a call for 'smarter' compressors

[atma]

i'd really like to see some inventive dsp programming with regards to dynamics processors. the standard compressor has been around for decades, and it seems to me with cutting edge computer processing, someone could invent a much smarter compressor with highly advanced adaptive algorithms, instead of the clumsy static attack/decay/etc settings i'd think you could make something that would (at least as far as offline processing) be able to scan your file, and with a few general settings input by the user to help guide the overall effects aimed for, be able to perfectly compress anything, adjusting settings down to each millisecond of audio and adapting respectively to compensate for different kinds of transients and whatever...

i dont see why all the new soft compressors have to be modelled so closely on ancient circuitry when there's a lot of interesting possibilities for progression in the realm of dynamics processing..

[djui5]

That would be awesome. Maybe a com with settings like "Nuke" or "Bonnham room sound" or things like that. Maybe one that's "Smooth" and one that's "hard core" instead of the usual adjustments.

Not sure how well it would do in the pro market as I know, being the control freak that I am, I love to adjust things myself and know what's going on.

Still a great idea. Maybe stop by the bomb factory studio and talk to those guy's. You could get some royalties:D

[parlormusic]

I'm amazed at thoughts like this. Why not use what works and train your ears? If we all had those futuristic "do-all" units, the art of mixing and mastering would be lost. Everybody seems to look for the easy way out.

[edhunt]

That's the funny thing about "ancient circuitry" people get used to the sound and it sticks. Willy Nelson will never give up Trigger even though I am sure he has many other worthy guitars around. People still try to get the '57 tele or the '63 standard Strat sound. Those guitars were noisy as all get out, but they just "sound right". I suspect that no matter how high the sampeling rate, and how complex the algorithms are, we will never get away from trying to capture the sound of the best tube, solid state and tape gear from the dawn of rock-n-roll.

I have been listening to a lot of '60's and '70's music latley to learn what they were doing. A lot of the fidelity sucks, but the sounds were great. No matter how high our fidelity comes, we will always be chasing that elusive sound.

I'm starting to depress myself so I better go.

Edward

[DAS]

It's an interesting idea. I saw the "easy way out/do all" gripe coming from a mile a way on this one, and it is valid to an extent. It would potentially make it "too easy" for novice engineers to get a good sound (or at least an improvement upon what they would otherwise get), but that view may be short sighted. A lot of good could come from it.

I'll draw an analogy to the auto arranging keyboards. They have reached a point where some of them are fairly sophisticated. I don't recall hearing too many of their algorithms in everyday music yet I know for a fact that more than a couple very noteworthy songwriters have them and use them to flesh out ideas. It's a valid tool that is used in different ways by different people with different competencies.

An intelligent compressor may be worthwhile. The "intelligence" is not likely to be much more than the sum of the ideas of the people who program it, but it would be interesting in that it could presumably give some significant insight in terms of ideas to the user. Better engineers and producers will always be able to do more with those ideas than those who aren't as creative or skilled.

And yes, it will allow people with less talent to get a little further than they otherwise might have. I suppose we could all go back to the time when engineers had to build their own equipment (and used slide rules), but then most of us would be out of work. It's all relative.

[xstatic]

There is a compressor like that. All you have to do is relabel a distressor:smokin:

[DAS]

Nice piece (though sometimes a little overrated), but there's no real intelligence there. Something that actually analyzes the program like was is suggested could be possible and might really change the way we approach things.

[djui5]

DAS,
That's the beauty of the progress of the business though. As manufactures make these "do it all" boxes, it forces high end engineers and producers to seek better means for staying on top. If a compressor like this was created then high end engineers would have to get creative with compressors to stay ahead of the game and keep their clients...
I think auto-tune is a lazy fix for bad vocalist, but it's become a standard in the industry and I have tried to use it in a creative way to get the performer to sing better, rather than use it to fix them. Although some singers just shouldn't be singing...but that's another thread.
I mean..look at all the things plug-in have offered to the industry. They can do things you can't do with analog. (I'm not saying they sound better than analog...let's not go down that road anyone)

[LTA]

I was going to make an auto-tune reference. Once you learn to recognize it's signature sound, you hear it alot. On some of these lower budget local band recordings, they possibly would have been better off without auto-tune.

But, as anybody who has succesfully used auto-tune knows, it is actually far more useful in manual mode. It takes some knowledge and skill to operate auto-tune that way. So, by way of comparison, if this "auto-compressor" made its way into reality, a more skillful user (with something far more important, big ears) could still get it to sound superior to a novice user. And with that said, you can already automate many compression plug-ins to vary themselves to a particular segment of a track over time. Hardware people are out of luck though, unless they have nimble fingers.

BTW, imagine the horror naming a preset after Bonham would cause. Every kid that bought a ludwig kit would also need that rack/plugin so they could sound like Bonham. "How do i sound like Bonham on
'When the levee breaks?'" Think of the detriment to the next generation of drummers, if anything....

[DAS]

Originally posted by LTA
'When the levee breaks?'

Not to go too far off track here, but I just read the other day that in order to get the sound John wanted on that they set up the drums in a hallway with one or two mics and ran them through guitar amps.

I guess it would take much more than just a compressor to get THAT sound.

[Clueless]

Try the SPL transient designer. Very simple, very easy to dial in "that sound". Not a replacement for distressors, GMLs, C2s, etc., but boy does it make some things easy!

[LTA]

DAS:

As per a guitar world interview with Jimmy Page, "Andy Johns hung a couple of M160 microphones from the second floor, compressed them, added some echo, compressed that as well, and that was all we needed."

The "echo" that was refered to could very well be the reamped drums you read of.

You are also possibly misinterpreting the location (entrance hall with a 3 story stairway, vs a hallway). Mansions, lol. You'd need an auto-reverb unit in addition to the autocompressor to get that sound.

And yeah, it would take more than a compressor to get that sound. It would literally require bringing Bonzo back to life.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled topic.