From a nerd's perspective, this is History. It probably consumes less CPU than the stock pan and volume of any DAW and yet gives you warm analogue-like mixes. Working class hero is something to be. Thank you Chris!
It sounds amazing Master Chris… I’ve recently done a mix using Console 8 and my oh my I’ve never heard such weight in my mixes ever. Thank you so very much for these tools… I’m signing up to your Patreon to support what you do. Thank you
The air and separation is incredible not often do mixes sound 3D on my headphones, I can hear the space between the instuments occupying the same pan space, it almost gives your brain a visual of exactly where each instrument is sitting
That's what I was talking about when I shut OFF kPlateB and said you could even shut off the reverb and the mix didn't die. I knew some other people would hear it too! I know there are people who won't. That's OK, I'm doing this work for people who get frustrated by the sound of their DAWs, not people who already like 'em :)
@@airwindows I’m frustrated by not getting the big console sound in out DAW for many years… but now the mixes have opened up since I’m running things through Console. And the monitoring plug-in is so powerful Chris now I can make correct mix decisions on low end
@@airwindows when using kPlateB or other reverbs in dualmono, it still shines through though. But I think i can do better at unblurring by having the reverb really wide not in center.
I will love to do the remixes I'm planned to with this new Console. Also, I wanna tell you, I'm using your plugins to practice and study, and I've been making a lot of progress lately. Really appreciate it, man.
Thank you for your hard work! I discovered your plugins recently and I've been trying them on my projects. Everything sounds amazing and I can't even explain why
This is such a cool idea. I have been using BitShift Gain for some time and my favorite word to introduce to younger sound engineers is "mantissa". It's like detented mixing for digital and it brings a mathematical purity to the process. I look forward to using this tool in the project I am working on and having it inform my creativity by limiting my options. You have had and will continue to have my Patreon support as long as you want to keep doing this work.
Hello Chris from airwindows. I trust that you are exceedingly well. I was wondering if you have any appetite to do a full mixing video using only your plugins. I understand, full well, that you are incredibly busy, but this would really be a treat as we would get to witness your approach to mixing and how you do this using your plugins. Thanks🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿
This method of mixing intrigues me. It's the complete opposite of what I usually do (I want ALL of the control) but the limitations could suit my simpler ambient and experimental productions. Will definitely explore this (and probably eventually combine it with finer level controlling because lol that's just the way I am).
Hi Chris and thank for your hard job. Where can I put Console0 channel? Pre or post fader, first or last insert? And Console0 bus? And in the master bus?
I suffer from indecisiveness, badly, and have always thrived in limited environments… this may be the thing I need, gonna try it right now, thanks again Chris, may I say your de esser is absolutely amazing, I’ve never liked a de esser ever, and your tape delay is phenomenal so I have high hopes for this
I have a question Chris. When you say, around the 6:10 minute mark, that the interaction between tracks kinda "cancel" out. Do I need to send 2 or more tracks into a mix bus that has ConsoleZero? or does this effect happen "automatically" between all the tracks that are using ConsoleZero?
Is there somewhere I can listen to a track mixed with console0 vs mixed in a daw without any console plugin? I would like to see how much difference I hear.
a stupid question... Where do the channel & bus components go in the daw? At the end of each channel I assume. At the top or bottom of the 2 buss? And... I use a couple of reverb subs. How do I deal with those in this setup? Thanks! It's intriguing if I can figure out these couple of things.
You can just send from channels to the reverb and route the reverb to the buss: running reverbs and delays 'inside' Console sounds quite good, helps expand them a little. I am doing that already with the kPlateB on the mix in the video: auxes to the reverb sub, sub directly to the buss.
@@airwindows thanks... I've been very happy using Console 8.. The 6dB deal in this one makes it quite a different animal... It's a struggle so far. When I need other plug ins on a track, I have been freezing them in Reaper and than putting the channel 0 on it for the mix down.
Won't matter if you can still run them: freezing won't alter the sound. If adding a plugin gets more of the sound than the raw audio data did, add the plugin. I put Holt2 on bass for more of a bass amp sound, and have no problem with that, it's fine even though it's not 'the untouched audio data from the capture' anymore. Once the sound has been transformed to be exactly what you want, then Console Zero can pass that through the mix.
Mr. Airwindows! Master! I had to run here squeeling with gratitude for this gem... its just FLAWLESS... Been returning to it over and over. The depth is REAL The dynamics that get ADDED or somehow just proportioned right away is insane.. driving the channels sound awesome.. the way im able to perfectly place everything in the mix almost by default WOW and ive never heard my shit this clear this FAST! FAST! BSPAFAP (Best Sound Possible As Fast As Possible)... oh.. and then.... that POST channel processing and the way THAT behaves.. Im able to make the WHOLE MIX bump with the kick, and or bump up with the bass transients.. i am now able to "outsound" my competition easily (in my town, AMANZIMTOTI.) with this trick alone. What really scares me, and i mean gives me chills to the bone FOMO is all the other epic Airwindows devices i am so so unaware of still. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. This is a productivity booster of NOTE!
No, it's all decimal points, but floating point numbers are made out of 'integer' style data, and then also an exponent to scale that chunk of data up or down in loudness. So wherever possible, it just scales the data up or down without otherwise touching it.
I've been using this in my modular mixing system (which is constructed in Plogue Bidule, and Console0 replaced the "full" Console8), since a couple of days after it came out. For whatever reason, Console0 broke me of the urge to keep trying out new compressors, new saturation stages, and so on. (The only saturation/compression I use by default is ClipSoftly -> ClipOnly on outputs.) Once we get something Pear-ish that can both boost and cut bass and treble, I expect that now-unknown "PearEQ" will replace Baxandall2 (which replaced Baxandall1). All this is to say that, for me, simplicity truly is better.
