[ardour-users] TAP Dynamics curves
Josh Karnes
jkarnes1 at austin.rr.com
Fri Oct 22 08:08:54 PDT 2004
A few months ago I posted about some experimental TAP Dynamics curves, thought
I'd post a follow-up.
Basically what these are is an effort to create a transparent-sounding
compressor in LADSPA. TAP Dynamics can do it and do it well with these curves! :)
These curves are intended to kind of work like an optical compressor, the
compression is mostly happening in the middle of the dynamic range, but at the
bottom end (below the "threshold") it's obviously linear, and at the top end it
becomes linear again. There's a midrange to the dynamics curve where it
compresses. Each of my presets has a soft knee at the threshold (it's
logarithmic), then inside the range it compresses it does a particular ratio
like 1.4:1 or 2:1, and then has a reverse-knee at the end of the range it
compresses and is linear (1:1) beyond that point. So there's only a certain
range that is compressed. It's important to remember that the overall
compression ratio you get with these is much less than what's in the heading...
for example the big daddy here is the 14.9:1 ultra-opto that, in absolute
terms, only compresses about 2.5:1. That's because the curve is not linear.
There's only a small range that's actually compressed at a 14.9:1 ratio (in this
case, only one value on the curve is actually 14.9:1, all the rest is lower ratio).
I actually have 72 presets in my file, and I am not using all of them by any
stretch. But if you're interested, email me offlist and I'll email all of them
to you. They are all very transparent and useful, I just included my favorites
so far. So far on this project I have been using comps on bass, drum kit
overheads, snare, kick, vocals, and the 2-bus. Eventually I'll fine tune my
selection for electric and acoustic guitars, piano, rhodes piano, B3 and other
percussion. The first two here are 6dB range, which means there's a 6dB range
between the knee and reverse-knee that's compressed at the given ratio... they
don't compress very much and they're extremely transparent... only reducing
gain by a max of 2-4 dB. The three at the bottom are "ultra-opto" in my goofy
terminology, which basically means they are very non-linear with exaggerated
knee and reverse-knee... the curve is very "S" shaped, and they sound killer
for instruments and vocals. I have presets for 1.4:1, and 2:1-12:1 in 1:1
increments for each range 6dB, 8dB, 10dB and 14dB each range compressing a wider
range of middle dynamics than the previous. Does this make sense? Then I have
12 "ultra-opto" ratios that sort of behave like 1.4:1 thru 12:1 but actually are
marked with a higher ratio, they're very organic and musical. My guess is I
will end up using the "ultra-opto" curves for nearly all instrument compressors,
and use the other more transparent curves for the 2-bus.
Here are some of the more useful ones (copy and paste into the
tap_dynamics_presets.h file and recompile, be sure and increase the number of
presets at the top of the file to include your new presets):
[These first two are great for putting on the 2-bus or for drum overheads,
acoustic instruments, etc., where you need something real transparent and just
pulling in the dynamics a little bit (2-4dB max). Set the attack to something
real fast (10ms or less), release real slow (400ms or more), be happy... even
when it's really compressing you can't tell it's on from hearing it]
{ /* 1.4:1 opto 6dB */
13,
{
{-80.0f, -80.0f},/* this is the bottom */
{-6.0f, -6.0f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
{-5.0f, -5.0f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
{-4.0f, -4.1f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{-3.0f, -3.3f}, /* ratio 1.2:1 */
{-2.0f, -2.6f}, /* ratio 1.4:1 */
{2.0f, 0.2f}, /* ratio 1.4:1 */
{3.0f, 1.0f}, /* ratio 1.2:1 */
{4.0f, 1.9f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{5.0f, 2.9f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
{6.0f, 3.9f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
{7.0f, 4.9f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
