Karyn
I tried throwing my 1176 at a brick wall but I couldn't remove it from the PC...
 
 
There.  How's that?   

That may have confused the issue even further.

I am curious about how Mr Craig uses the sonitus.

In chapter 21 of the guitarists guide to sonar, Craig talks about the compressor for a couple of pages, but it's kinda standard stuff. He doesn't say, 'here's the magic button I always push!' :-)
 
For example, he says use TCR if you're new to compression, but, I also think it can make sense when you are mixing live or giving monitoring to people in the studio where content might suddenly change and you might not be able to reset the compressor in a timely manner. It may not get you the most optimal settings for your compressor, but it might help you avoid truly horrible settings. If you are mixing down after the performance, you may be able to get a better setting by tweaking it by hand.

Karyn
 
To use a compressor to make a guitar sustain..
 
Slow attack.
low threshold
"high" ratio
high makeup gain
 
adjust to taste

And for the Sonitus compressor specifically, use "Normal" mode instead of "Vintage," and choose a low value for knee - if not "hard," at least single digits for dB. Also make sure you hit the compressor with plenty of signal.
 
Some of those old stompbox comprssors had a real "snap" on the note attack, which you can emulate with the attack control. As Karyn advises...adjust to taste. 
 
One trick I used to in my hardware compressor designs was filtering out some highs so they wouldn't compress as much, giving a somewhat brighter sound. You can do this with sidechaining.

gswitz
In chapter 21 of the guitarists guide to sonar, Craig talks about the compressor for a couple of pages, but it's kinda standard stuff. He doesn't say, 'here's the magic button I always push!' :-)

The reason why is I hadn't figured out the magic Sonitus settings when i wrote that! I kept using the "stompbox" compressors in the amp sims.

Anderton

"For drums, Concrete Limiter to bring up room ambience (I don't like compression on drums, except very rarely putting two compressors with super-gentle curves in series - the late, great VC-64 is aces for that)"

 

mike_mccue
Are using the Concrete Limiter on drums and not calling the limiter a compressor, or are you explaining that you rarely use either the Concrete Limiter or the series compression on drums?

From the analog days...

The difference is clear... If you are just catching peaks, you are limiting... If you have the device always working, you are compressing... That is how the terminology was always accepted...

The are both the same device, just different ways of applying them... Now there are some that are more specialized toward one use than another, so we tend to use those for particular applications...

I love the pc76 and use it constantly, but it has some issues I don't have with others... For some reason it gets the front end overloaded without being able to apply any work and I must then replace it with a different device to get around this...

The ca2a doesn't have this problem... I'm not a big fan of the 4k channel compressor. It was a nice feature that the SL boards added... Having a compressor quickly available and patched for every channel, but it was not my preference if I has other means...

The 4k bus compressor on the other hand, I use as a first stop in my mastering chain almost all the time... But barely. Typically set to be compressing less than 2dg with a 2db make up gain... It gives a little cement and levels out the signal just a trifle... I then follow it with the concrete limiter for peak limiting and try not to do more... My levels are not as hot as typical pop masters, but I've given up on the loudness wars and don't like what such mastering does to my material...

I do more for clients who are more concerned with having levels in the pop range than with the dynamic changes it does to their material, but I don't usually use any one gain controlling device to do more than 1-2 db of gain boost...

Keni

Anderton

gswitz
In chapter 21 of the guitarists guide to sonar, Craig talks about the compressor for a couple of pages, but it's kinda standard stuff. He doesn't say, 'here's the magic button I always push!' :-)

The reason why is I hadn't figured out the magic Sonitus settings when i wrote that! I keep using the "stompbox" compressors in the amp sims.

Now there's a feature I would love to see in amp simulators... The ability to run VST plugins inside of their stompbox structure...

I'm not thrilled with any stompbox compressors I've used. The only reason I used them is it was live and needed.. Much like using wireless connectivity for guitars and vocals. Ok for live use as it was needed, but in the studio for recording, everyone uses high grade cables...

Keni

I thought I posted on this thread but I guess something went wrong.  In short:
• Back in the day I always used real hardware 1176s on vocals.  (They belonged to the studio so I don't have them now.)  Vocals never sounded like a record to me without an 1176, especially on country tracks.
• Times and styles change and now I compress vocals much less often because there are other options.  When I do, I either use the ProChannel 76 on the track—even though it doesn't sound exactly like the hardware 1176—or I use the 4K with a gentle setting on the vocal bus.
 
My main reason for compressing vocals is to make the lyrics come through more clearly.  I A/B with compressor in and out to make sure the perceived volume is about the same because I want the vocals even and understandable, not just louder.  Listen to Sailing by Christopher Cross for an example of a vocal that should have been compressed more—although since the album won five Grammys I guess it didn't bother anyone else. :-)

Anderton
I never compress keys or percussion
 

For me, the exception to that is recording a live Rhodes or Wurli...even the best setup ones have a few 'hot key' transients. In my own studio, my Rhodes is hardwired through an FMR Audio RNP and RNC straight from the harp, so I don't have to do this, but I sometimes go use a Wurli to lay down a track, and have to post-process. I like the PC4K for this...

Interesting interview with Bill Cheney of Spectra Sonics in last issue of Tape OP.
 
I figger audio files do not have these nano peaks. But maybe the conversion process to use outboard gear could add such. ????
 
http://tapeop.com/interviews/btg/102/bill-cheney/   
(free mag subscriptions: get one NOW!   the gear geeking with ??  column is always useful)
 
LC: My introduction to Spectra Sonics was the 610 compressor. My friend came by with one and told me to turn everything all the way up. It goes crazy.
 
A normal compressor is a peak-sensing level compressor. Whatever the amplitude of the peak is however much gain reduction you get. In fact, they've taken the definition so far, that anything over 9:1 compression is peak limiting, which is backwards from what we do.
 
What we do is that the peak is separate from the compression. So we eliminate the peak. The peak limiter in the circuit is in and out of the circuit in 180 nanoseconds [ns]. It's eliminating the peak. So everything else that passes through, there's no peak.
 
In a peak-limiting mode, you can take our compressor and put it in front of a conventional power amp and get another 10 dB out of that power amp, but not hear it because it's in and out. In the analog world, peaks are bad. Peaks destroy the character of the recorded signal.
 
LC: It's a fast transient peak that we don't perceive.
 
Yeah. The peak is gone. There's no musical content; it's purely voltage. So the peak limiter is separate from the compressor. The compressor still attacks at 100 ns, so there is not a transition issue. The compressor ...
 
 
(Login problem so could not get the rest of the quote)