Yesterday I came across a very old post from Schwa praising ReaComp
Schwa – 3.38.2007
I have just spent about 2 hours A/B(/C/D/E/F…)ing 2 measures of vocals with every compressor plugin I have. Which includes a couple of trendy character compressors in the $500 retail neighborhood.I finally realized that reacomp is not a compressor. It is a compressor engine. [emphasis added]
I’m already using ReaComp a lot in my projects, this got me motivated to try and match my favorite drum bus preset in Waves SSL Bus Compressor using ReaComp. It took a while to tweak but I think the results speak for themselves.
To me that’s close enough, the Waves SSL is just a hair darker. It’s the same vibe, the snare get’s squashed down and the room is inflated in just the same way. For this particular drum sound, I’d have no problems using ReaComp. I’ll have to do more testing to get all the ratios and attack times matched.
The key to matching the sound really came down to two controls – Knee Size and RMS Size. With those two settings you should be able to dial in the character of any type of compressor. The attack and release times could also be slightly different than what’s displayed. As always, use your ears.
Further in that thread White Tie posted some really awesome GUI mockups. At the time of his posting, and Shwa’s above, I don’t think they were working for Cockos yet.
White Tie
Its very hard to judge the ballistics on gain reduction if its all happening in the top few pixels. On the other hand, I like the way it goes all the way down rather than pinning at -12 or so, so I suppose what I’m asking for is a giant circular gain reduction meter running all the way around the outside of the gui – I don’t imagine for a minute that anyone else will go for that, though…[later] This is the kind of thing I meant – a real monster of a gain reduction meter! :
[later] Yes- stuff like this needs to be resolutely on a ‘download if you’re into that sort of thing’ basis, particlularly if someone forgets to include some of the controls… here they are:
[also in the thread he posted a mockup for ReaEQ]
Those GUIs are cool as hell. It’s a shame they were never released to the community.
ReaComp is truly one of the most versatile compressors out there today. Most users consider ReaComp to be a clean (boring) utility compressor/limiter, well I think today we’ve proven it can be just as ‘vibey’ as considerably more expensive compressors.
Do you guys love ReaComp as much as we do?
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