Today I posted a new video review to Real Home Recording about new unofficial 1176, dbx 165A and Retro Instruments Sta-Level plugin software emulations.
Here is the video:
The script/notes are below. Many of these notes are opinions that were lifted from Gearslutz users:
– By my request Arturia hooked me up with a license to review their three new compressor plugins.
As of this video recording they are still on intro sale for $99. $33 for each plugin.
Let’s take a listen to the different compressors on a few tracks.
Arturia install process wasn’t exactly smooth. Requires VST2.4 32-bit or 64-bit installs. A VST3 only option would be nice. Told me to close all applications so I did and it still kept giving me error messages. Clicked ignore a couple times and it finally went through.
Quick tour. Didn’t realize it wanted me to click the control instead of the next button.
Doesn’t clamp down on signals like hardware might but I do like the way they manipulate sounds. If you need them to catch peaks, use the time warp feature.
Besides compression, the coolest feature is how each compressor can affect the tone of the tracks, just like real hardware.
Usually, to change values in the plug-in controls, we click on the corresponding control and drag the mouse up or down. If the controls are switches, we simply click them to toggle On or Off. If we want finer editing values, we can use Ctrl+Drag (Cmd+Drag on macOS). Alternatively, we can mouse Right-Click and Drag. Using this key combination, the values change in a slower way, which allowus to get more precise values easily.
Double-clicking a control changes it automatically to the default value. This also works with
Alt+Click (Opt+Click on macOS).
Tube STA: Retro Instruments Gates STA Level emulation. Program dependent tube compression. Easy to use and sounds transparent. Almost to the point of being boring. Not for use if you want a punchy sound.
The STA is kind of like having an LA-2A that is more transparent and has a release control.
Sadly, no gain reduction range knob like the other two.
Lots of gain reduction without artifacts.
Single: Great for smooth bass. Long attack/release times.
Double: Perfect for nearly everything. Closest to the vintage Gates model.
Triple: Fast transient eater. Faster attack/release times. Perhaps best mode for vocals
Mid-side functionality.
there is an area highlighted in the VU Meter that suggests the ideal range of gain reduction
the original preset should be used on to achieve the best results.
STA level did not sound good to me on the vocal. I switched back to MJUC and the sound was happening again.
Bass DI went into a UAD Ampeg B15n amp sim, and then the STA. In this case, I really liked what the compressor was doing. It’s a pretty slow compressor, I guess, which limits it to specific uses for me.
FET-76 – Described as big, bold and in your face. Adds excitement to a track. Great on electric/bass guitars, drums and rock vocals.
input link function, dry/mix knob, external sidechain/advanced panel, a sidechain listen, Time Warp = lookahead, sidechain EQ which makes it very useful, COMPRESSION GAIN REDUCTION RANGE LIMITER!!!!, distortion only with the comp range set to 0 dB, GUI scaling, photorealistic GUI, tool tips at the bottom that can be disabled with the upper right light bulb, all ratio buttons in, A-B mode,
Comp FET-76 has no direct control over the threshold. The threshold level is variable and
depends on the chosen compression ratio (the higher the compression ratio, the higher the threshold).
At 4:1, the threshold is around -18 dB, while at 20:1 it is around -12 dB.
Clearly labeled attack/release settings. Like the hardware, fully clockwise is fastest.
Typical ratio settings: 20 for buss limiting, 12 for drums, 4 and 8 on vocals/instruments. All buttons in for drums and try it on other material as well.
5.4. Sound Design Tips
Pigments was Arturia’s first plug-in to offer this feature, and we dare to say it will
revolutionize the way users look at presets.
The Sound Design Tips feature identifies parameters the preset creator defined as the most
relevant while developing the selected preset, and which are the best for the user to edit.
When On, a brief explanation of each parameter (tip) will also be displayed in the left-hand
side of the lower toolbar.
Very good user manuals as well.
True Analog Emulation (registered trademark)
In my opinion the Arturia model has the basic problems of virtually all of the other models. It gets “grainy” quite quickly. Basic drumloop with a lot of cymbals exposes this. It’s as if it’s running too hot all the time. I think the Slate manages better in this regard, or at least we have 3 different options (and 2 additional circuit emulations for the modern and vintage blue) for this. The attack on the slate original FG-116 is very close to the hw in the studio. It’s a tiny bit more clicky in the plugin but it grabs the transients in a pretty convincing manner in my opinion. It does however also break up a bit more than the hardware when slammed. I find this to be a general problem with all of the 1176 plugins.
VCA-65: dbx 165A. Versatile. Can be clean but can also be used to get some smack.
Awesome on snare, bass, kick, different type of drum buss sound, and distorted vocals.
That VCA 65 is INCREDIBLE especially when you abuse the piss out of the limiter setting. I was messing around with the settings just pushing everything to see exactly what it does when abused and I am impressed. Instant grit. I liked it pushed to its limits so much I just left the compressor like that on the guitar I was pushing. Haha.
