![brainworx bx meter gearslutz brainworx bx meter gearslutz](https://static.gearspace.com/board/customavatars/avatar48308_0.gif)
Firstly, I would not recommend the GTO by de la Mancha if you’re trying to emulate the sound of any of the paid plugins.
BRAINWORX BX METER GEARSLUTZ FREE
If you can get over how ugly it is, I would recommend this plugin as an alternative to a paid LA-2A plugin in a heartbeat.Īgain, the Waves plugin falls victim to being the easiest plugin to emulate, with the Softube FET Compressor being the hardest for the free plugins to approximate. The TbT TLS-3127 actually nulled down pretty far against both paid plugins as well. So, if you’re looking for good opto emulation from a free plugin that can trade blows with Waves, Variety of Sound's plugins are probably your best bet.
![brainworx bx meter gearslutz brainworx bx meter gearslutz](https://files.plugin-alliance.com/products/bx_meter/images/carousel/bx-meter-01.jpg)
It is its own standalone compression style inspired by vintage opto compressors. What’s more, the NastyVCA isn’t even a direct LA-2A clone. It did nearly just as well against the Waves plugin, but it has a lot of extra features, and even has a toggle switch that allows you to choose the attack and release character of the compressor. You can’t even tell the signal is being compressed, and even though the ThrillseekerLA was able to null to almost -30db against the Waves plugin, I was most impressed with the NastyVCA. They breathe with the audio source in a really transparent way. I was pretty impressed with Variety of Sound’s ability to emulate optical compressors. The T-RackS White 2A was only slightly harder to mimic, and bested the Waves plugin against 4/5 free plugins. Overall, the Waves CLA-2A plugin was statistically the easiest to emulate, with many plugins nulling it down to -20db and below. Note, however, that this does not necessarily mean that the paid plugins that were “easiest” to approximate were actually emulated particularly well by the free plugins. I also included another metric based on averages, stating which paid plugin was the most easy for the free plugins to emulate and which ones were the most difficult. The sample audio was a single snare hit for the FET and VCA comps, and a soft male vocal for the Opto and Vari-MU comps. When a plugin wasn’t performing well, I would adjust the other parameters from time to time. Typically, the only parameters I adjusted were the Threshold and Makeup Gain, because pretty much all plugins actually handle these numbers a little differently internally. Pretty much all of the tests were conducted using identical Ratio, Attack, and Release settings, all at -10db of gain reduction and adjusted to unity.
![brainworx bx meter gearslutz brainworx bx meter gearslutz](https://files.plugin-alliance.com/products/bx_meter/images/carousel/bx-meter-parameter-changed-2.png)
So, anyone looking to drop $1000 on that Waves SSL bundle, drop $40 on the CS-3301 instead if you need an analog emulation EQ).īack on topic.
![brainworx bx meter gearslutz brainworx bx meter gearslutz](https://i0.wp.com/www.strongmocha.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Brainworx-bx_console-N-SSL-4000-E-SSL-4000-G-SUMMER-SALE-JUNE-1-2.jpg)
(On that note, every band of the CS-3301 nulls the SSL E-Channel down almost to infinity, and can go about 150% narrower on the Qs. I was actually going to compile an EQ null-test as well, but I discovered that virtually every EQ plugin can be nulled to about -40db to -60db by almost any other EQ plugin, haha. From my understanding, it is generally accepted that nulling a signal to within -30db to -40db means that the differences are typically inconsequential (especially true with EQ null-testing). This is a useful and effective method for comparing different plugins, because the closer the master bus gets to infinity while the tracks are being played, the more similar the two signals are. With no signal processing, the two signals will completely cancel to infinity. It involves playing the same audio signal through two different tracks with the phase inverted on one. Getting started, if you’re not familiar with null-testing, it’s a method of determining the similarities between two audio signals. In total, I tested about 17 different free compressors against 12 paid compressors, and I can definitely do more tests or take requests if this is well received. So, I null-tested a bunch of different paid compressors of different varieties against free compressors that are either clones or of the same fundamental design. I always see questions on forums like this (/r/audioengineering, gearslutz, etc) about how free plugins compared to paid plugins, but I actually haven’t found much information about any objective analysis that has been done. All you guys have saved me tons of time and tons of money, so I wanted to do what I could to give back and maybe save you guys some time and money. The search field on these forums has been an invaluable tool for troubleshooting and problem-solving, and I felt like I should give something back. I don’t post much, but I have been a lurker for a long time. So, this community has done quite a bit for me.