Takes a look at PSP Audioware's Vintage Warmer. Issues surveyed include what it is, what it does, and what you can expect when you tweak a knob or two.
Hey, thanks! No one really talks about the compression aspect of tape saturation, so thanks for taking the time to go through all of that and using the visualizers from Ableton to help illustrate! Great video!
Really great tutorial mate, you have a real talent for teaching complex topics in a way that anyone can understand. If you ever feel like making any more tutorials on other areas of production or on other plugins im sure they would be very popular. Really appreciate the effort u put in to this it helped me a lot!
Good tutorial, nice to hear someone actually explaining what each parameter does rather than just instructing you to dial it in at a certain setting then moving on. Anyone who is expecting some quick and easy setting for any plug in which will sound good on everything in every situation is looking for the wrong thing!
I love this plugin. I have it in Auria and it is working like a fucking charm on this album I am working on. It helps bring that organic sound to it. All the way to the very end on the master channel and on top of the mix. The only thing is that if it is abused a little too much it makes things over loud and distorts but if that is desired then it is perfect! Love all their plugins!
I think the ceiling is basically the threshold for the limiting/saturation. If you set the ceiling to +12 the drive to +12 and the output to -12 there is no distortion or gain. Conversely, if you leave the drive at 0 and take the ceiling to -12 and output to +12 its the same sound as if you simply turn the drive up to +12.
This is a very good tutorial! He even made his own voice easy on the ear and at a proper level which makes it so much better than most tutorials. Great job!
Since owning this plugin, it has been one of my 'most used'. I use it on all my demo's as well. A very good all rounder plugin with multiple uses. 10/10
Great explanation about compressor and limiter. I have learned much more about compressing/limiter in one video then the actual plugin itself, lol....which is very handy of course. Thanks
I love the sound of the ios version used as a plugin in Auria app called MicroWarmer, but until this video really had little idea what it was actually doing. I'm not very subtle with it myself, but I'm a complete novice when it comes to this stuff. Cheers for the tutorial.
I love this plug in i cant go with out it Compressor, limiter & Eq all in 1 This is my secret weapon for bringing instruments forward Throw a level meter on an individual instrument lets say your peaks are hitting about -3/-2 db but you want the peaks to hit say -5 now this is where the ceiling is useful turn the ceiling to -5 your individual metering wont go above -5 I keep drive on 0 The knee is awesome cause it brings the sound up to in your face its kind of like moving your mic closer to the source
Hi *Jamie* , I'm checking this out today because it's on sale up until the 24th or 25th. Very good video/description! Excellent that you simplified it by demonstrated on a sine wave.
Yes. In the Live Set I am using an APC40 and when I mouse over the knobs on the VW itself, I am simply using the "Magic Mouse" scrolling to change the settings a bit. Sometimes with enough control, it is easier than clicking and then dragging.
To Uniquetune and Jamie Clark, it is an "instructional" video, which means there might be a considerable amount of explanation of the concepts behind how the plug works and what the controls do. I just LOVE these critics that come along looking for that one 5-minute video that they hope is going to turn them into Ricardo Villalobos ten minutes later, meanwhile criticizing the worthwhile videos that actually attempt to TEACH something… Keep searching for your "How to sound like…" videos. I'm sure those will be much more helpful than this.
always get this confused and maybe you can clear this up for me... fast attack would mean shorter time, right? ie ableton's compressor, fast attack would mean something closer to .01 ms as opposed to 1.0 s which would be a longer time therefore slow attack.. always confuses me.
Hey mate, I'm not particularly interested in using this plugin any time soon, I just wanted to have a conceptual understanding of how it works. I must say, you did an excellent job on this video. The sound quality of your DAW output and the microphone output sounded great, and the video quality was nice and clear as well. Not only that, but the zoom & pan effects definitely bumped up the quality of this little tutorial. Nice work, cheers!
This depends upon the frequency range within which you are working. In general, the attack and release times used for compressing any number of instruments or sounds in your mix should match their general frequency range. For example, slower AR times for lower frequency content, and faster AR times for higher frequency content. This helps achieve a more natural, transparent sounding compressor.
It could be placed anywhere you feel the need for more warmth. But as I mentioned, this isn't one of those plugs that is obvious when it is used. It needs to be quite subtle in your mix. I think it is used best when your tracks have been arranged and at the mixing stage you are looking to help the tracks "sit." Think of this plug like a salt shaker... Food is okay without it, but add a little and you have more vibrant flavors. Too much and your dinner is wasted.