I really gotta mess with the Console series more. I admit, I'm not one to hover around and try a bunch of super subtle bus plugins but I have a few. They do add a certain color and "feel" to mixes though that's hard to describe. I use Tube for stuff like that, just blended in a little to add that extra "money channel" thing. Things like hifi/96k sample rate awareness and your attention and acknowledgement of digital operation means super efficient and stackable plugin chains. In other words, Thanks for all the awesome work you do. PS: still hoping you will do a good flanger plugin with positive and negative reflection possibilities. The plugin world needs more good free flangers.
I’m nowhere near understanding what this is doing/how it works from a technical point. But I can % 100% hear some non DAW like realness, depth, spaciousness and basically just something that I can only describe as “real”. So I would most definitely like to give this a go with my mixes. I just have a couple of questions for you airwindows if you don’t mind sir? 1. Do I need to mix at 96khz? Will there be any disadvantages to mixing at 44.1khz? 2. For mixing at 96khz, do I need to have recorded at 96khz ? 3. Should I do any mixing with other plugins like insert eqs, fx, compressors, saturators etc etc, and then insert console0 after? Or before all of the above mentioned inserts? Apologies if this comment is long winded, and thank you so much! I have followed your channel for a while and I think it’s time I really give them a shot! All the best.
You're going to need to mix at 96k for Console Zero. It's very much not making concessions to 44.1k. You can, however, upsample the whole project and go from there. FX will tend to take away the quality you're hearing but you can still use it: channel stuff before Console0Channel, delays or reverbs on auxes 'inside' Console (just send to them and run the outputs directly to the master where they will see Console0Buss)
So does this mean you can't touch your DAW's pan pots if your channel console is placed post fader? I'm confused.... Is it mostly about panning? Does this mean you can't use plugins or do anything to your source before channel console? Can you only mix with console 0 until you get to your master bus? If it's so volume dependant, what makes it work? How loud do your tracks need to be? As tempting as it is to try and get that sound..... I don't even understand this well enough to try it. The other consoles are awesome. Thanks for everything you do. This is really interesting. I'm excited to see more of your innovative console plugins..... This one is too radical for me, I'm afraid. If it just was a pan dependent thing maybe..... But I'm completely lost with how it works and the volume aspect (6db increments)
Depends on how bad you want the sound you hear. Yes, no touching faders or pan on the DAW. I use Holt2 on that bass, and am using SlewOnly on the Farfisa and SlewSonic on the hat you heard, so you absolutely can use plugins if you want, they will just take away a little of that unprocessed tone. So if you had plugins on absolutely everything, there's less point to bothering. This one is good for if you wanted REALLY natural-sounding and feeling tones and mix. I promise I'll make other stuff that's more featureful. It won't have this sound, it'll have other sounds that are also good.
Hi Chris … such a curious amazing mind😎 I have a question about Console Zero. I have a dedicated mixing DAW / computer setup with 24 analogue or digital (using Virtual Dante) inputs at 96 or 192 khz. I feed it from my main DAW running Digital Performer. Maybe I’m not understanding things … to get around the 3 or 6 db minimum adjustment is it not possible to just set the faders on the digital console running Console Zero and simply do small volume adjustments from my main DAW ie the one feeding 24 channels to the digital mixer. Thanks very much!
True: the trick to Console Zero is that it does minimal alterations to the raw sound while still sort of allowing wide volume and pan adjustments, so all the settings are like 'straight wire' gain, or 'unity gain loop monitoring' of capturing into an ADC and then immediately sending it to a DAC unaltered, which is often really, really transparent. No trims, but all of a sudden you can set levels and pans and it's exactly the same tone. But you can still trim. For instance, people could use my PurestGain or PurestFade, or you could trim on your DAW. Doing so is much like not using Console Zero at all, except it's still a working Console system (with a crude sort of aliasing-resistance).
HD600. They're open back so they're not isolation headphones: for drums I have some really intense isolation headphones which are much less comfortable, but you're right, the Sennheisers are very comfortable :)
Other console version, same usage or will it working together other your console versions to complement it ? I am lost, not clear what it does and how and when to use, sorry...
It works the same as other Console versions, not designed to mix-and-match with them, and you can use it on a submix which is then included in another Console mix of any kind. If you repeatedly use Console Zero as submixes-into-mixes, the sound will get darker than if you were using a Console designed to do that, such as the full Console8 that's designed to do a submix stage and still be tonally flat.
@@airwindowsChris, so this new Console plugins are made to use Buss plugin on the masters and channels everywhere on channels and busses? I read your answers, that we can use it in stages but will get darker sound with each stage. Just asking to know how to use it in a best way so it would work correctly. Also I’m wondering where I should put Console0 plugins? Last in a chain? If I have other plugins in a session. Or Channel last and Buss first?
I would use it as a big flat mix topology. No submixes, just everything on channels, summing to the one mix buss. I wouldn't use it in stages, but in other mixes where you might want a submix to be real clean and still be positioning things in it, you might find it good as a sort of auxiliary mixer :)
Ok.. So I just got the hang of it. I sold my hybrid heritage / black lion summing set up a few years back and have been using console plug ins, and ncarse. Been debating on creating a high end transparent summing set up with grace or millennia pres to add separation to the mojo Acustica audio plugs are giving me, but I think this may have just saved me at least 2000 dollars! 😮 It's giving me the dimension that Inspired to get into engineering and production back in the day. I want to say this is phenomenal, I think the jury has already deliberated after 20 min of use. lol. I'm over the moon. The possibilities are now endless.
