RMS755 Super Stereo Compressor from Roll Music Systems

Looking for your first piece of analog gear?  Tired of the brittle sound digital mix bus compressors provide over your mix downs?  An affordable & high quality stereo mix-bus compressor might be your ticket to turning your lifeless digital mixes into something quite fantastic.

What is an Optical Compressor?

I'm not an electrical engineer, when people start getting super electrically geeky regarding audio I usually get lost rather quickly.  The gritty important details fly over my head before I can even think about absorbing & understanding them.  Keeping this in mind I'll make this simple enough so that anyone who understands basic compression can understand how an opto-compressor works on an electrical level.  After all, it was the simple explanations that taught me what I know about them.  Once you know how it works, you'll know more about compression in general.  That way when you do go analog compressor shopping and you'll be better informed when making your audio investment.

An optical compressor (also known as a leveling amplifier) is a compressor that uses an electro optical attenuator & a photo conductive cell to monitor and control the dynamics & amplitude of processed program material (audio).  Already lost?  Wondering what the hell an electro optical attenuator & photo conductive cell is?  Keep reading you don't need to know what they are, only what they do. 

An electro optical attenuator features a light source. (in newer products these are LEDs)  This light source's intensity is directly proportional to the input signal of the material you're compressing.  So, as input level rises the LED shines brighter & with more intensity.  Conversely, as input level drops the LED shines with less intensity.  Well that's all fine and dandy but...  How does a flashing light source compress audio?  Here's how: The amplitude dependent light source is just one part of an optical compressor, we also need something to monitor this light source.  This is where the photo conductive cell comes in.  It monitors the lights source so the unit knows how loud the incoming signal is via the light's intensity.  Remember, I said earlier that the intensity of the light is directly affected by the level of input signal.  That's really important for understanding the larger concept. 

A photo conductive cell's job is to watch over the light source and then adjust resistance based on the intensity of the light.  When a louder signal is pushed through the optical compression unit the light shines brighter, the photconductive cell picks up on this brightness and in turn reduces its resistance being applied to the given signal.  This then tells the amplifier to reduce it's gain thereby creating a form of compression.



Unlike other compressors that allow you to choose attack & release times, an opto's release time is program dependent.  You can't choose the attack & release, they will change based off the material they are processing. (this is what makes optical compressors desirable)   Since a light doesn't just shut off and instead dims as it goes out, the release time is directly proportional to the level of the incoming signal which is simply being represented as light in an opto-compressor.  The same is also true for the attack times of compression when using a opto-compressor. This is why many people believe opto-compressors sound better.  They're said to be more musical because their response is non-linear, just like music is.  Other compressors have set response times (you adjust the attack & release) that are linear and exact.  With optical compressors the response (attack & release times) is set internally.  This response as I stated before is based of the properties & responsiveness and quality of the light source & photo conductive cell being used in the optical compressor.

Most Compressors you've seen also usually have a makeup gain control.  We need this control because when we apply compression to something we're working on the amplitude decreases.  We use makeup gain to return the material to it's previous amplitude with the compression applied.  Opto-compressors do not have a makeup gain control.  Their makeup gain is set and built into the circuit.  For every dB above the chosen threshold the signal hits the gain will increase by just less than a dB.  This can make using an optical compressor tricky because a lot of people aren't used to the gain adjusting as they adjust compression.  However this also means there are less controls to adjust and it's just a matter of getting used to this new way of manipulating compression.

Hopefully this all made sense to the folks in audio layman's term land.  Like I said before you don't have to know exactly how each part functions, only what each electrical component does to understand how it works.  Now that you know a little bit more about optical compressors when you're ready to buy a nice analog compressor to fatten up your own sound you'll be more educated about the wider process of compression! 