I believe you get the VW2, the slimmer VW, and the super-slim Microwarmer when you purchase the plug for one price. That's what I got back when I bought it...
It's hard to say unless the plug is opened up and the mechanisms that run it are analyzed by someone with a firm knowledge about virtual plugs. I mentioned on the video that tape speed during recording directly influences the sound fidelity after the recording is made. The faster the tape, the better the sound preservation. Even though this plug is a compressor/limiter, it's internal character allows it to act as an exciter or saturator as well.
As a general theory to stand by with all effects, try to exaggerate the effect you want so that it is beyond obvious, and then pull it back to the point where you can barely tell it is there. It is much more difficult for the ear to determine the correct amount of any effect when you come from the other direction. That's what's difficult about this plug: the listener should never be aware it is being used...
It is a bit much to talk about here, but do some research on wow and flutter regarding tape speed and sound fidelity, and the deeper meaning behind the affects of all the different configurations you can have with compressors and I think you'll find some answers. In general, the quality of sound you desire can be controlled by altering the "simulated" effect of tape speed on your original sound. The slower the speed, the more pitch variation is noticed for more analogue sound.
@crrstewdios Cool! I can see that as the level-control at which the compressor starts working. Perhaps the ceiling helps get the saturation on sounds that don't quite reach the compressor upwards towards 0bDFS. It would certainly save one from thrusting the volume of a quieter sound way high just to reach the compressor level. Good idea!
Doesn't the soft knee setting effectively bring the threshold forward, which is why you see compression start to work when you turn the knee higher. By smoothing the curve, the start point where compression starts is earlier, though smoother overall.
Faster times for LOWER freqs can generate distortion since the compressor starts acting before the sound has a chance to establish itself. As I mention at some point in the videos, it is uncertain what they programmed the VW to do unless someone could look under the hood and analyze their algorithms. I suspect the "fast tape speed" sends the attack times into the single-digit attack times to achieve distortion across much of the frequency spectrum. It's anyone's guess...
I really like that plugin thanks for the rieview! Do you know where I can purchase this version of the vintage warmer? I only find the vintage warmer 2 where they added a "fat" knob.
hi thanks for explaining would this be your main compressor then on tracks or would you add it for tape saturation later i dont quite get how you actually compress the signal or how you lower the threshold would this be done with the ceiling
Can you elaborate as to why a low speed (lower quality) is synonymous with a short attack? You said "Of course a short attack will be lower quality". But I don't see why these two characteristics are inherently related. Are you saying all compressor settings with short attacks offer a lower quality of sound? I thought a short attack simply meant the compressor wet the signal more quickly in terms of response time.
I don't get the idea of comparing the attack and release action to the tape speed. Does it realy work like that? The faster the attack and release, the better the quality? I get the idea of tape speed compared to the harddisc capacity etc, but does the attack and release time relaly variate the quality of proccessing?
I'm struggling to understand what tape speed (or even quality) has to do with attack/release times... rather confusing! As I understand compression, attack and release times affect things like clarity (due to longer attack times allowing more transients through), and 'pumping' of the compression. Are you saying that running a tape faster or slower would actually do that too? The physics of that just don't make sense in my head...
It is more towards bit depth simply because that parameter deals with the resolution or "fidelity" of the sound as opposed to the sample rate, which is just the number of "snapshots" the digitization process takes per second along the line. High bit depth/sample rates help the overall improvement of sound quality when working together. Of course, with tapes none of this matters because the resolution is infinitely small whereas sample rates produce artifacts that need to be counterbalanced with artificial noise like dither and other things. I might need to check my definitions again, but I think one of the only major benefits you get from higher sample rates would be an extension of the access one has to representing the frequency spectrum on the outer edges of the spectrum.
but the "number of snapshots" are per seconds. so 96 kHz of sampling rate means 96 000 samples per seconds, which can record frequencies up to 48 kHz because you need 2 sample to mimic a frequency digitally. So to me it looks like the same thing as the speed of the tapes. More bit depth means you have a wider dynamic range for each of these samples. But i agree the comparison with tapes is not so simple because there are no bits in the tapes, so i don't really know how to have control on dynamic range on tape recording...
Next time please use something else than a sine bass 'cause I couldn't hear you when you cranked the volume because the bass was so loud. But thanks for the tutorial!