I've said Acustica is like the opposite extreme from me: the point is if you can get the EXACT sound you want out of Acustica, Console Zero can get that through a mix exactly the way you wanted it :)
@@airwindows I'm really liking the outcome of the combination, I'm gain staging as much as possible and I'm not adjusting the inputs / output in the AA plug-ins. I try to correct the imbalances with e.q. / compression, I find the 6db increment with Console Zero to be quite liberating. It keeps me from obsessing too much about the mix. I'm still not 100% sure if I'm doing it right, and i'm not sure if I'm creating any unnecessary artifacts in the signal path by using the AA plugs before Console Zero, but I am loving the results. It helped me get over a long bout of "writers block" (in this case "mixers block, lol). At bare minimum Console Zero is giving a great context for mixes that I can perhaps later sum via analog gear. It's brought my all DAW to life. Thank you.🙏
How would I use reaper's hierarchical groups with console plugins? For example the drum vst that I use outputs cymbals as two separate (L+R) channels, which I put in a "cymbals" group which again is part of my "Drums" group which again is part of my "instruments" group. Is such a setup possible with the console plugins and, if the answer is yes, where am I supposed to put which plugin?
You could put 'em all flat, or do a submix. For instance, Console8 is designed to run everything through one layer of subgroups. Console Zero will gradually make everything duller the more layers you add, because it's designed to be a flat hierarchy, everything directly to the buss.
Would it feasible to do a version of this where you duplicate the source a few times (in the same insurance of the plugin) turn them all down with bit gain so that they keep their perceived volume...... Then by adjusting just one instance of the duplicated source, have greater control over bit gain volume adjustment for volume and panning? I have no idea how this code works to create a console effect..... Is it still doing some kind of virtualized multi channel summing? Or is it doing some analog mojo with completely different mechanics?
I wonder if I can mix in the same way I usually do for some elements, and and give other more primary instruments the dogmatic console zero approach - excited to see how they might blend when summed side-by-side
Thank you chirs this sounds good af, but when I use console0 do panning for stereo tracks, at first the image moves gradually as good as it can be but at some point one speaker suddenly got silenced (not gradually volume down), is that normal or it's because the phase issues?
Hi chris, I have an old project at 48k that console0 would be perfect for. Would using Reaper's oversampling option per fx or fx chain be helpful in mitigating the darker sound at lower bitrates?
Changing the project samplerate and rendering items as new takes seems a better fit. Otherwise you would be using 2 FIR filters on every track (up-sample and down-sample), which will break the philosophy of the plugin: pre-ringing kills the mantissa and and Fourrier transforms all over eat a significant amount of CPU. But if all you're interested in are the 6dB increments and the harmonic structure of the saturation, then oversampling will work indeed.
Correct in all respects: you could do it, and you'd completely lose the sound of Console Zero and the point of bothering with the bit shifting etc. and leave only the limitations, harmonic structure, and intended flitering roll-off. So running the whole project at 96k is closer: honestly, there are many good SRCs (such as in TwistedWave, which I use) that can do a one-time conversion real well. Set to highest quality settings and just re-render the tracks, won't matter if it's too demanding to work with at the highest setting. Then work with that. One SRC instead of FOUR (up to Console0Channel, down from Console0Channel, up to Console0Buss, down from Console0Buss, then you only have 48k at the end?) One highest quality SRC sounds better than four can-run-realtime poor quality SRCs.
It seems the best way to generate harmonics would be to leave the mantisa alone and only use the exponent to generate the harmonics. Or have I misunderstood what Chris was saying?
Not exactly. Generating harmonics always affects the mantissa because it's always nonlinear, always a continuous change. Using the exponent is very linear, it's always perfect 6dB gain switching, no harmonics or artifacts of any kind no matter how faint :)
@@airwindows ahhhh I got what you mean now, a switch had clicked my in brain! The old synapses just made a new path! Awesome explanation. Thank you Chris! All the best.
I've just discovered your work and I love this concept. But why do I hear aliasing distortion? I assume it's UA-cam and/or my tacky desktop computer's audio hardware not handling the high sampling rate.
To completely eliminate aliasing you have to commit the literally opposite sin to audio: if that is your thing, you can run a DAW that lets you oversample ordinary plugins, and do NOT use Console Zero. Use my PurestConsole: NOT PurestConsole2, the original PurestConsole plugins, you can still get them. They will apply the Console system, and they will work correctly with external oversampling, they don't do anything like that on their own so they're suited to it. Not my kind of sound, but you'll be able to get amazing freedom from aliasing by doing that and you're welcome to give it a try :)
@@airwindows Thank you for the reply! I should have been clearer that the aliasing noise I heard was on the UA-cam demo video...I will try playing the video on my recording computer and see what I can hear (or vice versa). :) Oddly enough I was just reading about oversampling and Faust's unfortunate lack of it at present. Looking forward to trying these on some recordings soon..!
It's actually pretty damn good on the Farfisa. What you might be hearing is the 'trap hat'. And what you gotta know there is, that is NOT a hi-hat. It's a Blue Lantern Mini Shimmery module, which XORs a bunch of square waves against each other, with a bit of noise to help it along. That thing genuinely sounds like that. It's not aliasing, it's CMOS squarewave oscillators clashing violently with each other, so it SOUNDS very much like really obnoxious aliasing, but it sounds like that as a literal analog Eurorack module. Odd choice, I know :)
Level that gets recorded to the DAW and goes into the plugin: pick a suitable level. Console0Channel can give you 12dB of extra boost flawlessly, if you recorded too quietly. In my mix on the video, my buss is going into ClipOnly2 and then Monitoring3, because it would otherwise clip the buss :) several of the tracks are boosting 6dB…
I'm not convinced I could benefit from the technical mathematical clarity that this brings to the sound, not sure if I could even hear the difference. However! This workflow sounds like it would really help me build the basis of a very clean simple mix.
One thing about it, it will stop you fiddling with tiny gain changes! That's part of what it is. It compels you to think in terms of arrangement and how things are structured. You can't be as organized, might have to balance something heavy on one side with stuff you didn't expect to be asymmetrical, and you get a more unexpected mix. It becomes sort of a puzzle, except if you solve it the result is also strangely satisfying to listen to.