Anyway, as far as my knowledge of digital compressors go, some of them really flatten things up, in a bad sense. I don’t like those. The way I judge compressors is by how much they can control dynamics without making things sound sterile and lifeless, and these plugins sound really rich in that sense.
The 1176 sounds great too, lot’s of personality,
The DBX now: WOW ! Worth the price alone. Smacko organico ultimo! But you can do so many other tones with it too.
However, I think the attack time on the Arturia is by far superior than UAD’s. It tamed the peaks so smoothly, almost like hardware.
The STA is absolutely perfect. It adds body and smoothness to anything.
the 1176 had vibe, colour and punch.
As for the 165 – just tried it on kick. I would buy this bundle for that alone.
The 65 will definitely be used on stuff that needs punch, movement and attitude.
I decided to re-load FET76 & STA tto the same track that has the VCA-65 and guess what… GUI went back to default I believe 80% GUI size. How come it does NOT remember the size I left them at??? Normally it should remember no? I
The view should be flat, no fake angles which just get in the way of usability. These are plugins and not hardware, and the GUI should acknowledge that. Keep the skeuomorphic design with photo realistic renders but keep the view flat!
I compared it to Timp U76 (nebula) yesterday and although they were different in tone (treble rolloff and punch in arturia), cohesiveness, smoothness they felt like equals in a lot of the areas that matter to me. Not necessarily the same, but like equals…in sound quality and function. The arturia 76 does what I expect from an algo 76. The highfreq rollof sometimes disturbs me (it’s not as present in Timp u76), and I wish I could control it from within the plugin, but that’s the only thing that bugged me yesterday.
the sta level is good but not better than MJUC comp 2.
except for the 165 but even in this case I don’t really that kind of compression all that often and when I do, I recreate the “snap” I need with Klanghelm DC8C which can do snap/punch ridiculously well.
I also much preferred the Slate 1176 versions. The blue “modern” was closest to the sound of the Arturia 1176 but as it’s the one I like the least in the Slate pack it immediately showed that it’s not the type of 1176 sound I’m after. The replica/homebrew version we have in hardware at the studio is much faster and “squishier” and closer to how the original FG-116 sounds and it’s the way I prefer this kind of compressor.
That left me with the STA and it is indeed wonderful! Alas, I have MJUC and now also the RA6 from Tim Pethreick for N4 and there’s just no contest at all. The RA6 is in a completely different league in terms of “sounding real” and present.
arturia was closest to our 1176. my friend is bring his dbx over to shoot it out with arturia. the thing i like to do is use plugins aggressively and in ways they would normally break up in and see how they stand. arturia was the only ways that didnt break up as quickly. less clicky as well. agressive while still retaining smoothness and cohesiveness to the material.
Open up the top end, add some transient punch with Time Warp, decouple the stereo link for a little extra character, and so on. Drum bus sound is punchy and wide with a great sound stage.
On snare and kick I was shooting out the VCA-65 against my go-to NI Vc160. The NI VC is sort of more punchy and in your face, but it also sounds small. The Arturia VCA has a more acoustically open sound, sounds more natural. Kick drum and snare seem louder somehow with this one. It made the NI compressor sound a little cartoon-like.
Sta-Level was really nice on bass. Fat and round and smooth sounding.
In my opinion the Arturia model has the basic problems of virtually all of the other models. It gets “grainy” quite quickly. Basic drumloop with a lot of cymbals exposes this. It’s as if it’s running too hot all the time. I think the Slate manages better in this regard, or at least we have 3 different options (and 2 additional circuit emulations for the modern and vintage blue) for this. The attack on the slate original FG-116 is very close to the hw in the studio. It’s a tiny bit more clicky in the plugin but it grabs the transients in a pretty convincing manner in my opinion. It does however also break up a bit more than the hardware when slammed. I find this to be a general problem with all of the 1176 plugins.
I also felt the transients of the Arturia version get let through a bit too much compared to what I’m used to.. even on fastest attack. This can be completely accurate to their modeled HW though. I’m just saying that in my case most of the 1176 units I’ve used have a “squishier” attack where the transients get smacked virtually immediately on the fastest setting.
For my own stuff I love it on almost anything synth pluck/bass/lead that needs to stay prominent in the mix. This is where the plugins fail in my opinion when fed with a strong analogue synth sound. They become somewhat weak and grainy rather quickly whereas the hardware can smash the sound without making it “smaller”. Hard to explain but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
STA level did not sound good to me on the vocal. I switched back to MJUC and the sound was happening again.
STA wasn’t great on this particular acoustic guitar, but I really liked the VCA65 on this acoustic, it just sounded nice.
Bass DI went into a UAD Ampeg B15n amp sim, and then the STA. In this case, I really liked what the compressor was doing. It’s a pretty slow compressor, I guess, which limits it to specific uses for me.
That VCA 65 is INCREDIBLE especially when you abuse the piss out of the limiter setting. I was messing around with the settings just pushing everything to see exactly what it does when abused and I am impressed. Instant grit. I liked it pushed to its limits so much I just left the compressor like that on the guitar I was pushing.
