Airwindows Pyewacket: AU, Mac and PC VST
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1320 posts since 7 Apr, 2007 from Bellows Falls, VT
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLKfV4U1NfE
TL;DW: Super old school compressor for high definition transients. Adds no fatness, just energy.
Pyewacket
Pyewacket is a strange beast. It's inspired by how much I love the 60s/70s recordings out of London's Olympic Studios, which had and used Pye compressors on many of my favorite classic and prog-rock records. Once you recognize the sound, nothing else will do: the musical event is delineated with hallucinatory intensity.
Mind you, for ten or twenty THOUSAND dollars it had damn well better hallucinate musical events on command: these are not compressors normal people can have, not anymore.
However, I'm 'chris from airwindows', so for me it's not just a matter of mimicking the faceplate or even the specific behaviors of the device. I want something more original, that can get the essence of that electrifying sound. I might not play like a musical hero, but I want a compressor that can deliver that crackling voltage. And as I was listening to examples of a homebrew Pye replica, it suddenly hit me: I know how to make a compressor cut back just the body of the sound, leaving that energy and transient definition. I can also bring in the 'brickwall filter' behavior the Pyes have, as needed. And I have a whole life of devoted music listening off classic vinyl records to guide me. I can get the sound.
Introducing Pyewacket. Pyewacket is my compressor familiar. It may or may not have dark magic, but what it does have (demonstrated at the end of my video) is a response and tonality like no compressor you've heard. I can contrast it with Pressure4, and have done: where a more 'round and thick' comp like Pressure4 brings stuff forward, Pyewacket's soundstage sits back and the energy comes forward, from the highest treble to deep hard-kicking bass, producing a 'retro' sound where peak energy absolutely blows away the more thick, tubby RMS loudness. This is a compressor for a new era. We've been doing 'loud and fat' for decades now, and the loudness war is on its last legs, with automatic playback gain controls rendering it useless. You don't have to be composing retro to use this. The only requirement is energy and information: whether as a 2-buss comp or to condition individual tracks, Pyewacket brings focus and intensity, and an incredibly clear and articulate attack transient where most compressors mangle and transform the attack beyond recognition.
And if you try really hard, yes you can kinda-sorta make it do that 'Hole In My Shoe' gratituous pumping thing. Rest assured, though: you probably shouldn't.
Other people can't do this plugin. You can't market it in normal ways because it doesn't do 'BIG PHAT THICK PHWOAARRR', you don't switch it in and have all the music leap forward and become much bigger and in fact it might make things smaller, and an inexperienced kid with softsynths and Apple Loops might think something was amiss and be extremely uninspired. And anyone trying to tie it to the twenty thousand dollar unattainable hardware compressor would be compelled to model every little detail of the very complex and twitchy hardware unit, and that would cause that plugin to be overprocessed and it'd lose most of what made it special.
But Pyewacket is important, because it's the sort of thing I can do when supported by Patreon. I don't have to restrict myself to what's going to sell to blind market forces. I can make it the essence of how Airwindows would do this sound, and I have done. As such, it is free in AU, Mac and PC VST form. If I'm poorer than you (go check on the Patreon and see, I get paid monthly) then it might be worth your while to chip in a buck a month (or more if you like).
I really, really, really like this one, and maybe you will too
TL;DW: Super old school compressor for high definition transients. Adds no fatness, just energy.
Pyewacket
Pyewacket is a strange beast. It's inspired by how much I love the 60s/70s recordings out of London's Olympic Studios, which had and used Pye compressors on many of my favorite classic and prog-rock records. Once you recognize the sound, nothing else will do: the musical event is delineated with hallucinatory intensity.
Mind you, for ten or twenty THOUSAND dollars it had damn well better hallucinate musical events on command: these are not compressors normal people can have, not anymore.
However, I'm 'chris from airwindows', so for me it's not just a matter of mimicking the faceplate or even the specific behaviors of the device. I want something more original, that can get the essence of that electrifying sound. I might not play like a musical hero, but I want a compressor that can deliver that crackling voltage. And as I was listening to examples of a homebrew Pye replica, it suddenly hit me: I know how to make a compressor cut back just the body of the sound, leaving that energy and transient definition. I can also bring in the 'brickwall filter' behavior the Pyes have, as needed. And I have a whole life of devoted music listening off classic vinyl records to guide me. I can get the sound.
