Softube FET Compressor User`s Manual
Contents
1. signal as input to the detector This is very common if you for instance want to compress a bass line using the bass drum as the trigger to the compressor In that case the bass line will be compressed when ever the bass drum is hit EXTERNAL SIDE CHAIN Even if an external side chain signal is present you will have to activate the external side chain by increasing the External Side Chain knob until the o LED lights up If the External Side Chain knob is E in its OFF position the detector will always use the Figure 10 The regular input side chain knob Use the External Side Chain knob to set the input volume of the external signal for instance the bass drum track A higher input volume will lead to more gain reduction just like the Input knob works without an external side chain Monitor the Gain Reduction VU Meter when you set the level of the external side chain Just increase the External Side Chain until you get enough gain reduction 1 External side chaining might also work in some VST hosts It depends very much on which VST host and version you are using The plug in will add two extra inputs inputs 3 and 4 and regards these as the external side chain input If your host accepts these four inputs the external side chain indicator Figure 15 will light up Low Cut and High Cut The Low and High Cut can be used to filter the signal before it reaches the detector good pr2. 10 4 or higher on a G3 or Intel CPU or better or Windows XP or higher on a PIII CPU or better e 44 1 48 88 2 96 176 4 and 192 kHz sample rates are supported e Mono and Stereo modes are supported See Multi Channel Operation for more information e iLok USB key and the latest iLok drivers available from www ilok com Native Version VST AU RTAS e Any VST RTAS or AudioUnit compatible host application Since external side chaining isn t officially supported by the VST plug in format there is no guarantee that external side chaining will work with your VST host Pro Tools HD Version TDM VENUE In Pro Tools HD it is possible to use FET Compressor on either a Core or an Accel processor although only 44 1 and 48 kHz sample rates are supported on Core For more info on CPU consumption and availability see the table below All sample rates are available in the RTAS and VENUE versions System Requirements e Pro Tools HD with Pro Tools 7 0 or higher or VENUE system e System must meet requirements for Pro Tools HD from Digidesign PT HD CPU consumption Core Accel 44 1 48 kHz lt 77 lt 35 88 2 96 kHz ES lt 58 176 4 192 kHz lt 91 RELEASE FET Compressor was made by Oscar Oberg modeling and implementation Torsten Gatu framework programming Niklas Odelholm framework programming and graphic design Arvid Ros n framework programming Ul
3. TA t Le F why we added the Parallel Inject By increasing the Parallel Inject you can blend in a little bit of the original signal with the original transients Try to balance it so that you get the transients from the dry path and the rest of the signal from the compressed path All the energy and attack of each note disappears pt II Another trick you could try if you d like to restore some of the transients is to narrow down the detectors frequency bands by adding some Low Cut and High Cut filtering It doesn t work on all program material but it s worth a try want some cool drum bus tricks Ok here are our favorites 1 Fat Bass Drum Apply heavy compression on your drum bus Increase the Low Cut knob until the bass drum doesn t trigger the compressor at about 200 300 Hz In most cases this will make the bass drum sound fatter and louder compared to the rest of the kit 2 Pumping Drums Set Ratio on aLL Release on stow and adjust the Input until you re satisfied Blend in some dry signal with Parallel Inject 3 Sustained Drums with Transients Apply heavy 20 1 compression with fast release and attack times blend in some transients with Parallel Inject Adding color Finally you shouldn t be afraid of using this plug in in the 1 1 mode You won t get any compression but it will color the sound And the meters look nice too AT D E ge Multi Channel Operation FET Compressor supports
4. actual transient comes since the actual transient has been delayed The Lookahead time corresponds to the total latency of the plug in The plug in will not report this latency to the host since almost no hosts support compensating for a delay that depends on a parameter Some very fast Attack Release settings will cause a crackling sound on transients often sounding like some sort of digital clipping or saturation somewhere in the signal chain This is very typical for this kind of compressor but is usually an unwanted effect The normal way to get rid of this side effect is to slow down the attack and release times but now you have another tool to use By adding a little lookahead to the detector many of these side effects can be avoided Parallel Inject Parallel Compression is a technique where you blend the compressed signal with the original signal Say that you have a heavily compressed drum track where all the transients have been lost compressed By adding a little bit of parallel compression you can blend in the original signal with the PARALLEL INJECT original transients with the high energy compressed signal e 2 i S Figure 13 Parallel without transients and thus get the best of both worlds Be compression is fun This is a technique that is very easy to achieve with a send bus but this baby does a little bit more than that First of all you won t get any problem with