Best,

Nick

Solid State Logic's Duende: EQ Compression Gate Expander Tutorials

If you're not familiar with Solid State Logic... get familiar right now. They are hands down one of the most sought after brands in the audio industry and continue to evolve as the market advances into the digital realm and beyond. Solid State Logic's consoles and gear can be found in studio's at Capitol Records, Dr. Dre's house, Sasha's project studio and Timbaland's tour bus. Not to mention the rest of SSL's history scattered about the planet in some of the most legendary studios known to man's ear. The sonic character, quality, unique features, and intuitive use of Solid State Logic's gear make it the obvious choice for professionals looking for that special touch on their production & mixes.

Solid State Logic has done some interesting things over the past few years to bring the legendary sound and quality of their products to a new market. A market fraught with creativity and independence, this would be where you would input your own name ______ ________. Because, chances are, if you're reading this blog you're precisely the person SSL has marketed their latest line of gear to. Gear like their X-Rack which allows users to custom build a small analog 500 series rack outfitted with any combination of SSL's dynamic processing and input modules. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what SSL manufactures that one could consider affordable. Cheap... No. The legendary sound you've heard on countless hit records since you've exited the womb... Yes! Obviously it's not "cheap" you're paying for quality, that quality is just now more affordable and more available to the public than ever before.

The Duende is mainly why we're here though. Solid State Logic released the first version of Duende in 2006, it's built on the same technology available in SSL's "C" Series Digital Console. Basically, it's a box with an SSL DSP engine that hosts SSL Plug-Ins for your DAW.  It's a baby SSL that lives in a box and connects to your computer, turning your laptop into a mult-core resource eating beast! The Duende comes available in a small FireWire desktop box and also a rack sized PCIe version for you HD users. Most of you will most likely benefit from the Duende Mini. Especially laptop users considering Duende lightens the CPU load when you're using the SSL Plug-ins specific to it.

I almost forgot to mention latency... Sloppy.  Let's say you have some outboard gear, for this example since we're in SSL land we will assume you have two SSL Super Analogue EQ's in a Mynx rack.  Now, assume you'd like to process the Moog synth line you just recorded into Pro Tools.  Before you do that though you slap a plug-in compressor on the synth track inside of Pro Tools.  So you've got the synth recorded into pro tools (at as high of quality possible cause you're a geek) Being processed by the plug-in compressor and you're ready to route it out to your interface so that you can run it through the SSL outboard EQ to sculpt the low end and bring out that high end analog noise post compression.  After some tweaking you decide that it's now sounding nice and you're ready to record it back into Pro Tools.  You record it back into PT, play it back with the rest of your mix and you will notice your synth track is now delayed and playing behind everything else.  You're now thinking... WTF???

This is because of the delay introduced by the plug-in compressor on the original recorded synth track.  It can only work so quickly to process the audio and spit it back out.  By the time it does this and the track is sent out to be processed and recorded back to PT it is behind the other tracks in PT.  This isn't really a problem in Logic and other DAW's because most have automatic delay compensation.  Pro Tools LE does not though and you have to either adjust the timing by hand and move the recorded waveform back in time or find out the delay time and then add digi's delay compensation plug-in (I will do a tutorial on this process very soon)  Now hopefully you see why this is a problem and can be quite a pain in the ass.  Not all plug-ins create delay but most native ones do and you can check in Pro Tools by "apple" clicking on the digital scribble strip in Pro Tool's Mix Window (see picture).   The Duende however introduces no latency whatsoever!  Case & Point: Solid State Logic's Duende DSP powered plug-ins mean no delay compensation hassles!  Now you're most certainly wondering why you're here since I've yet to show you any tutorials. Stop wondering, just one more paragraph and you'll be on your way to audio knowledge heaven.

Solid State Logic has created a series of tutorials for Duende that cover everything from basic EQ knowledge to more advanced techniques like parallel compression. While these tutorials are specific to the plug-ins available with Duende, they also have a ton of information packed into them that is useful to anyone searching for audio processing knowledge. A compressor is a compressor weather it's the stock Logic Studio Compressor or an SSL Compressor. Same goes for EQ's and other plug-ins as well.  The following little bit of info comes from some of the greatest minds in the audio industry and is certainly more than worth your time.  If you've got a Duende then it's just like a double whammy as you'll be trained in the recording arts (EQ, Compression, ETC.) and get a product specific tutorial for use with your software!  Sorry to spit so much promotional SSL jargon at you but it's all honestly how I personally feel.  The main goal of this blog is to spread awareness regarding quality gear, SSL is quality gear and I felt I needed to respectfully give the brand the attention that it deserves.  Now, without further a do; I give you Solid State Logic's Duende Tutorials!