Introducing Pyewacket. Pyewacket is my compressor familiar. It may or may not have dark magic, but what it does have (demonstrated at the end of my video) is a response and tonality like no compressor you've heard. I can contrast it with Pressure4, and have done: where a more 'round and thick' comp like Pressure4 brings stuff forward, Pyewacket's soundstage sits back and the energy comes forward, from the highest treble to deep hard-kicking bass, producing a 'retro' sound where peak energy absolutely blows away the more thick, tubby RMS loudness. This is a compressor for a new era. We've been doing 'loud and fat' for decades now, and the loudness war is on its last legs, with automatic playback gain controls rendering it useless. You don't have to be composing retro to use this. The only requirement is energy and information: whether as a 2-buss comp or to condition individual tracks, Pyewacket brings focus and intensity, and an incredibly clear and articulate attack transient where most compressors mangle and transform the attack beyond recognition.
And if you try really hard, yes you can kinda-sorta make it do that 'Hole In My Shoe' gratituous pumping thing. Rest assured, though: you probably shouldn't.
Other people can't do this plugin. You can't market it in normal ways because it doesn't do 'BIG PHAT THICK PHWOAARRR', you don't switch it in and have all the music leap forward and become much bigger and in fact it might make things smaller, and an inexperienced kid with softsynths and Apple Loops might think something was amiss and be extremely uninspired. And anyone trying to tie it to the twenty thousand dollar unattainable hardware compressor would be compelled to model every little detail of the very complex and twitchy hardware unit, and that would cause that plugin to be overprocessed and it'd lose most of what made it special.
But Pyewacket is important, because it's the sort of thing I can do when supported by Patreon. I don't have to restrict myself to what's going to sell to blind market forces. I can make it the essence of how Airwindows would do this sound, and I have done. As such, it is free in AU, Mac and PC VST form. If I'm poorer than you (go check on the Patreon and see, I get paid monthly) then it might be worth your while to chip in a buck a month (or more if you like).
I really, really, really like this one, and maybe you will too
- KVRian
- 1013 posts since 12 Sep, 2005
Thanks I just started to explore uses, but so far I've tried it on a send with a heavy guitar setup that I use and it definitely adds something good. It's hard to put a finger on just what it's adding, which is good, it's subtle but it's there. It kind of brings out the in between that can get lost in digital. I have a full setup of a few saturators and light compression on my main channel before send, using pyewacket at .76 release. Thanks again
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- KVRAF
- 2590 posts since 19 Mar, 2008 from germany
Thank you chris!
It seems to be a good thing: First increase the level of
saturation, and the hipass it. This way we can easily
choose the amount of saturation needed.
Two remarks:
1. There is already a plugin called "density". Search
for "Variety of Sounds" --> "density". It's a rather
famous plugin. So it could nice if you choose
another good name.
2. I did a fast test in knobgrabber (version of 2013),
and when unloading knobgrabber crashes. Maybe
this is not important, but it can be a sign of bad
stability. I don't know.
Greetings, enroe.
It seems to be a good thing: First increase the level of
saturation, and the hipass it. This way we can easily
choose the amount of saturation needed.
Two remarks:
1. There is already a plugin called "density". Search
for "Variety of Sounds" --> "density". It's a rather
famous plugin. So it could nice if you choose
another good name.
2. I did a fast test in knobgrabber (version of 2013),
and when unloading knobgrabber crashes. Maybe
this is not important, but it can be a sign of bad
stability. I don't know.
Greetings, enroe.
free mp3s + info: andy-enroe.de songs + weird stuff: enroe.de
- KVRAF
- 35294 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
My first cat was called Pyewacket
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1320 posts since 7 Apr, 2007 from Bellows Falls, VT
It looks like Bootsy had Windows-only Density (buss compressor) in March of 2008.enroe wrote: 1. There is already a plugin called "density". Search
for "Variety of Sounds" --> "density". It's a rather
famous plugin. So it could nice if you choose
another good name.
I had Mac-only Density (saturation/antisaturation) in January of 2007
Let's both keep the name, they're two different things after all
Keep me posted on knobgrabber: I didn't even have a copy of Windows in 2013 and there will be cases where my plugins (or even isolated plugins) fail because 'computers', basically. My concern is to have MOST daws and computers run 'em without incident, or 'nearly all'. On Mac AUs I've seen occasional builds of Digital Performer fail in weird ways, and I think Sonar Platinum is having issues I can't fix because they try to draw controls with broken code. Pyewacket's pretty normal, code-wise, so it shouldn't be any special kind of unstable.
- KVRAF
- 3303 posts since 6 Jul, 2012 from Sick-cily
Hi Mr. Chris, what you mean with: "the 60s/70s recordings out of London's Olympic Studios, which had and used Pye compressors on many of my favorite classic and prog-rock records"?