If you're using Console8 you might as well use Console8 :) the spacious thing is strictly Console Zero, I'll make other colorful and flexible Console versions. Not much point trying to combine them, though if you needed a third level of busses to Console8 it wouldn't hurt to use Console Zero for that extra submix.
@@airwindows Hi Chris! Thanks for all the amazing plugins! If I want to add another level of buses to Console8 with ConsoleZero, where should them be in the hierarchy?
So if I master a track printed from console 0 using only Equivocate, which uses mathematical filters from the mel spectrum to sound natural to the human ear, then in theory the mantissa should remain intact 🤔🤔
Yeah, great news:) Thanks for doing this! It's actualy kind of what I was trying to do recently. Thanks to your gain plugins I came to idea that the most analog sound we can get out of digital mixing is the sound mixed with as little digital processing as possible - so I stoped using make up gain in compressors, start using Bit...ShiftGain for level and pan, I even use parallel sends for automating the level in less than 6db steps, and so on... So I think it's my type of Console :) I want to ask you something. What is your thoughts about mixing at 96kHz an audio recorded at 48kHz? I now mixing a jazz album recorded at 48kHz, and when switching to 96kHz high frequencies start to sound with more like a sand texture, little less smooth. It is subtle difference, but I decided to stay in 48kHz with that project for now and see what I can get. And it's in Reaper with it's nice re-sampling algorythm called r8brain. What do you think about changing sample rate? And is it true that it's better when we doubling sample rate (48 to 96, 44.1 to 88.2) ? There's logic of course, just wanted to clarify it.
I don't know how :) if I did learn how, I'm the type of person to port ALL the plugins to the new format. That always takes a few months off my life to do, though, so unless I'm clear on how to do it (I'm not) then I won't even start :)
There's no real point to doing one that is just pretend, so when you see that it will be me doing a Console that acts like the old EMI REDD desks: Beatles, plus I've recently grabbed reference audio of Saucerful of Secrets off my old vinyl and that's done on the REDD tube console, along with lots of Beatles (everything pre-Abbey Road). I've got lots of that to use as reference, I just can't ever play any of it on stream or anything :)
Can’t say I really understand what real-world problem this addresses to be honest. I couldn’t tell what part of the mix you show sounding like it does is down to all the -6 dB stuff that’s going on. And wouldn’t all the gains made with this math be nullified by the YT compression? An AB test would be appreciated!
That is okay, many people are fine with modern DAW sound :) you would think the different approach to math wouldn't produce any significant difference, and much like some people can't hear wow and flutter and others are driven up the wall by it, some people don't hear what bugs me in digital sound, and I hear certain kinds of digital issues more than others. My path might not be yours :)
Fair enough. But I’m genuinely curious: are any digital errors when working in a 24 bit environment pretty much by definition not way below the noise floor of the equipment we use to record material?
Don't you ruin all your efforts in "clean bitshift only gain" by doing stuff like adding, let's say, a simple ReaEQ instance to a track? Because EQs don't operate in 6db increments, right? But I also don't know much about stuff like that, so feel free to correct me. Oh and also it would make sense that console0 doesn't matter that much when using only vst instruments, as they are digital, or..?
Yup. The question is if you are still getting the Console0-style mix you might want, except with the SOURCE audio heavily processed. If what you do on the channel makes the tone exactly right and exactly as you want it, then the Console0 approach manages to not change it any further.
@@definty Floating point numbers can represent any dB gain changes. The point is that the philosofy of Console0 is to not do math except from bit shifts to make the processing as transparent as possible, and that forces the specific jumps in volume which are the dB equivalent of doubling the signal or dividing the signal by two (divide by two is the same as shifting the bits by one).
From a nerd's perspective, this is History.
It probably consumes less CPU than the stock pan and volume of any DAW and yet gives you warm analogue-like mixes.
Working class hero is something to be.
Thank you Chris!
Yup, it is surely the most innovative way to expose floating point arithmetic to a mainstream audience.
Amazing work, Thanks Chris.
I dont really use that many plugins i just like watching these videos on the tv when im high lol
😍
Thank you, Chris, for all the work that you do for the Airwindows Community!🙏👍
It sounds amazing Master Chris… I’ve recently done a mix using Console 8 and my oh my I’ve never heard such weight in my mixes ever. Thank you so very much for these tools… I’m signing up to your Patreon to support what you do. Thank you
The air and separation is incredible not often do mixes sound 3D on my headphones, I can hear the space between the instuments occupying the same pan space, it almost gives your brain a visual of exactly where each instrument is sitting
I know what you mean, I’m hearing it too for mixing in the box. Amazing
That's what I was talking about when I shut OFF kPlateB and said you could even shut off the reverb and the mix didn't die. I knew some other people would hear it too! I know there are people who won't. That's OK, I'm doing this work for people who get frustrated by the sound of their DAWs, not people who already like 'em :)
@@airwindows I’m frustrated by not getting the big console sound in out DAW for many years… but now the mixes have opened up since I’m running things through Console. And the monitoring plug-in is so powerful Chris now I can make correct mix decisions on low end
@@airwindows when using kPlateB or other reverbs in dualmono, it still shines through though. But I think i can do better at unblurring by having the reverb really wide not in center.
@@airwindowssir can you suggest what should I use to remove background noises from speech.
Airwindows : That means the channels are distorted going into the mixbus, and then anti-distored goint out of the mix bus
Me at 4 AM :
I will love to do the remixes I'm planned to with this new Console.
Also, I wanna tell you, I'm using your plugins to practice and study, and I've been making a lot of progress lately. Really appreciate it, man.