Duende Tutorial 1: Compression & Limiting

Duende Tutorial 2: Using the Gate/Expander Section

Duende Tutorial 3: Basic EQ

Duende Tutorial 4: Using the Duende Channel Side Chain

Duende Tutorial 5: Duende Bus Compressor

Duende Tutorial 6: Advanced EQ

Duende Tutorial 7: Parallel Compression

Who Says Distortion Can't Be Beautiful! knøx - mummy (original mix) Mastered @ ZeSoundSuite

I've got a really great track I had the pleasure of working on for you guys today.  When I first heard it I was beyond stoked to get cracking on it because it possessed quite a unique and diverse sonic character.  Unfortunately it took me a bit to get it as I was swamped with other ongoing projects.  When I finally sat down to work and gave the song a few listens I immediately thought and focused on three things.  First and foremost make that kick as mau5 like as possible.  Say what you want about the mau5 his kick is perfect! (Thanks in part to the SSL Stereo Bus Compressor)  Secondly, I knew I had to push the low to mid range pretty hard to bring out the grit that was such a prevalent sound in the track.  Finally I had to sculpt and bump the highs up just enough to bring out all the grimy noise whilst still keeping the epic progressive synth leads in check.  I also added quite a bit of character and extra noise with the URS Saturation plug-in and Digidesign's Reel Tape Saturation plug-in @ 15ips.  Long story short I made the adjustments I saw fitting; EQ, Compression, M/S Processing and preapred the track for limiting.  I knew this had to be loud to sound good, it's just one of those songs that without a lot of amplitude would loose a lot of it's meaning and purpose.  I pushed the L316 hard to the paint and made some final release time adjustments to keep the harmonics relatively in tact.  The result is what you're about to hear, all in all it came out great and still has a lot of the original dynamics despite it's loudness.  The kick is beautiful, the  low-mid range grit grabs your soul and the highs are perfectly balanced keeping the progressive synths bright and comfortable while showcasing just enough of the added noise to bring the whole track together.  Give it a listen, it's beyond a sonic experience!
knøx - mummy (original mix) by knøx

Free SSL Compressor!

Nothing sounds quite like a Solid State Logic console, period. I've had the pleasure of working with their AWS 900 console and I really must say that nothing even comes close. I might even argue that I like the SSL sound better than that of Mr. Rupert Neve's. (this probably just made some old school engineer cringe) Nonetheless SSL has crafted quite the sound. Solid State Logic has become a legendary brand in the audio industry and despite the high cost of most of their equipment you too can have a little piece of SSL in your productions. How? Simple, SSL makes a few plugins available on their website for FREE!

This free plugin is a model of SSL's "E" series from the late 1970's. The actual LMC-1 compressor was used to heavily compress the signal coming from musicians in the sound booth so the engineer and them could communicate during the recording session. Leave it to some engineer to figure out that the insane compression of this listen-mic compressor sounded fantastic on drums. The engineer had the desk re-wired so he could send signal to and from this listen-mic compressor. Thus, the legend of the "E" Series Listen-Mic Compressor was born.

You don't have much control with this plugin over compression as your used to with normal compressors. Remember this wasn't originally designed to be used with music. The attack and release curves are set, and the only control you have is with a "less-more" control which I'm assuming adjusts the threshold and ratio values of compression. However control, isn't really the point with this plugin. Every plugin is different and is created to address specific tasks in your productions or mix. The advantage of this plugin may not be control, but it certainly has it's own character and feel, unique to SSL. Plus, did I mention it was FREE!!!

Follow the link below to go to SSL's website and download the LMC-1 as well as a couple other plug-ins they offer for free.
SSL's Free Plug-Ins