5. com you will find answers to common questions FAQ and other topics that might interest you Support questions can be posted at http www softube com where we will help you as fast as we can Installation and Authorization IF YOU BOUGHT THE PRODUCT IN A BOX you will have to register it in order to transfer the license to your iLok account 1 Go to http Awww softube com register to transfer the license to your iLok account You will need the License Code found in the box your iLok com User ID and your iLok USB dongle Follow the instructions on the web page IF YOU BOUGHT THE PRODUCT ONLINE and have got the confirmation e mail the license will already be deposited in your iLok account 2 Make sure that you have the latest iLok drivers installed They can be found at http www ilok com 3 Log on to http Awww ilok com and transfer the newly received license to your physical iLok dongle 4 Install the software from the CD or download the latest version from http www softube com installers Sometimes the CD contains installers for all Softube products but you will only be able to run those that you have acquired licenses for In some cases extra demo licenses are included when you buy a Softube product Introduction THE FET COMPRESSOR IS BASED ON the most famous hardware FET compressor and very much effort has been spent modeling the real hardware to make sure that this one sounds exactly the
6. the following multi channel modes e MONO The Output Peak meters will display the same values on both meters e STEREO The Left and Right channels will be processed by the same detector just as if you had the stereo interconnect thingy connected to the original hardware How the different modes are selected depends on your host software In most hosts inserting the FET Compressor on a mono track will make it use the Mono mode and vice versa with a stereo track Block Diagram This is a block diagram over the FET Compressor functionality Please note that this illustration depicts the functionality of the plug in the inner workings ire quite different INPUT VU METER GAIN REDUCTION VU METER OUTPUT PEAK METER LOOKAHEAD t 1 D 1 1 d MAIN OUTPUT MAIN INPUT GAIN REDUCTION INPUT PARALLEL INJECT OUTPUT DETECTOR SIDE CHAIN INPUT EXTERNAL SIDE CHAIN LOW CUT RATIO HIGH CUT ATTACK RELEASE Figure 17 Block diagram of the FET Compressor The SIDE CHAIN INPUT is only active if the side chain has been activated by the External Side Chain knob regardless of whether a side chain is present or not 2 The experienced reader will notice that some parts like the feedback connection of the compressor have been omitted in the illustration for the sake of clarity System Requirements Please make sure that you have the latest Interlok drivers installed All Versions e Mac OS
7. Input VU meter is used to monitor the input signal If a stereo signal is present the meter will display the maximum energy of both signals This may seem like a drawback but since the gain reduction circuit a k a detector or side chain works in mono the VU will actually display the same thing the detector sees Unless you start fiddling with the small knobs but we re not there yet The Gain Reduction meter is used to monitor the amount of gain reduction in the compressor The FET Compressor has only one detector so if a stereo signal is present the gain reduction will be the same for both channels This prevents unwanted distortion of the stereo image If the Ratio knob is set at ALL the Gain Reduction meter won t show the same results as the original hardware Instead it will display the actual gain reduction which the original unit doesn t You will also notice that the Gain Reduction sometimes display positive values when the Ratio is set at ALL which is correct The ALL mode does indeed have negative gain reduction positive gain for some settings Ti mm a TRA 4 i PRE 1277 fs Output In comparison to the Input knob the Output knob doesn t do much more than just adjusting the output volume Keep a close look on the OUTPUT PEAK meter while adjusting the output volume to avoid unwanted digital clipping It is good practice to keep the levels below 0 dB even if you are using a nativ