Thank you for your hard work! I discovered your plugins recently and I've been trying them on my projects. Everything sounds amazing and I can't even explain why
This is such a cool idea. I have been using BitShift Gain for some time and my favorite word to introduce to younger sound engineers is "mantissa". It's like detented mixing for digital and it brings a mathematical purity to the process. I look forward to using this tool in the project I am working on and having it inform my creativity by limiting my options. You have had and will continue to have my Patreon support as long as you want to keep doing this work.
Hello Chris from airwindows. I trust that you are exceedingly well. I was wondering if you have any appetite to do a full mixing video using only your plugins. I understand, full well, that you are incredibly busy, but this would really be a treat as we would get to witness your approach to mixing and how you do this using your plugins. Thanks🙏🏿🙏🏿🙏🏿
This method of mixing intrigues me. It's the complete opposite of what I usually do (I want ALL of the control) but the limitations could suit my simpler ambient and experimental productions. Will definitely explore this (and probably eventually combine it with finer level controlling because lol that's just the way I am).
Hi Chris and thank for your hard job. Where can I put Console0 channel? Pre or post fader, first or last insert? And Console0 bus? And in the master bus?
Console0Channel last on channels and don't use the DAW faders or pans, Console0Buss first thing on the master buss :)
New console version? Sweet! And it's very weird? Even better
I suffer from indecisiveness, badly, and have always thrived in limited environments… this may be the thing I need, gonna try it right now, thanks again Chris, may I say your de esser is absolutely amazing, I’ve never liked a de esser ever, and your tape delay is phenomenal so I have high hopes for this
I have a question Chris. When you say, around the 6:10 minute mark, that the interaction between tracks kinda "cancel" out. Do I need to send 2 or more tracks into a mix bus that has ConsoleZero? or does this effect happen "automatically" between all the tracks that are using ConsoleZero?
Is there somewhere I can listen to a track mixed with console0 vs mixed in a daw without any console plugin? I would like to see how much difference I hear.
a stupid question... Where do the channel & bus components go in the daw? At the end of each channel I assume. At the top or bottom of the 2 buss?
And... I use a couple of reverb subs. How do I deal with those in this setup? Thanks! It's intriguing if I can figure out these couple of things.
You can just send from channels to the reverb and route the reverb to the buss: running reverbs and delays 'inside' Console sounds quite good, helps expand them a little. I am doing that already with the kPlateB on the mix in the video: auxes to the reverb sub, sub directly to the buss.
@@airwindows thanks... I've been very happy using Console 8.. The 6dB deal in this one makes it quite a different animal... It's a struggle so far. When I need other plug ins on a track, I have been freezing them in Reaper and than putting the channel 0 on it for the mix down.
Won't matter if you can still run them: freezing won't alter the sound. If adding a plugin gets more of the sound than the raw audio data did, add the plugin. I put Holt2 on bass for more of a bass amp sound, and have no problem with that, it's fine even though it's not 'the untouched audio data from the capture' anymore. Once the sound has been transformed to be exactly what you want, then Console Zero can pass that through the mix.
Awesome, love the console plugins. I use them on every track I mix. Stoked to try this one.
Mr. Airwindows! Master! I had to run here squeeling with gratitude for this gem... its just FLAWLESS... Been returning to it over and over. The depth is REAL The dynamics that get ADDED or somehow just proportioned right away is insane.. driving the channels sound awesome.. the way im able to perfectly place everything in the mix almost by default WOW and ive never heard my shit this clear this FAST! FAST! BSPAFAP (Best Sound Possible As Fast As Possible)... oh.. and then.... that POST channel processing and the way THAT behaves.. Im able to make the WHOLE MIX bump with the kick, and or bump up with the bass transients.. i am now able to "outsound" my competition easily (in my town, AMANZIMTOTI.) with this trick alone. What really scares me, and i mean gives me chills to the bone FOMO is all the other epic Airwindows devices i am so so unaware of still. Thanks from the bottom of my heart. This is a productivity booster of NOTE!
What with the hate posts I'm seeing I'm gonna have to ask you to dial it back JUST a mite. I'm glad it's working for you, tho
Hi Chris ! Is there a high pass on the “in” like Console8? Or that is a feature of Console8 only?
So the idea is not to create any decimal points? Integers only in processing?
No, it's all decimal points, but floating point numbers are made out of 'integer' style data, and then also an exponent to scale that chunk of data up or down in loudness. So wherever possible, it just scales the data up or down without otherwise touching it.
@@airwindows ah ok so the data is entirely stored in the 'floating word' as it were.
I've been using this in my modular mixing system (which is constructed in Plogue Bidule, and Console0 replaced the "full" Console8), since a couple of days after it came out. For whatever reason, Console0 broke me of the urge to keep trying out new compressors, new saturation stages, and so on. (The only saturation/compression I use by default is ClipSoftly -> ClipOnly on outputs.)
Once we get something Pear-ish that can both boost and cut bass and treble, I expect that now-unknown "PearEQ" will replace Baxandall2 (which replaced Baxandall1). All this is to say that, for me, simplicity truly is better.
So, we would use Console0 on each track? or on the Master Buss? or Both?
Both
And I’m assuming Console is placed last on tracks and master buss?
I like the approach and look forward to experimenting with it. Always a pleasure to hear you discuss music and sound.
Thanks Chris I only run 44.1k but you teach me soooo much
Your soooo off the cuff..... And I love it!
Thank you Chris and great demo track too👍
Thank you Chris for all the work you put in this plugins ,you are the star!!
I really gotta mess with the Console series more. I admit, I'm not one to hover around and try a bunch of super subtle bus plugins but I have a few. They do add a certain color and "feel" to mixes though that's hard to describe. I use Tube for stuff like that, just blended in a little to add that extra "money channel" thing. Things like hifi/96k sample rate awareness and your attention and acknowledgement of digital operation means super efficient and stackable plugin chains. In other words, Thanks for all the awesome work you do.
PS: still hoping you will do a good flanger plugin with positive and negative reflection possibilities. The plugin world needs more good free flangers.
