External DSPs

[traqstyle]

Hi all, I'm looking at external DSPs, namely TC Powercore Compact cause i've been reading up on it alot.

As you all can tell I want mobile powerfull processing.

Does anyone have similar setups?
What do you guys think about the plug ins?
Does anyone have any suggestion regarding this?

Thanks in advance~

 

[zenguan88]

focurite has its liquid technology thingy, and theres duendo from SSL. but mainly these are the 3 major brands including TC to provide DSP power to their plug in.

OH i forget UAD!!!

i do now own any setups with these 4, but the UAD samples that i heard sounds good, you can go the UAD homepage to find out more about it. whats best is that, you get all the plug in needed for mastering with the UAD.

if i am not wrong focusrite liquid technology is more to EQing only, duendo is an SSL plug in of their channel strip, and TC powercore had to be upgraded every now and then, thats if you want the latest plug in's offer from them.

UAD costing just a little more, offers all the plug in that you need, from EQ, to compression, and they got a neve EQ in it too. so do check them out

for me personally i would get UAD anytime.

nowadays, plug ins are more affordable compared to hardware processing, thats why everyone is going towards plug in's, however theres if your computer could handle all these pressure. DSP help ease the load of your computer of course, but i had no personal experience with them, therefore i might not be able to advise you in this case.

but UAD had a forum which might really help .

 

[traqstyle]

yeah been reading up on UAD, saw some you tube about it, now I'm considering the UAD-1e, on a Mac Pro.

Still reading user forums now. What I'm aiming for now is that "Glue" from the analogue world for my Mix, without bouncing groups to external gear.

 

[osXsan]

DSP Processing

Hey there traqstyle,

I've had the chance to try UAD and my only other contender was Focusrite's covolution tech rig the Liquid Mix (which I now own). The nice thing with UAD is that you can buy the basic pack and then add on your own required plugins. I'm not sure how keen you are between being an Audiophile or being an Engineer that would 'see' the sounds to be glued. But I was sold on the Liquid Mix as soon as I heard it. I've had the chance to use Liquid Channel in studio and that gave me a huge impression about Focusrite's compressors and Pres based on the real analog fx that I've used. I tried TC Powercore too. Its good but there's just too many stuffs in there that I didn't need. So why should I pay more for those! rite.

I had my preferred headphones and couple of songs of different styles that I mixed and went shopping. Just be sure you listen to the FX on tracks you're familiar with. I wouldn't even trust listening to these plugins with shop monitors in a bad environment. I also wouldn't recommend hearing online demo tracks since it SHOULD also be a hands-on thing while you listen. Afterall you will be using them to mix your recordings and it's like any other FX - you have to see which is easiest to tweak either on your laptop screen or on the external DSP box itself. I'm a knob guy. I hate the mouse! But if you have MIDI controller, thats all good again.

Hope that helps. Good luck making your choice.

 

[mogui_666]

I have just try TC Powercore PCI MkII. The plugin is totally awesome.

Have done a post production with it.

 

[traqstyle]

Hi osXsan,

Thanks for the tip. I guess what I'm looking for in the 'Glue' is the Stereo Buss Compressors on some of the channel strip plug-ins. It's been described as the 'glue' for the mix.

Being a Live audio person, I've worked extensively on name analouge and Digital consoles (Now my fav Digital board is the Vi6, after using it for the past year), so when I listen to the mix of my studio sessions and compare them to my live gigs, I can't help but find the studio sessions mix, errmm don't sound together.

After some research I read that, basically audio summed together in the digital relm is complex, and not as natural as the summing properties of the buss in analogue mixers.

I can't help but feel dispare when I learned that the mathematical calculations actually removes bits out of the audio when I attanuate the track!! I just want to attanuate~ not take away information~

So one technique is to use a summing mixer. Like bouncing 4 stereo tracks into the mixer.

Anyway, I'm nothing close to an audiophile, although I detest lo resolution mp3 being played through my house speakers when I'm doing a live gig.

So I have my targets set for the UAD, just need someone to demo it for me,
Anyone?? heh