clintmartin put me onto this. This is a very mice compressor indeed and I am having a good time with it right now.
I am really liking it a lot and I mean big time.
Firstly all three models are different and offer something different.
I am mastering the second track of an album first. It is quite a big track with lots going on. It is also a track that sounds great EQ wise and needs little EQ. I call this track the album reference track.
I am using some subtle Pultec EQ before the MJUC. Just to push mids and highs a little. I think the mix engineers speakers are a little forward sounding with strong upper mids presence. He is holding back in the upper mids and highs to compensate.
I have to correct the tracks a little to bring them back to well balanced spectrum wise. I am just running the tracks through a Pultec EQ. Each tune is on its own track and has its own Pultec! All
Vintage switches are off meaning I am getting the cleanest most pure Pultec sound without transformers involved so much.
Those tracks all feed the masterbuss and it is there I have MJUC so all the tracks pass through it. Helps with the unification of the tracks.
I jump around the tracks quickly and compare how they sound against each other. I am always comparing the other tracks to the album reference track that I mastered first.
After the Pultec restores everything nice I am hitting the MJUC. Not much compression only 1 to 2 dB. You can hear it bigtime. Slow attack and longer release. Model 2 impressed me first. (It still does!) It added a sound that made this track jump forward a bit. In the Model 2 I was using a 2:1 ratio. Model 2 has colour bigtime. But nicely so.
I read Model 3 is the Hi Fi one but has the punch settings. This punch switch really kicks the mix I am quite amazed how punchy it gets. Even 1 is too much. I have it on 0 and it still adds punch! So I am a Model 3 man for the moment. It sounds a little more clean or something and I love the punch!
I might find other tracks might just suit some of the other models. Time will tell. I am amazed at how little gain reduction is being shown eg -1 to -1.5 and yet you can really hear this thing being switched in and out.
I am out of Harrison Mixbus for the moment and back into Studio One V3. It is more stable. Solid and bullet proof. Saves buckets of time. I am sure Mixbus will get there. I was using the Harrison to add something to the tracks. It does but also MJUC does too.
This is a very clean path. Just Pultec on the tracks. I do tweak the volume of the clip itself and get it in the ballpark too. Then into MJUC.
Xenon is not in circuit yet but it will only make things louder again but not by much. I am mastering to a K-14 ref level right now but I will get Xenon to add 1 to 2 dB making the overall master a -12-13 level. It will be quite loud and punchy without any squashed sound anywhere in sight.
These files are all at 48K and I am still in 48K. I can reduce the sample rate right at the end when I render a track fully out. Everything is also 24 bit too now but Xenon has a lovely dither algorithm. It sounds great going to 16 bit right at the end.
Thanks for this. This is one lovely compressor I can assure you. It is so musical. I have been fiddling with the Harrison Multiband and it too can sound polished but this thing just kicks and it really only has only one knob on it. It has got a HP filter in the SC circuit too. You can tweak this compressor quite a lot.
I am real happy with the first mastered album ref track. I added 2 dB to K-14 bringing it up to K-12. When I ran the DR meter over it I got a reading of DR=10. Steely Dan's 'Everything Must Go' is also a DR of 10. That is loud but punchy and has snap too. So does my master, very similar now. I am sure due to MJUC. I just hope the client wants to leave the master where it is and not make it louder. Xenon can but it will have to start puhing hard in order to do it. It should stay where it is now.