Wow, just skipped to 2:30 to hear what material he's working with and he says "ok now we'll get started" and then a minute later there's sound... Thanks anyway.
Hah! I think there was another comment in this thread or the other one that said I sounded like Brian from Family Guy. It made me very self-conscious...
This depends upon the frequency range within which you are working. In general, the attack and release times used for compressing any number of instruments or sounds in your mix should match their general frequency range. For example, slower AR times for lower frequency content, and faster AR times for higher frequency content. This helps achieve a more natural, transparent sounding compressor.
Hey, thanks! No one really talks about the compression aspect of tape saturation, so thanks for taking the time to go through all of that and using the visualizers from Ableton to help illustrate! Great video!
Really great tutorial mate, you have a real talent for teaching complex topics in a way that anyone can understand. If you ever feel like making any more tutorials on other areas of production or on other plugins im sure they would be very popular. Really appreciate the effort u put in to this it helped me a lot!
Good tutorial, nice to hear someone actually explaining what each parameter does rather than just instructing you to dial it in at a certain setting then moving on. Anyone who is expecting some quick and easy setting for any plug in which will sound good on everything in every situation is looking for the wrong thing!
Best tutorial on compressor - thanks !!!🧸🎶🧸
I love the Vintage Warmer plugin. It always does what I want!
how i download full verson free
I love this plugin. I have it in Auria and it is working like a fucking charm on this album I am working on. It helps bring that organic sound to it. All the way to the very end on the master channel and on top of the mix. The only thing is that if it is abused a little too much it makes things over loud and distorts but if that is desired then it is perfect! Love all their plugins!
solid tutorial.the plugin is thoroughly explained without mumbling about irrelevant stuff.great job.
Best explanation of VW on the internet. Also good explanation of compression in general.
This is actually a great great video about compression in general !
Thank you! Glad it helped!
I think the ceiling is basically the threshold for the limiting/saturation. If you set the ceiling to +12 the drive to +12 and the output to -12 there is no distortion or gain. Conversely, if you leave the drive at 0 and take the ceiling to -12 and output to +12 its the same sound as if you simply turn the drive up to +12.
Excellent video! I could never get my head around this plugin and now you have made it all seem so simple. thank you!
This is a very good tutorial! He even made his own voice easy on the ear and at a proper level which makes it so much better than most tutorials. Great job!
Since owning this plugin, it has been one of my 'most used'. I use it on all my demo's as well.
A very good all rounder plugin with multiple uses. 10/10
Great explanation about compressor and limiter. I have learned much more about compressing/limiter in one video then the actual plugin itself, lol....which is very handy of course. Thanks
I love the sound of the ios version used as a plugin in Auria app called MicroWarmer, but until this video really had little idea what it was actually doing. I'm not very subtle with it myself, but I'm a complete novice when it comes to this stuff. Cheers for the tutorial.
Hugely helpful video, hugely appreciated! Wish all videos were as instructive and as transparent as this one.
I love this plug in i cant go with out it
Compressor, limiter & Eq all in 1
This is my secret weapon for bringing instruments forward
Throw a level meter on an individual instrument lets say your peaks are hitting about -3/-2 db
but you want the peaks to hit say -5 now this is where the ceiling is useful turn the ceiling to -5 your individual metering wont go above -5
I keep drive on 0
The knee is awesome cause it brings the sound up to in your face its kind of like moving your mic closer to the source
Hi *Jamie* , I'm checking this out today because it's on sale up until the 24th or 25th. Very good video/description! Excellent that you simplified it by demonstrated on a sine wave.
Also, the visual meters on Ableton are great for clarification. Much appreciated.
Thanks for putting this tutorial together - I'm learning a lot from this.
Good video, very informative. I didn't really know how the warmer arrived at its particular sound. Good info on Compression as well!
Yes. In the Live Set I am using an APC40 and when I mouse over the knobs on the VW itself, I am simply using the "Magic Mouse" scrolling to change the settings a bit. Sometimes with enough control, it is easier than clicking and then dragging.
To Uniquetune and Jamie Clark, it is an "instructional" video, which means there might be a considerable amount of explanation of the concepts behind how the plug works and what the controls do. I just LOVE these critics that come along looking for that one 5-minute video that they hope is going to turn them into Ricardo Villalobos ten minutes later, meanwhile criticizing the worthwhile videos that actually attempt to TEACH something…
Keep searching for your "How to sound like…" videos. I'm sure those will be much more helpful than this.
