What's the best Melda plugin for compressing bass guitar?

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I've tried a few ways of compressing bass guitar.
Method 1: Editing individual wave forms, and making 100's of slices at the zero crossings, and reducing peaks. This is obviously crazy (hours and hours of editing, but I wanted to try it, at least once).

Method 2: Using several compressors run in series, with each stage set to just barely catch the peaks.

I also messed with a few transient designers, but that didn't work so well (yes, weird idea...I know)

But which Melda plugin is best for very dynamic bass guitar parts? MDynamics? MModernCompressor? MTurboCompLE? Maybe MAutovolume, at least as an initial stage? Seems like MSpectralDynamics could work, too.
* I'm thinking about a real bass guitar, in a rock song.
So many choices! Maybe I should just throw a dart and pick one!

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It's much more about what you wanna do VS. what plugin is the best for it. Depends what problems with the bass guitar you are having.. I would try two compressors, one with lower ratio and low threshold to bring the overall dynamics closer together and second to tame shorter dynamic problems (peaks).
:dog:

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I'd go for MAutoVolume and/or MTurboComp, easies ways ;)
Vojtech
MeldaProduction MSoundFactory MDrummer MCompleteBundle The best plugins in the world :D

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...fwiw...I've used MDrumLeveler on occasion to "tame" some base stems, workes quite well when the part was created using a pick...ymmv though, so don't let the names fool ya', experiment...hth.../s~
mba m2 15" | 16gig.ram | 1tb ssd | Sonoma 14.2.1 (23C71)
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Uuu, MDrumLeveler for bass? Well, hey, why the hell not :D
Vojtech
MeldaProduction MSoundFactory MDrummer MCompleteBundle The best plugins in the world :D

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...tried everything else...(sigh)...desperate times and all.../s~
mba m2 15" | 16gig.ram | 1tb ssd | Sonoma 14.2.1 (23C71)
mbp i9 16" | 16gig.ram | 1tb ssd | Sonoma 14.2.1 (23C71)
logic10.8.1  | reaper7.07 | focusrite.2i2

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I gave MTurbocomp a spin, after watching the intro video. The video mentions that it has 4 followers and 4 dynamics processors...and more (then the video says "We're not even go touch it" -Doh!) Anyway, it seems that the 4 dynamics processors are like 4 compressors? In series? I did a quick test on a bass guitar track, and this seems to be the case :party: I set processor 1 so that I saw small, quick gain reductions on the meter. Then I did the same with processor 2...and then processors 3 and 4.
Before MTurboComp, my VU meter was jumping at each bass guitar note played (normal- as expected).
With MTurboComp, the peak levels were greatly reduced, and the performance sounded exactly the same (as desired!) Yay! More headroom! A lot more! Just with MTurboComp.

So, with the 4 processors, that is 4 stages of compression then, right? It sure seems that way from my quick test. I suggest that this should be highlighted as a feature. This was sitting right under my nose for quite a while, and I didn't even know it!

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Cool!
It's actually really 4 lever followers, which are fed into the final transform graph, which does the actual leveling. But in fact it can easily work as a parallel compressor too. Then there's MTurboCombMB, if you want to get extreme :D :D
Vojtech
MeldaProduction MSoundFactory MDrummer MCompleteBundle The best plugins in the world :D

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A series of videos on practical mixing/mastering techniques using Melda plugins could be quite nice for all levels of mixers. A good 'mix' of plugin exposure and technique.

Cheers.

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Yes, I wish :). Time is a problem...
Vojtech
MeldaProduction MSoundFactory MDrummer MCompleteBundle The best plugins in the world :D

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steve2KVR wrote: Thu Mar 14, 2019 2:02 pm ...fwiw...I've used MDrumLeveler on occasion to "tame" some base stems, workes quite well when the part was created using a pick...ymmv though, so don't let the names fool ya', experiment...hth.../s~
Clever idea! I don't have MDrumLeveler, but it looks super cool. Maybe I'll try the demo!

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In my opinion, with Meldaproduction compressors, it's not at all about "which," it's about settings, and if you own any of them and aren't getting a good bass sound you should be asking what settings to use with your favorite Melda compressor. MTurbo, MModern, whatever, any of them is more than adequate to the task of bass guitar.

You can get a great compression sound with MCompressor. It is versatile enough for any compression job.

For rock bass, I start with 4:1 ratio, peak detector, hard knee, 5mS attack, 50mS release, set threshold so that my reduction is showing an average of about 3dB and peaking at around 6dB. From there, I tune by ear. If you don't know how each of those parameters affects the sound, back to school.

Also, while you're dialing it in, be sure to set the gain compensation as you go so you don't fool your ears.

After that, I may set another compressor either in the track or at a buss level, with a slower, RMS detector, smaller, maybe 2:1 ratio, soften the knee a little bit, 10mS attack, 200mS release, threshold for 3dB reduction at peak, tune to taste.

Hope this helps.

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Starship Krupa wrote: Mon Apr 01, 2019 10:53 pm In my opinion, with Meldaproduction compressors, it's not at all about "which," it's about settings, and if you own any of them and aren't getting a good bass sound you should be asking what settings to use with your favorite Melda compressor. MTurbo, MModern, whatever, any of them is more than adequate to the task of bass guitar.

You can get a great compression sound with MCompressor. It is versatile enough for any compression job.

For rock bass, I start with 4:1 ratio, peak detector, hard knee, 5mS attack, 50mS release, set threshold so that my reduction is showing an average of about 3dB and peaking at around 6dB. From there, I tune by ear. If you don't know how each of those parameters affects the sound, back to school.

Also, while you're dialing it in, be sure to set the gain compensation as you go so you don't fool your ears.

After that, I may set another compressor either in the track or at a buss level, with a slower, RMS detector, smaller, maybe 2:1 ratio, soften the knee a little bit, 10mS attack, 200mS release, threshold for 3dB reduction at peak, tune to taste.

Hope this helps.
Great points!
Vojtech
MeldaProduction MSoundFactory MDrummer MCompleteBundle The best plugins in the world :D

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Yes, all great points! I was just catching on to this way of working. But let me point out something else I that learned:

Aside from compressors, I now realize that something like a bass guitar may have peaks that are WAY higher in one or more parts of a song than the rest. In that case, even very carefully chosen compression will have unwanted effects in those louder spots. I have found that it's best to find those louder spots, listen to them in the mix, and level them out as appropriate with the DAW's clip gain first- and then start dialing in compression.

Before coming across a video somewhere that pointed this out, I was going nuts. I had a mix going...
Mix is playing....sounds good....sounds good....still sounds good...all of a sudden- momentary crapout! :dog:

Lesson learned!

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That is a fine way to handle such peaks.

As with many things in the world of mixing, there are many ways to accomplish the task of taming those crazy peaks. Another of them is using a limiter set with a fast attack. Good ol' MCompressor with its ratio set high will act as a limiter. Fast attack, fast detector, wham, nothing's getting past it.

I'm told that this is one of the ways they did it back in the olden times before recorded audio came in clips. Not sure about that. I mean, how would you edit? But whatever. Glad you got things under control.

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