{20.0f, 17.9f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
},
},
[I use this one on snare drum and kick drum. for snare, attack as fast as you
can get it, release about 100ms... for kick attack at about 20-30ms and release
at about 100ms, depending on the drum tuning; max gain redux 3.7dB]
{ /* 2:1 opto 6dB */
13,
{
{-80.0f, -80.0f},/* this is the bottom */
{-6.0f, -6.0f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
{-5.0f, -5.1f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{-4.0f, -4.3f}, /* ratio 1.2:1 */
{-3.0f, -3.6f}, /* ratio 1.4:1 */
{-2.0f, -3.1f}, /* ratio 2.0:1 */
{2.0f, -1.1f}, /* ratio 2.0:1 */
{3.0f, -0.4f}, /* ratio 1.4:1 */
{4.0f, 0.4f}, /* ratio 1.2:1 */
{5.0f, 1.3f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{6.0f, 2.3f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
{7.0f, 3.3f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
{20.0f, 16.3f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
},
},
[this next one is my automatic plug-in for all vocal tracks. attack sort of
fast, release also sort of fast (maybe 10ms and 125ms), and crank the pre-gain
until things start to sound linear, and crank the make-up gain until you get the
right level. max gain redux 7.8dB]
{ /* 10.3:1 Ultra-Opto */
20,
{
{-80.0f, -80.0f},/* this is the bottom */
{-6.0f, -6.1f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{-5.0f, -5.2f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{-4.0f, -4.4f}, /* ratio 1.2:1 */
{-3.0f, -3.6f}, /* ratio 1.3:1 */
{-2.0f, -2.9f}, /* ratio 1.5:1 */
{-1.0f, -2.4f}, /* ratio 1.9:1 */
{0.0f, -2.1f}, /* ratio 3.4:1 */
{1.0f, -2.0f}, /* ratio 10.3:1 */
{2.0f, -1.9f}, /* ratio 11.3:1 */
{3.0f, -1.8f}, /* ratio 11.3:1 */
{4.0f, -1.7f}, /* ratio 10.3:1 */
{5.0f, -1.4f}, /* ratio 3.4:1 */
{6.0f, -0.9f}, /* ratio 1.9:1 */
{7.0f, -0.2f}, /* ratio 1.5:1 */
{8.0f, 0.6f}, /* ratio 1.3:1 */
{9.0f, 1.4f}, /* ratio 1.2:1 */
{10.0f, 2.3f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{11.0f, 3.2f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{20.0f, 12.2f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
},
},
[if the last one didn't compress your vocals enough, use this one... sounds
almost the same, same max 7.8dB]
{ /* 12.4:1 Ultra-Opto */
20,
{
{-80.0f, -80.0f},/* this is the bottom */
{-6.0f, -6.1f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{-5.0f, -5.2f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{-4.0f, -4.4f}, /* ratio 1.2:1 */
{-3.0f, -3.6f}, /* ratio 1.3:1 */
{-2.0f, -2.9f}, /* ratio 1.5:1 */
{-1.0f, -2.4f}, /* ratio 2.0:1 */
{0.0f, -2.1f}, /* ratio 3.7:1 */
{1.0f, -2.0f}, /* ratio 12.4:1 */
{2.0f, -1.9f}, /* ratio 13.6:1 */
{3.0f, -1.8f}, /* ratio 13.6:1 */
{4.0f, -1.7f}, /* ratio 12.4:1 */
{5.0f, -1.4f}, /* ratio 3.7:1 */
{6.0f, -0.9f}, /* ratio 2.0:1 */
{7.0f, -0.2f}, /* ratio 1.5:1 */
{8.0f, 0.6f}, /* ratio 1.3:1 */
{9.0f, 1.4f}, /* ratio 1.2:1 */
{10.0f, 2.3f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{11.0f, 3.2f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{20.0f, 12.2f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
},
},
[this next one is my default plug-in for bass tracks. set attack at something
like 50ms and release at maybe 125ms, crank the pre-gain until the bass is
really cooking, max gain redux 8dB]
{ /* 14.9:1 Ultra-Opto */
20,
{
{-80.0f, -80.0f},/* this is the bottom */
{-6.0f, -6.1f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{-5.0f, -5.2f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{-4.0f, -4.4f}, /* ratio 1.2:1 */
{-3.0f, -3.6f}, /* ratio 1.3:1 */
{-2.0f, -2.9f}, /* ratio 1.5:1 */
{-1.0f, -2.4f}, /* ratio 2.1:1 */
{0.0f, -2.2f}, /* ratio 4.0:1 */
{1.0f, -2.1f}, /* ratio 14.9:1 */
{2.0f, -2.0f}, /* ratio 16.4:1 */
{3.0f, -1.9f}, /* ratio 16.4:1 */
{4.0f, -1.8f}, /* ratio 14.9:1 */
{5.0f, -1.6f}, /* ratio 4.0:1 */
{6.0f, -1.1f}, /* ratio 2.1:1 */
{7.0f, -0.4f}, /* ratio 1.5:1 */
{8.0f, 0.4f}, /* ratio 1.3:1 */
{9.0f, 1.2f}, /* ratio 1.2:1 */
{10.0f, 2.1f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{11.0f, 3.0f}, /* ratio 1.1:1 */
{20.0f, 12.0f}, /* ratio 1.0:1 */
},
},
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