You're spot on mate. Excellent video
Thank you, Paul!
Thank you, Khaneh!
JGS007 Thank you for saying what NEEDED to be said to the IDIOTS that want to become good at audio engineering, but don't want to be TAUGHT first.
always get this confused and maybe you can clear this up for me... fast attack would mean shorter time, right? ie ableton's compressor, fast attack would mean something closer to .01 ms as opposed to 1.0 s which would be a longer time therefore slow attack.. always confuses me.
Hey mate, I'm not particularly interested in using this plugin any time soon, I just wanted to have a conceptual understanding of how it works.
I must say, you did an excellent job on this video. The sound quality of your DAW output and the microphone output sounded great, and the video quality was nice and clear as well. Not only that, but the zoom & pan effects definitely bumped up the quality of this little tutorial.
Nice work, cheers!
This depends upon the frequency range within which you are working. In general, the attack and release times used for compressing any number of instruments or sounds in your mix should match their general frequency range. For example, slower AR times for lower frequency content, and faster AR times for higher frequency content. This helps achieve a more natural, transparent sounding compressor.
Excellent video, well explained and presented.
The Ceiling is the knob where you adjust the Brick Wall Limiter starts to work.
It could be placed anywhere you feel the need for more warmth. But as I mentioned, this isn't one of those plugs that is obvious when it is used. It needs to be quite subtle in your mix. I think it is used best when your tracks have been arranged and at the mixing stage you are looking to help the tracks "sit." Think of this plug like a salt shaker... Food is okay without it, but add a little and you have more vibrant flavors. Too much and your dinner is wasted.
Ah, very well explained. Really, very clear. excellent video, thank you.
Very well spoken and detailed tutorial! :) Great job!
great video! you explain things very well, continue doing it please!
Best Explanation ever
OK, that's interesting, thanks! I'll try to find out some more by reading up on the stuff you mentioned.
nice vid, great plugin!
I am awaiting for PSP mastercomp,
as this is my number 1 digital compressor, super clean
Awesome tutorial, sir. Thank you very, very much.
I believe you get the VW2, the slimmer VW, and the super-slim Microwarmer when you purchase the plug for one price. That's what I got back when I bought it...
You are awesome! Best tutorial i've ever seen!
It's hard to say unless the plug is opened up and the mechanisms that run it are analyzed by someone with a firm knowledge about virtual plugs. I mentioned on the video that tape speed during recording directly influences the sound fidelity after the recording is made. The faster the tape, the better the sound preservation. Even though this plug is a compressor/limiter, it's internal character allows it to act as an exciter or saturator as well.
As a general theory to stand by with all effects, try to exaggerate the effect you want so that it is beyond obvious, and then pull it back to the point where you can barely tell it is there. It is much more difficult for the ear to determine the correct amount of any effect when you come from the other direction. That's what's difficult about this plug: the listener should never be aware it is being used...
It is a bit much to talk about here, but do some research on wow and flutter regarding tape speed and sound fidelity, and the deeper meaning behind the affects of all the different configurations you can have with compressors and I think you'll find some answers. In general, the quality of sound you desire can be controlled by altering the "simulated" effect of tape speed on your original sound. The slower the speed, the more pitch variation is noticed for more analogue sound.
your very good at tutorials my friend :) keep it up.
@crrstewdios Cool! I can see that as the level-control at which the compressor starts working. Perhaps the ceiling helps get the saturation on sounds that don't quite reach the compressor upwards towards 0bDFS. It would certainly save one from thrusting the volume of a quieter sound way high just to reach the compressor level. Good idea!
Very very useful. Thanks.
You're a great teacher bro!
Doesn't the soft knee setting effectively bring the threshold forward, which is why you see compression start to work when you turn the knee higher. By smoothing the curve, the start point where compression starts is earlier, though smoother overall.
excellent tutorial... at last I udnerstand what the heck is this or that button exactly doing... just keep going mate....
Thank you for that. Well done.
Faster times for LOWER freqs can generate distortion since the compressor starts acting before the sound has a chance to establish itself. As I mention at some point in the videos, it is uncertain what they programmed the VW to do unless someone could look under the hood and analyze their algorithms. I suspect the "fast tape speed" sends the attack times into the single-digit attack times to achieve distortion across much of the frequency spectrum. It's anyone's guess...
Great explanation, thanks.
Thanks! Hope you decide to use it in the near future!
Fantastic video, thank you
this is really great. thank you.
