Gentlemen,
Wanted to put some links behind the talk. There are so many components out there. Here's a couple of my favorites, all subjective and the like...
Two of my favorite vst comps are the clone of Dan Armstrong's Orange Squeeze. Vitamin C by Distorque. Some added controls over the hardware to supplement the floor box, but the dev went diode by diode to retain the original. Chugging is pronounced like the original with long releases. The hardware box was used by the Dire Straits guys and others. Very powerful with a lot of makeup overhead. Check out the other plugs on the page as well.
http://distorqueaudio.com/plugins/vitamin-c.html Audio Damage Rough Rider free is another winner. I went with the pro multi band but like the freebie better, much simpler and to the point. Downside to the freebie is that extreme settings, the makeup is not sufficient if you really want to press the output for purposes of driving a fuzz box..
http://www.audiodamage.com/downloads/product.php?pid=ADF002 Most know the controls already, but a local heavy weight guitarist didn't have a clue about the settings on a vst comp.
Attack and release are straightforward. I usually set release to max and play with the attack to get a good initial note definition but not too much popping.
Threshold squeezes down the ceiling, so the lower the threshold, more the compression. Ratio is the mix between dry and compressed signal. At extreme low threshold and ratio in direction of the compressed signal, there may not be much left as far as output. This is the makeup control trying to compensate by increasing the output. May be labled as output instead of makeup.
Here's where a transparent gain control in the chain can increase the output of a comp if the output in extreme settings is too weak. One gem of a tool is Sonalksis Free G, placed after the comp if needed. Clean, transparent, stereo if needed. Lots of gain. Free. Cool plugin.
http://www.sonalksis.com/freeg.htm Before or after the preamp and after one of the noise gates, a good parametric is needed. My favorite is (...uh oh...here comes the “R” word...) REAPER!!! The guys have generously offered an independent suite of some of their vst plugins that run fine in Sonar. ReaEQ is quite incredible if only for the visual layout. Presents the graphic in a way a guitar player needs to see the frequency response (for me anyway). Many features, powerful vst and free.
http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/ Hang onto the ReaFIR plugin in the suite because there is some awesome noise reduction potential claimed. Radical new application. Have to get some idea of if and how it works and if latency is an issue real time. Will get back on this one...
Compression trying to get everything at one level. Limiters trying to not let anything go above a set level but not messing with changing volume of signals below the set point.
Another ancient plugin everyone loves to hate is right under our mouse. Cakewalk Boost II. This thing would never be used to master anything, and maybe that's where the indignation comes from, but up front after the input and squashed down to the extreme, as good as a lot of the comps for managing a guitar sustain. Noise gate in this case a necessity downstream. Boost II is cool.
Really excited about the potential for noise reduction using the Reaper FIR plugin (should work well in Sonar). Was turned on to it by my teenage nephew trying to educate and get me out of the dark ages.
A few more beers and will be up to exploring FIR technology for what it is worth. If it does work, represents the near future state of the art in noise reduction. Will try to figure it out and report back. Welcome anyone who has already tread this path and has a clue.
John