what's that other style of sidechain comp pumping called?

[kensuguro]

I remember seeing a vst plugin that was for an alternative to sidechain pumping.. It wasn't called compression, it was something else.. but I don't remember what it was called. I remember it was a free plugin that had 3 vertical sliders, but that's pretty much all I can recall. I think it was a sponsored post on KVR something like October - Decemberish.. I looked back through their news feed and still can't find it...

But anyway, I remember whatever this compression method was, if I googled it, it was the first plugin to show up. Anyone remember? Or just know off your head?

[kensuguro]

solved. Upward compression.
http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2012/09 ... r-records/

or, I guess Live's multiband does upward compression too. Basically compression with a negative ratio, so it doesn't even need a sidechain, just enough volume difference between the kick and other parts and everything should start pumping like crazy.

[jksuperstar]

Is this different from an expander with a high threshold and some bias added? how?

[kensuguro]

I think it's similar, just upward compression specifically adds gain, whereas expanding could also further lower the volume when below the threshold. But I think you can dial in an expander to do the same thing.

In my very scientific drawing here, upward compresion is a, expander is b, and c is downward compression. Though b with a negative ratio could be a, or c with a negative ratio could be a. It's all fairly relative I guess, since it's bending the same line on the same input to output mapping.

[jksuperstar]

Thanks Ken, my first compressor was built into Cool Edit Pro, and was simply "Dynamic Processing", which did comp, exp, and I guess upward compression as well. Or even downward expansion if it exists. So I don't think of them as different to begin with. Just a name thing..you say tomahto, I say tomayto.

Still, upward comp is a good thing to bring out more transients from a muddy drum loop sample

[kensuguro]

yes, cooledit's dynamics processor was a bit of a revelation for me because it put everything on one graph. Just in, and out. And I was like, oh, so that's what it's all about, just value mapping. (sort of) BTW, for clarification, after reading a bit about upward and downward compression, the "normal" compression is downward, since the signal above the threshold is attenuated "downward".

The other one was Cyanide, which was a distortion plugin, where you pretty much could draw in the in to out curve (or line)... and so then I started to see distortion in a similar light as well. Just that distortion had squiggly lines or complex lines compared to typical dynamics processing.
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/cyanide ... electronix
For ex, in cyanide, if you made a sine-ish curve, you'd get massive signal boost, and a bit of overdrive depending on how much of a "hump" you created... but that's also like a compressor with a super soft knee, with mega makeup. Of course, compressors have attack and release whereas a waveshaper is just immediate. (and cooledit had, or has a waveshaping distortion designer as well)

Cooledit was a dsp marvel, I miss the days where I spent late nights reading through the manual, which was full of DSP information.

[jksuperstar]

I still use it as my primary editor and noise removal tool

And every so often I consider getting the latest Adobe Audition just to add ASIO support

And the Cool Edit Author wrote a book on Audio DSP..I'll have to dig it up. It included a bunch of source code, and all of it was inside a simple cool edit like example!

[kensuguro]

oh wow, is he still in the scene? The guy could probably make a killing making vst plugins.. I mean, all the basics were already there in cooledit, long before ASIO and vst.

[jhulk]

i use cooledit still its a great program for creating single cycles

and also for chopping up my transwaves for the vectron

[Tau]

You can use Audition 3 "for free", according to this link: http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2013/01 ... on-3-free/

Cool Edit was my first audio editor as well... Loved the "brainwave synchronizer" part

[kensuguro]

haha funny thread on homerecording.com about cooledit history and its authors.
http://homerecording.com/bbs/user-forum ... ry-235201/

[astroman]

another Cool Edit starter here, smart app back then

cheers, Tom