8. OT also set the Ratio knob Figure 3 The Input knob and corresponding input VU meter More input gain also means more distortion in a good way Lo J Y 4 ON ALL ADP KT A LA At a first glance the Ratio knob on the RATIO f FET Compressor seems to work a little bit different than its hardware counterpart The biggest difference is that the Ratio knob is continuous meaning that it s possible to select settings between different fixed 14 A ratios for instance between 12 1 and 20 1 Be Furthermore it s also possible to select Figure 4 The Ratio knob settings between 20 1 and the famous All buttons in setting If you would rather use the pre defined settings that are identical to those on the original hardware 1 1 4 1 8 1 12 1 20 1 and ALL just click on the labels to jump directly to those settings see Figure 5 All Buttons In Mode Figure 5 Click on The ALL mode is a peculiarity found on this type of compressor the labels to immediately go to a factory setting Originally the different ratios were selected with push buttons which made some mix engineers try out what happens if you press all buttons at once From a technical perspective pushing all buttons at the same time makes all bias levels go berserk From a sound perspective this means that you will get a very pumping compression with lots of distortion This mode is ofte
9. SOFTUBE FET COMPRESSOR RS GUIDE TOM RTAS VST AU VENUE 2008 SOFTUBE AB SWEDEN ALL PRODUCT AND COMPANY NAMES ARE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS AMP ROOM IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF SOFTUBE AB SWEDEN SOFTUBE IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF SOFTUBE AB SWEDEN ALL SPECIFICATIONS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Table of Contents Contact UE 4 EEN 4 Installation and Authorization ss 5 OO EIERE 6 El E apne ere eee ee eee eee 8 OR a a ae 9 EIERE ec 10 Attack and E 11 Input and Gain Reduction VU meters ENEE 12 OUPU e E RE a RR PRN RR 13 Output Peak MR SED Cedar 13 Re entre sn me rent ie 14 Parallel JEE ss ce 18 Status tere 19 Controls SUmmary eege 20 Tweaking TIPS ssa nte aaa aaa enr teen 21 Multi Channel Operation rnsennnrs 23 BIOCK DIAQ EAN genee 24 System E UTC 25 PW BT SONS sins en ANS RE RR ce ei eee 25 Native Version VST AU RTAS iii 25 Pro Tools HD Version TONM VENUE s ccccsscucassoronensinanaaanlsecanwntnbhohedeaaitennenebarnens 26 Contact Details If you would like to get in touch with Softube please e mail info softube com Alternatively you could use the phone or send an old fashioned mail do you remember envelopes stamps and paper to Softube AB S t Larsgatan 10c SE 582 24 Link ping Sweden Web www softube com E mail info softube com Phone 46 13 21 1623 9 am 5 pm CET Support On the Softube website www softube
10. actice can be to remove some of the unwanted low frequencies so that they don t affect the gain reduction Another trick is to apply filtering so that only Figure 11 The Low and High Cut knobs certain frequencies cause the detector to compress the signal If you for example compress a drum kit you might want to keep the boominess of the bass drum but compress the cymbals and snare Set the Low Cut to 200 300 Hz so that the bass drum will get filtered out before it reaches the detector Please keep in mind that Low Cut and High Cut don t alter the direct signal just the signal that enters the detector Please note that the 200 and 1000 Hz settings on the Low and High Cut knobs corresponds to the knob being set at 12 o clock where the little indicator lines are located The easiest way to get to that setting is to click on the 200 or1000 label on the panel Lookahead The Lookahead can be used if the fastest attack time isn t fast enough for instance if you want to apply some heavy limiting to a signal The Lookahead will delay the signal path outside of the detector by up to 1 ms leaving the detector signal unaffected This has two effects 1 Figure 12 The Lookahead knob The output signal will be delayed by up to 1 millisecond The detector will see the undelayed signal but reduce the gain on the delayed signal This means that the detector will be able to compress the signal before the
11. e host that allows level above 0 dB On TDM the plug in will digitally clip all signals above 0 dB on the output Output Peak Meter The output peak meter is a fast peak meter with hold values Single peak values up in the reds at O dB are okay but don t push it This meter will display the left and right channel on the left and right meter if you use the plug in OUTPUT PEAK O 0 Figure 8 Output knob and output meter in STEREO mode otherwise it ll just show the same mono signal on both meters Keep the output levels below 0 dB Detector Controls The most important part of any compressor is the detector It is the detector that decides how the compressor should compress All controls except the Output and Parallel Inject control the detector but in this plug in we have chosen to bundle the four advanced knobs together and call them detector controls Common to all these controls is that they can be turned off by setting them in the OFF position Their status LED will light up when ever they are active IINGEG Ts ECC Figure 9 The four advanced detector knobs Don t be afraid to keep these controls in the oFF position Use these controls if there is something particular that you d like to achieve or something that needs to be fixed If it ain t broken don t fix it External Side Chain In some plug in formats such as RTAS TDM and AU it is possible to use an external