I’m nowhere near understanding what this is doing/how it works from a technical point. But I can %
100% hear some non DAW like realness, depth, spaciousness and basically just something that I can only describe as “real”. So I would most definitely like to give this a go with my mixes. I just have a couple of questions for you airwindows if you don’t mind sir?
1. Do I need to mix at 96khz? Will there be any disadvantages to mixing at 44.1khz?
2. For mixing at 96khz, do I need to have recorded at 96khz ?
3. Should I do any mixing with other plugins like insert eqs, fx, compressors, saturators etc etc, and then insert console0 after? Or before all of the above mentioned inserts?
Apologies if this comment is long winded, and thank you so much! I have followed your channel for a while and I think it’s time I really give them a shot! All the best.
You're going to need to mix at 96k for Console Zero. It's very much not making concessions to 44.1k. You can, however, upsample the whole project and go from there. FX will tend to take away the quality you're hearing but you can still use it: channel stuff before Console0Channel, delays or reverbs on auxes 'inside' Console (just send to them and run the outputs directly to the master where they will see Console0Buss)
This might be my fave plug-in of yours!
So does this mean you can't touch your DAW's pan pots if your channel console is placed post fader? I'm confused.... Is it mostly about panning? Does this mean you can't use plugins or do anything to your source before channel console? Can you only mix with console 0 until you get to your master bus? If it's so volume dependant, what makes it work? How loud do your tracks need to be?
As tempting as it is to try and get that sound..... I don't even understand this well enough to try it. The other consoles are awesome. Thanks for everything you do. This is really interesting.
I'm excited to see more of your innovative console plugins..... This one is too radical for me, I'm afraid. If it just was a pan dependent thing maybe..... But I'm completely lost with how it works and the volume aspect (6db increments)
Depends on how bad you want the sound you hear. Yes, no touching faders or pan on the DAW. I use Holt2 on that bass, and am using SlewOnly on the Farfisa and SlewSonic on the hat you heard, so you absolutely can use plugins if you want, they will just take away a little of that unprocessed tone. So if you had plugins on absolutely everything, there's less point to bothering. This one is good for if you wanted REALLY natural-sounding and feeling tones and mix. I promise I'll make other stuff that's more featureful. It won't have this sound, it'll have other sounds that are also good.
Hi Chris … such a curious amazing mind😎
I have a question about Console Zero. I have a dedicated mixing DAW / computer setup with 24 analogue or digital (using Virtual Dante) inputs at 96 or 192 khz. I feed it from my main DAW running Digital Performer. Maybe I’m not understanding things … to get around the 3 or 6 db minimum adjustment is it not possible to just set the faders on the digital console running Console Zero and simply do small volume adjustments from my main DAW ie the one feeding 24 channels to the digital mixer. Thanks very much!
True: the trick to Console Zero is that it does minimal alterations to the raw sound while still sort of allowing wide volume and pan adjustments, so all the settings are like 'straight wire' gain, or 'unity gain loop monitoring' of capturing into an ADC and then immediately sending it to a DAC unaltered, which is often really, really transparent. No trims, but all of a sudden you can set levels and pans and it's exactly the same tone. But you can still trim. For instance, people could use my PurestGain or PurestFade, or you could trim on your DAW. Doing so is much like not using Console Zero at all, except it's still a working Console system (with a crude sort of aliasing-resistance).
Thank you, Chris! Superseding, not competing 🎉& you just keep giving ⚡️ Top Man
Sweeeeet! You are a genius sir!
Question, what model Sennheisers are you using? They look very comfortable.
HD600. They're open back so they're not isolation headphones: for drums I have some really intense isolation headphones which are much less comfortable, but you're right, the Sennheisers are very comfortable :)
@@airwindows Ahhh, I couldn't see that on the video (open back). But the HD600's are the only ones with the blue marking (model-nr.) Thanks
To do summing like the console it means all the channels has to be different ? Like the Brainworx plugins TMT stuff in their channel strips
Will the benefit of bitshift-only be reduced if the mantissa length is increased?
Hey, Chris! What's going to happen if I'll pan with daw controls while this plugin is on the last insert? Don't get it..
You won't: much like with other Console plugins it's for leaving the fader etc. unaltered. It's just that I'm including a form of panning now, too :)
Other console version, same usage or will it working together other your console versions to complement it ? I am lost, not clear what it does and how and when to use, sorry...
It works the same as other Console versions, not designed to mix-and-match with them, and you can use it on a submix which is then included in another Console mix of any kind. If you repeatedly use Console Zero as submixes-into-mixes, the sound will get darker than if you were using a Console designed to do that, such as the full Console8 that's designed to do a submix stage and still be tonally flat.
@@airwindowsChris, so this new Console plugins are made to use Buss plugin on the masters and channels everywhere on channels and busses?
I read your answers, that we can use it in stages but will get darker sound with each stage. Just asking to know how to use it in a best way so it would work correctly.
Also I’m wondering where I should put Console0 plugins? Last in a chain? If I have other plugins in a session. Or Channel last and Buss first?
I would use it as a big flat mix topology. No submixes, just everything on channels, summing to the one mix buss. I wouldn't use it in stages, but in other mixes where you might want a submix to be real clean and still be positioning things in it, you might find it good as a sort of auxiliary mixer :)
@@airwindows got it! And what about plugins order? Channel last in the chain and buss first on the master?
Ok.. So I just got the hang of it. I sold my hybrid heritage / black lion summing set up a few years back and have been using console plug ins, and ncarse. Been debating on creating a high end transparent summing set up with grace or millennia pres to add separation to the mojo Acustica audio plugs are giving me, but I think this may have just saved me at least 2000 dollars! 😮 It's giving me the dimension that Inspired to get into engineering and production back in the day. I want to say this is phenomenal, I think the jury has already deliberated after 20 min of use. lol. I'm over the moon. The possibilities are now endless.
