew rate limiter for an envelope generator which AFAIK is not common. It is a soft-knee design and it does compression all the time, although it can easily be bypassed within the ensemble itself by setting the comp control to 0, and setting this same control to full is also gain corrected! (mostly) It is suggested to reduce gain on the output by 10dB. I added notes within the ensemble about operation of the compressor, it is not like your standard VCA, if you attempt to use it make sure to read them on panel B. It can also act like a saturator.
My impression thus far is, it is somewhat unpredictable in a good way. Sometimes higher energy sections of a song can get overly compressed, to counter this I use the mix control! It is a non-linear compressor because the gain reduction is slowed down by higher amplitude, which makes it very interesting on quiet sections.
Link: http://speedy.sh/QRHxp/CamSR-slewrate-compressor.ens
Let me know what you think, I am considering compiling this into a VST.
My impression thus far is, it is somewhat unpredictable in a good way. Sometimes higher energy sections of a song can get overly compressed, to counter this I use the mix control! It is a non-linear compressor because the gain reduction is slowed down by higher amplitude, which makes it very interesting on quiet sections.
Link: http://speedy.sh/QRHxp/CamSR-slewrate-compressor.ens
Let me know what you think, I am considering compiling this into a VST.
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- KVRian
- 885 posts since 13 Oct, 2006
for compression i rely on my native one,but this is nice for coloring
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- KVRian
- 885 posts since 13 Oct, 2006
also no reaktor lovers here.....too bad.since i got in the userbase i did not bought any synth!
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- KVRist
- 221 posts since 11 Jul, 2004 from Melbourne, Australia
You had me at 'unpredictable'!!
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 7400 posts since 17 Feb, 2005
Start with the sensitivity knob, low setting saturates, high setting compresses/expands. Adjust atk and rel, these values only add to what the sens knob does above 1, below 1 they diminish. If you have some idea of what time constant you want to use, the best way to dial it in is to first figure out the ratio of atk and rel times, like 50ms atk and 500ms rel the ratio is 1:10. So the rel knob is set to a value 10 times higher, and then adjust sens knob to where is starts to pump like you expect. The comp knob just increases the strength of the effect, it's a soft knee gain reduction so it doesn't pump too much.
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- KVRist
- 221 posts since 11 Jul, 2004 from Melbourne, Australia
Finally had a closer look at this, and it's weirdly good! Kind of compands at high sensitivity... Still not sure how everything works, but still playing with it.
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- KVRist
- 221 posts since 11 Jul, 2004 from Melbourne, Australia
It's got character by the bucket!! Finding the sweet spot between over saturation and compression with the sensitivity knob seems key... Kinda nice not really knowing whats going to happen and using my ears instead!
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- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 7400 posts since 17 Feb, 2005
The sens setting at around 18 is that point I think. It can go higher than 20 but the entire ensemble should be converted to use 64-bit floats because the 32-bit FP runs out of headroom quickly with this algorithm.