12. e this plug in special Here are our favorite tweaks I want distortion There are two types of distortion in a compressor like this first we have the input and output stage distortion and second the frequency dependent distortion caused by the compressing To get the first type of distortion just increase the Input until you get enough distortion You can even have Ratio set to 1 1 no compression The other type of distortion is usually caused by a fast attack and release time If you set Ratio on ALL and Release on FAST you ll get the fastest release time possible Try the Distortion presets The compressor isn t fast enough If you find that the Attack time isn t fast enough doesn t squash all the transients increase the Lookahead until you re satisfied The compressor is too fast The Attack times get slower if Ratio is set on ALL so in order to get a late attack set Ratio on ALL If you want to increase the transients but compress the rest of the signal use the all buttons in mode Try the Transient presets It makes crackling sounds on the transients This is because of the extremely fast attack time First you can slow down the Attack times so that the gain reduction becomes not as abrupt as it was To compensate for the slower Attack time increase the Lookahead All the energy and attack of each note disappears It is a fast compressor and chances are that it will compress fast transients yeah That s
13. e way of the usability The fewer knobs the better and the faster the user gets the sound they want the better This boils down to a single main objective Every user should be able to get a good sound within seconds and no user should be afraid to mess up the sound An amateur should be able to make this sound just as good as a pro And yeah it has to look good In order to achieve these objectives we had to put special effort into the modeling The original hardware has some quite quirky circuits and a lot of its sound comes from far from ideal components and design A lot of new ideas were developed during the modeling and with the help of our expert listener and golden ears Dan Lumbye we managed to put together a piece of software that should please even the most critical ears Patents This product is protected by patent SE525332 and patents patent applications US2004 0258250 EP 1492081 and JP2004 183976 AT D E ge User Interface THE CONTROLS OF the FET Compressor are divided into two sections First of all we have the big knobs Input Ratio Attack Release and Output which are the knobs that you will use every time you use the compressor top row in the illustration on the right These knobs are pretty standard and you probably already know what they do Then we have the small guys middle row which don t have to be tweaked every time you use the compressor You don t even have to feel bad i
14. f Ekel f 3D rendering and graphics Dan Lumbye sound design Stefan Fand n feature hunter Thanks to Lars Nygaard and Anders Bech at Cyberfarm DK and Per Akesson at Care Of Sound Studio for letting us use and abuse their equipment 2008 Softube AB Sweden
15. f you never touch them People have managed to make hit records for 40 years without Figure 2 Top Knobs and meters used under normal operation Middle Extra functionality added in the software version Bottom Extra meters added to the software version them Nevertheless they are extremely useful and soon you ll have a hard time understanding how you ever could ve managed without them In addition to this we also added some metering so that you can monitor your signal all the time bottom row An input VU meter which is fun to drive into the reds all the time anda stereo output peak meter make sure that you always know what is going on with your signal Input The Input knob on this compressor works both as a gain control and a threshold control If you increase the Input volume you will also increase the gain reduction which makes it work sort of like a combination of a gain knob and a reversed threshold knob You can drive the INPUT vu far into the reds without any unwanted digital clipping Just make sure that the OUTPUT PEAK meter doesn t indicate any clipping If it does just lower the Output volume a bit The Input knob also works as a threshold control More input gain will give you more gain reduction If you drive the input volume so that the VU start hitting the reds you will also add more distortion to the signal If you want lots of distortion we really recommend you to NP