I've said Acustica is like the opposite extreme from me: the point is if you can get the EXACT sound you want out of Acustica, Console Zero can get that through a mix exactly the way you wanted it :)
@@airwindows I'm really liking the outcome of the combination, I'm gain staging as much as possible and I'm not adjusting the inputs / output in the AA plug-ins. I try to correct the imbalances with e.q. / compression, I find the 6db increment with Console Zero to be quite liberating. It keeps me from obsessing too much about the mix. I'm still not 100% sure if I'm doing it right, and i'm not sure if I'm creating any unnecessary artifacts in the signal path by using the AA plugs before Console Zero, but I am loving the results. It helped me get over a long bout of "writers block" (in this case "mixers block, lol). At bare minimum Console Zero is giving a great context for mixes that I can perhaps later sum via analog gear. It's brought my all DAW to life. Thank you.🙏
How would I use reaper's hierarchical groups with console plugins? For example the drum vst that I use outputs cymbals as two separate (L+R) channels, which I put in a "cymbals" group which again is part of my "Drums" group which again is part of my "instruments" group. Is such a setup possible with the console plugins and, if the answer is yes, where am I supposed to put which plugin?
You could put 'em all flat, or do a submix. For instance, Console8 is designed to run everything through one layer of subgroups. Console Zero will gradually make everything duller the more layers you add, because it's designed to be a flat hierarchy, everything directly to the buss.
@@airwindows thanks a lot for the clarification.
Would it feasible to do a version of this where you duplicate the source a few times (in the same insurance of the plugin) turn them all down with bit gain so that they keep their perceived volume...... Then by adjusting just one instance of the duplicated source, have greater control over bit gain volume adjustment for volume and panning?
I have no idea how this code works to create a console effect..... Is it still doing some kind of virtualized multi channel summing? Or is it doing some analog mojo with completely different mechanics?
is that shark30zero in the background on the other monitor?
Who better to be on the other monitor for Console Zero? :) I like Shark, he's friendly and funny.
I wonder if I can mix in the same way I usually do for some elements, and and give other more primary instruments the dogmatic console zero approach - excited to see how they might blend when summed side-by-side
Thank you chirs this sounds good af, but when I use console0 do panning for stereo tracks, at first the image moves gradually as good as it can be but at some point one speaker suddenly got silenced (not gradually volume down), is that normal or it's because the phase issues?
That's normal because it can't pan gradually, not really :)
Hi chris, I have an old project at 48k that console0 would be perfect for. Would using Reaper's oversampling option per fx or fx chain be helpful in mitigating the darker sound at lower bitrates?
Changing the project samplerate and rendering items as new takes seems a better fit. Otherwise you would be using 2 FIR filters on every track (up-sample and down-sample), which will break the philosophy of the plugin: pre-ringing kills the mantissa and and Fourrier transforms all over eat a significant amount of CPU.
But if all you're interested in are the 6dB increments and the harmonic structure of the saturation, then oversampling will work indeed.
Correct in all respects: you could do it, and you'd completely lose the sound of Console Zero and the point of bothering with the bit shifting etc. and leave only the limitations, harmonic structure, and intended flitering roll-off. So running the whole project at 96k is closer: honestly, there are many good SRCs (such as in TwistedWave, which I use) that can do a one-time conversion real well. Set to highest quality settings and just re-render the tracks, won't matter if it's too demanding to work with at the highest setting. Then work with that. One SRC instead of FOUR (up to Console0Channel, down from Console0Channel, up to Console0Buss, down from Console0Buss, then you only have 48k at the end?) One highest quality SRC sounds better than four can-run-realtime poor quality SRCs.
It seems the best way to generate harmonics would be to leave the mantisa alone and only use the exponent to generate the harmonics. Or have I misunderstood what Chris was saying?
Not exactly. Generating harmonics always affects the mantissa because it's always nonlinear, always a continuous change. Using the exponent is very linear, it's always perfect 6dB gain switching, no harmonics or artifacts of any kind no matter how faint :)
@@airwindows ahhhh I got what you mean now, a switch had clicked my in brain! The old synapses just made a new path! Awesome explanation. Thank you Chris! All the best.
You are such a Gem...
Chris !!! Greetings from Egypt
I've just discovered your work and I love this concept. But why do I hear aliasing distortion? I assume it's UA-cam and/or my tacky desktop computer's audio hardware not handling the high sampling rate.
To completely eliminate aliasing you have to commit the literally opposite sin to audio: if that is your thing, you can run a DAW that lets you oversample ordinary plugins, and do NOT use Console Zero. Use my PurestConsole: NOT PurestConsole2, the original PurestConsole plugins, you can still get them. They will apply the Console system, and they will work correctly with external oversampling, they don't do anything like that on their own so they're suited to it. Not my kind of sound, but you'll be able to get amazing freedom from aliasing by doing that and you're welcome to give it a try :)
@@airwindows Thank you for the reply! I should have been clearer that the aliasing noise I heard was on the UA-cam demo video...I will try playing the video on my recording computer and see what I can hear (or vice versa). :) Oddly enough I was just reading about oversampling and Faust's unfortunate lack of it at present. Looking forward to trying these on some recordings soon..!
It's actually pretty damn good on the Farfisa. What you might be hearing is the 'trap hat'. And what you gotta know there is, that is NOT a hi-hat. It's a Blue Lantern Mini Shimmery module, which XORs a bunch of square waves against each other, with a bit of noise to help it along. That thing genuinely sounds like that. It's not aliasing, it's CMOS squarewave oscillators clashing violently with each other, so it SOUNDS very much like really obnoxious aliasing, but it sounds like that as a literal analog Eurorack module. Odd choice, I know :)
Is it necessary to gain stage all inputs at 0 VU ?
Yup, make everything unity gain other than this
@@airwindows Thank you 🙂
Is this question about faders in DAW or about level that goes into the plugin?