@thebenoconnor Glad you like! Hope it helps a bit.
this limiter is gold !!!
I really like that plugin thanks for the rieview! Do you know where I can purchase this version of the vintage warmer? I only find the vintage warmer 2 where they added a "fat" knob.
Glad you liked!
hi thanks for explaining would this be your main compressor then on tracks or would you add it for tape saturation later i dont quite get how you actually compress the signal or how you lower the threshold would this be done with the ceiling
excellent video
Great video thanks!!!
very good tutorial... ;)
Hi, thank you for the great tutorial. But let I don't quite get te idea of comparng the release and attack times to the quality it is proccessing.
It sure does!
Can you elaborate as to why a low speed (lower quality) is synonymous with a short attack? You said "Of course a short attack will be lower quality". But I don't see why these two characteristics are inherently related.
Are you saying all compressor settings with short attacks offer a lower quality of sound? I thought a short attack simply meant the compressor wet the signal more quickly in terms of response time.
F........... awesome!!!
I don't get the idea of comparing the attack and release action to the tape speed. Does it realy work like that? The faster the attack and release, the better the quality?
I get the idea of tape speed compared to the harddisc capacity etc, but does the attack and release time relaly variate the quality of proccessing?
great vid man.do ya have any more psp plugins ya could do a vid on?
I'm struggling to understand what tape speed (or even quality) has to do with attack/release times... rather confusing! As I understand compression, attack and release times affect things like clarity (due to longer attack times allowing more transients through), and 'pumping' of the compression. Are you saying that running a tape faster or slower would actually do that too? The physics of that just don't make sense in my head...
Do you still use an ssl comp and limiter on your master bus? Does the vintage warmer achieve a desired level of compression
nice one
Oops, sorry. I meant "slow tape speed" in my second post.
Are you controlling the knobs with a midi controller?
A compressor with a hard knee is not a limiter...
Joost Music No but one with infinite ratio basically is! as he has it set up there
but i'm pretty sure the speed recording of tapes would be the equivalent as sampling rate, not the bit depth.
It is more towards bit depth simply because that parameter deals with the resolution or "fidelity" of the sound as opposed to the sample rate, which is just the number of "snapshots" the digitization process takes per second along the line. High bit depth/sample rates help the overall improvement of sound quality when working together. Of course, with tapes none of this matters because the resolution is infinitely small whereas sample rates produce artifacts that need to be counterbalanced with artificial noise like dither and other things. I might need to check my definitions again, but I think one of the only major benefits you get from higher sample rates would be an extension of the access one has to representing the frequency spectrum on the outer edges of the spectrum.
but the "number of snapshots" are per seconds. so 96 kHz of sampling rate means 96 000 samples per seconds, which can record frequencies up to 48 kHz because you need 2 sample to mimic a frequency digitally. So to me it looks like the same thing as the speed of the tapes.
More bit depth means you have a wider dynamic range for each of these samples. But i agree the comparison with tapes is not so simple because there are no bits in the tapes, so i don't really know how to have control on dynamic range on tape recording...
so 24 bit instead of 16 will really make a difference on the dynamic range of the sound, even if it's so subtile because 16 bit is already so big.
I used to make dope beats like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
I try to be! But quite frankly I'm just a piano-playing music geek.
Next time please use something else than a sine bass 'cause I couldn't hear you when you cranked the volume because the bass was so loud.
But thanks for the tutorial!
Wow, just skipped to 2:30 to hear what material he's working with and he says "ok now we'll get started" and then a minute later there's sound... Thanks anyway.
This guy talks like Seth Macfarlane (Family Guy and Ted movie creator) hahahaha really nice voice
Hah! I think there was another comment in this thread or the other one that said I sounded like Brian from Family Guy. It made me very self-conscious...
@JGS007 I love you :yes:
Not correct....if you record at higher bit resolution n sampling frequency...that means recording at ...better quality
@FUCKALLRUSSIANS Well, I love you too!
@3:10 can you NOT????? or put a warning or something ? WTF is your problem ? why do you hate my speakers and my neighbors?
You wafflw on too much. Just get on with it man...
This depends upon the frequency range within which you are working. In general, the attack and release times used for compressing any number of instruments or sounds in your mix should match their general frequency range. For example, slower AR times for lower frequency content, and faster AR times for higher frequency content. This helps achieve a more natural, transparent sounding compressor.
Oops, sorry. I meant "slow tape speed" in my second post.