I'm a fan(atic) of 70's Prog (King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Yes, Genesis, Kansas etc)... I'll try soon but where you suggest to use it? Mix (on some specific instrument/track like an LA-2A/LA-3A) or Mastering (example: stems mastering)?
I'm work as ME but i usually mix my music so i'm curious and you stimulate my curiosity!!!
I'm a fan(atic) of 70's Prog (King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Yes, Genesis, Kansas etc)... I'll try soon but where you suggest to use it? Mix (on some specific instrument/track like an LA-2A/LA-3A) or Mastering (example: stems mastering)?
I'm work as ME but i usually mix my music so i'm curious and you stimulate my curiosity!!!
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- KVRian
- 505 posts since 2 May, 2014
Then I guess it wouldn't surprise you that I'm having issues with Sonar X3 (Windows 7, 64 bit).jinxtigr wrote:I think Sonar Platinum is having issues...
A workaround is: create an FX Chain in Sonar X3; insert Pyewacket into the FX Chain; add controls for Pyewacket's parameters to the interface; and use the FX Chain interface to control Pyewacket.
I'm sure there's something similar in the latest iteration of Sonar.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1320 posts since 7 Apr, 2007 from Bellows Falls, VT
I'm sure I hear compression on the 2-buss in many cases, whether in mixing or mastering. Even on tape machines, musical dynamics just don't work for vinyl cutting: isolated notes and events have a nasty tendency of jumping out and being 3db hotter than everything else. I'd try it wherever, and if you want an 'early' sound then just don't slam it too hard. The style of a mix has much to do with the use of compression and limiting, and in those early days there were acceleration limiters but there was no chance to abuse limiting like modern CD recordings allow: the lathes were too expensive to blow, so it would be madness to try and push the intensity of the limiting.Turello wrote:Hi Mr. Chris, what you mean with: "the 60s/70s recordings out of London's Olympic Studios, which had and used Pye compressors on many of my favorite classic and prog-rock records"?
I'm a fan(atic) of 70's Prog (King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Yes, Genesis, Kansas etc)... I'll try soon but where you suggest to use it? Mix (on some specific instrument/track like an LA-2A/LA-3A) or Mastering (example: stems mastering)?
I'm work as ME but i usually mix my music so i'm curious and you stimulate my curiosity!!!
People are saying Pyewacket is great on drums and bass: I pretty much like it on everything, but it makes sense that it works on transient-heavy stuff. By design it keeps intense transients relatively unchanged, and that's not at all true for most compressors, so of course its attacks will sound more solid and natural: they're closer to the real thing.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1320 posts since 7 Apr, 2007 from Bellows Falls, VT
I'm glad there's a workaround, but I really hope they fix it. It's not fair to Sonar users.1wob2many wrote:Then I guess it wouldn't surprise you that I'm having issues with Sonar X3 (Windows 7, 64 bit).jinxtigr wrote:I think Sonar Platinum is having issues...
A workaround is: create an FX Chain in Sonar X3; insert Pyewacket into the FX Chain; add controls for Pyewacket's parameters to the interface; and use the FX Chain interface to control Pyewacket.
I'm sure there's something similar in the latest iteration of Sonar.
- KVRAF
- 3303 posts since 6 Jul, 2012 from Sick-cily
True! Without knows your intentions on this plug, my first choice is put it on Drum Bus (after i put the El Bass also inside)...
At least remind me some Comp on the Michael Brauner tower rack (he usually put the tracks on 4 group bus and threat with different comps)... Congrats!
At least remind me some Comp on the Michael Brauner tower rack (he usually put the tracks on 4 group bus and threat with different comps)... Congrats!
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- KVRian
- 505 posts since 2 May, 2014
Truth be told, I'd intended to do this anyway so I could have a slightly prettier front end to work with than Sonar's default. The FX Chain interface allows you to alter its look and you can load it just as you would a VST.jinxtigr wrote:I'm glad there's a workaround, but I really hope they fix it. It's not fair to Sonar users.
I somehow suspect that a proper fix is low on their priority list - GUI-less VSTs are something of a rarity these days.
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- KVRian
- Topic Starter
- 1320 posts since 7 Apr, 2007 from Bellows Falls, VT
Not for long, they're not1wob2many wrote: I somehow suspect that a proper fix is low on their priority list - GUI-less VSTs are something of a rarity these days.
By the way, I don't think this qualifies as a new product, but I made a video about my DIY pop filter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFq5sy3HDgo