However, both answers - don’t touch it. As far as I understand.
Level that gets recorded to the DAW and goes into the plugin: pick a suitable level. Console0Channel can give you 12dB of extra boost flawlessly, if you recorded too quietly. In my mix on the video, my buss is going into ClipOnly2 and then Monitoring3, because it would otherwise clip the buss :) several of the tracks are boosting 6dB…
I'm not convinced I could benefit from the technical mathematical clarity that this brings to the sound, not sure if I could even hear the difference. However! This workflow sounds like it would really help me build the basis of a very clean simple mix.
One thing about it, it will stop you fiddling with tiny gain changes! That's part of what it is. It compels you to think in terms of arrangement and how things are structured. You can't be as organized, might have to balance something heavy on one side with stuff you didn't expect to be asymmetrical, and you get a more unexpected mix. It becomes sort of a puzzle, except if you solve it the result is also strangely satisfying to listen to.
what is this tune though?? i love it
I just made it up on the day. Maybe I should do that more often, for instance on livestreams. Typically nobody comes around and asks me to :)
Would it be reasonable to try console8 after console0? For added weight and color to what already sounds incredibly spacious and intuitive?
If you're using Console8 you might as well use Console8 :) the spacious thing is strictly Console Zero, I'll make other colorful and flexible Console versions. Not much point trying to combine them, though if you needed a third level of busses to Console8 it wouldn't hurt to use Console Zero for that extra submix.
@@airwindows Hi Chris! Thanks for all the amazing plugins!
If I want to add another level of buses to Console8 with ConsoleZero, where should them be in the hierarchy?
So if I master a track printed from console 0 using only Equivocate, which uses mathematical filters from the mel spectrum to sound natural to the human ear, then in theory the mantissa should remain intact 🤔🤔
Yeah, great news:)
Thanks for doing this!
It's actualy kind of what I was trying to do recently.
Thanks to your gain plugins I came to idea that the most analog sound we can get out of digital mixing is the sound mixed with as little digital processing as possible - so I stoped using make up gain in compressors, start using Bit...ShiftGain for level and pan, I even use parallel sends for automating the level in less than 6db steps, and so on...
So I think it's my type of Console :)
I want to ask you something.
What is your thoughts about mixing at 96kHz an audio recorded at 48kHz?
I now mixing a jazz album recorded at 48kHz, and when switching to 96kHz high frequencies start to sound with more like a sand texture, little less smooth. It is subtle difference, but I decided to stay in 48kHz with that project for now and see what I can get. And it's in Reaper with it's nice re-sampling algorythm called r8brain.
What do you think about changing sample rate?
And is it true that it's better when we doubling sample rate (48 to 96, 44.1 to 88.2) ? There's logic of course, just wanted to clarify it.
I love what you ..your plugins are alway in my sessions in reaper..any possibility of iOS ports?
I don't know how :) if I did learn how, I'm the type of person to port ALL the plugins to the new format. That always takes a few months off my life to do, though, so unless I'm clear on how to do it (I'm not) then I won't even start :)
@@airwindows fair enough
Let me tell you my friend, im in a console zero state of mind
Tube console coming????
There's no real point to doing one that is just pretend, so when you see that it will be me doing a Console that acts like the old EMI REDD desks: Beatles, plus I've recently grabbed reference audio of Saucerful of Secrets off my old vinyl and that's done on the REDD tube console, along with lots of Beatles (everything pre-Abbey Road). I've got lots of that to use as reference, I just can't ever play any of it on stream or anything :)
@@airwindows Can't wait👍🏽⚡
please make this on auv3
Can’t say I really understand what real-world problem this addresses to be honest. I couldn’t tell what part of the mix you show sounding like it does is down to all the -6 dB stuff that’s going on. And wouldn’t all the gains made with this math be nullified by the YT compression? An AB test would be appreciated!
That is okay, many people are fine with modern DAW sound :) you would think the different approach to math wouldn't produce any significant difference, and much like some people can't hear wow and flutter and others are driven up the wall by it, some people don't hear what bugs me in digital sound, and I hear certain kinds of digital issues more than others. My path might not be yours :)
Fair enough. But I’m genuinely curious: are any digital errors when working in a 24 bit environment pretty much by definition not way below the noise floor of the equipment we use to record material?
🔥
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉fire 🔥
I guess I'll have to start working at 96K now lol
Or you can let everything be real mellow and dark :)
@@airwindows I'll probably experiment with both, thanks for all your work Chris!
@@airwindows if I high shelf 18-20k will that offset the darkness?
Tks!!!! I like it!
Amazing
Don't you ruin all your efforts in "clean bitshift only gain" by doing stuff like adding, let's say, a simple ReaEQ instance to a track? Because EQs don't operate in 6db increments, right? But I also don't know much about stuff like that, so feel free to correct me. Oh and also it would make sense that console0 doesn't matter that much when using only vst instruments, as they are digital, or..?
Yup. The question is if you are still getting the Console0-style mix you might want, except with the SOURCE audio heavily processed. If what you do on the channel makes the tone exactly right and exactly as you want it, then the Console0 approach manages to not change it any further.
Make it for 1 db increments and I'm in.
You can't have the same thing for 1dB increments, it's not how floating point math works.
@@lorenzogabriele9533 I understand floating point stuff, ieee 754, but how come floating point can't represent 1dB++/-- gain?
@definty I sense you have a mind to help figure this out & if you do, you win/we win⚡️
@@definty Floating point numbers can represent any dB gain changes. The point is that the philosofy of Console0 is to not do math except from bit shifts to make the processing as transparent as possible, and that forces the specific jumps in volume which are the dB equivalent of doubling the signal or dividing the signal by two (divide by two is the same as shifting the bits by one).
@@lorenzogabriele9533 I see, thank you for the explanation :)