![]() ![]() If you'd simply like to freely switch between listening to the different examples, solo the one you'd like to start with (original by default), and then use exclusive solo (command-option-click / control-alt-click on solo) to switch between different examples. This will help prevent any confirmation bias during your own listening tests.įollowing is a brief explanation on how the session is intended to be used (this may seem obvious, but if you get careless with your soloing, it's possible for things to get very loud, very quickly!): I strongly suggest you do not view this until you have auditioned all the files on the best monitoring you have available to you. This tells you which models the A, B, C, and D examples correspond to. Along with the REAPER session you'll also find a 'Cheat Sheet' file in the main project directory. If you're not already a REAPER user you can download a fully functional, 30-day trail from If you don't feel like doing that, the raw files are available in the 'Recordings' sub-folder. I've created a REAPER session with all the files named and time aligned. Rather than give you any of our individual opinions, we thought it would be better to simply share the files with you and let you draw your own conclusions. This allows for null tests to hear more easily just what the compressor is doing. For the hardware examples an Antelope Eclipse 384 converter was used.Īfter processing, all files were normalized to -21.7 LUFS, the measured loudness of the uncompressed example, and aligned to sample accurate timing in a REAPER session. In the end we decided that maintaining similar gain reduction characteristics was more important than keeping the front-panel settings the same.Īll processing was done at the original recording and mixdown sample rate of 44.1 kHz and utilizing 32-bit floating point calculations. This meant that to achieve the same amount of gain reduction in all corresponding examples, the front-panel gain and threshold settings had to be varied slightly. One of the main difficulties we encountered was that the internal level calibration and gain structure in all 4 units varied by differing degrees. Opto and discrete engaged utilizing "Flood" and "Dual" modes, transformer set to steel. ![]() Opto disengaged, discrete engaged, transformer set to steel. Opto engaged, discrete disengaged, transformer set to steel (the one chosen for the album settings). Opto and discrete stages disengaged, only the steel transformer engaged. Opto and discrete stages disengaged, only the iron transformer engaged. Opto and discrete stages disengaged, only the nickel transformer engaged. The actual settings I used during the album mastering session. I then bounced seven different versions with settings chosen to exemplify the characteristics of the different sections of this unique compressor. Notes on processingįor our different processing examples, I chose an excerpt of "Hell or Highwater", a progressive metal song by Ross Jenssen on which I had used the UAD Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor during the actual mastering session. Six months later, and we've finally got everything processed and compiled to our satisfaction, ready to share with you. In another few weeks we had additional examples from both a hardware unit and Sknote's SDC (Strereo Double Compressor) plugin. We got to work pestering some of our other colleagues to see if any of them had a hardware unit they were willing to run our examples through, as well as searching for other plugin models. We did some listening tests and, intrigued by the differences, thought it would be interesting if we could compare against the real-deal hardware as well as any other software models we could find. So, I bounced out a few files, documented the settings I'd used, and sent a zip over to him.Ī few days later he sent back files he'd created by matching the Murano settings as closely as possible to the ones I'd used on the UAD version. He was curious how it would compare to the version he'd been using, Acustica's Murano compressor. At one point I mentioned that when I wasn't concerned about transparency and wanted some vibe, I'd been using the UAD model of the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor. Early last summer a colleague and I got to chatting about how different compressors fit into our mastering workflow. ![]()
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