16. n called the British mode By setting the Ratio somewhere between 20 1 and ALL you ll get a sound that s definitely unique for this product Attack and Release Use the Attack and Release controls to change how fast the compressor starts to compress Attack and how fast it should recover from the gain reduction Release The attack time on this unit is very fast ranging from about 20 us at the F ATTACK RELEASE fastest setting to about 800 us on A gr a its slowest setting Other kinds of d compressors often have much E slower attack times In comparison to the attack time the release times are much slower ranging between 50 ms and 1 1 s Please note that these numbers only give Figure 6 The Attack and Release knobs a general idea of the attack and release times In practice and just like in the modeled hardware the attack and release times will be program dependent ie depend on the characteristics of the input signal Since a fast attack and release time leads to a fast gain reduction sometimes those settings will cause unwanted clipping effects To remove this unwanted side effect you can either slow down the release time or add some look ahead to the detector circuit See Lookaheaa Input and Gain Reduction VU meters Figure 7 The Input and Gain Reduction VU meters are also modeled using physical modeling so they will also react just like the real thing The
17. s indicator will always be lit in hosts that use the Audio Figure 15 External is only Unit AU format In VST it will light up if the host used in Pro Tools and Stereo accepts side chain inputs but this doesn t work for all is pretty self explanatory VST hosts So it goes Stereo The Stereo indicator lights up if the compressor was instantiated in stereo mode Controls Summary The knobs are controlled by either dragging Left Right or Up Down or by using the mouse wheel Mouse Up Down Increase Decrease the setting of a knob switch Left Right Increase Decrease the setting of a knob switch Mouse wheel Mac OS X only Increase Decrease the setting of a knob switch Pointing over a label will make the cursor change to a pointing hand cursor Clicking the label will make the knob to immediately move to the corresponding position Keyboard Commands Use these key commands while changing a parameter Fine Adjust Command Mac or Ctrl Windows Reset to Default Alt Automation Control Window Pro Tools only Ctrl Command Alt click Mac or Ctrl Windows Alt click Windows JF Figure 16 Top Click and drag cursor Bottom Label click cursor Show Automation Track Pro Tools only Ctrl Command click Mac or Ctrl Windows click Windows Tweaking Tips We didn t want to include too much of the standard this is how a compressor work theory but rather focus on the parts that mak
18. same If you only use the big knobs and the six fixed ratios you ll get exactly the same analog sound and functionality as the real deal But that s just the beginning With the help of digital technology we have added some useful features that still have that analogue sound but features that would ve been hard or even impossible to implement with analog electronics That way you will be able to get the best of two worlds Not even mentioning how ridiculously many FET Compressors you will be able to fit into your project without running low on CPU Not convinced yet Set the Input on max Ratio on ALL Listen EE Ee d Figure 1 The user interface of the FET Compressor an analog sounding compressor with digital features Design Philosophy THERE ARE THREE MAIN IDEAS BEHIND THIS DESIGN First of all we wanted to make an analog sounding digital compressor Nothing must stand in the way of the sound Every single part of the simulation contributes to making this piece unique The extremely fast attack all the subtle and sometimes not so subtle distortion that comes from the different parts of the compressor and the extremely careful way the signal is handled and conditioned through out the signal chain Second we added features to make this product even more versatile and unique The enhanced ratio parallel compression detector filtering and lookahead are such features Third these features must not stand in th
19. the Lookahead since the dry signal is delayed with the same delay time as the compressed signal Then the dry signal will be affected by the same analogue modeling mojo as the compressed one which means that some of the distortion and coloring of the compressor will also have a an effect on the dry signal And at last the Output Peak meter will of course show the sum of these signals so that you can set a proper output level Whenever you change the gain reduction for example by changing the Input volume you will need to change the Parallel Inject since the volume of the compressed signal has changed But be careful sometimes the dry signal is much louder than the compressed signal Status Indicators The FET Compressor comes with a couple of handy status labels located in the VU meter section Remote Pro Tools only Whenever automation is used or if an external control surface is connected the Remote status indicator will light up The knobs that are being controlled will also get a thin frame around them External Figure 14 Remote is lit up on This indicator displays when an external side chain is automation or external control present Whenever an external side chain is present it surfaces is possible to use the External Side Chain knob to set the amount of gain of the external signal to the detector In TDM RTAS it will light up whenever you have connected a side chain bus to the plug in Thi
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