All of the natural tones of the instruments/vocals, as well as stereo imaging are enhanced with the Warm Bus Comp engaged. For the price point, and a heavy user of one, I truly love this product. The noise floor is great on it as well! In my opinion this would be my choice in order, due to the what the compressor is actually bringing to the audio sources. 1) Warm Audio 2) Townhouse 3) SSL Native 4) Waves
There is a kind of movement happening, mostly in the low end, that just isn't there in the plugins. It's most noticeable in the chillhop and acoustic guitar bits. I think i'll need to buy one, because i cannot unhear this. So thanks for that i guess :p
On the full mix (which I was the most concerned about) the peaks received around 5 - 8dB of compression consistently utilizing the Warm Audio unit vs 4dB of compression on the SSL Bus Compressor 2 plug-in. Because of this, the SSL plug-in is going to sound like it's more "open". It simply just had less compression. If you're like me and trying to figure out which one you want between the two don't use this particular example as reference. I do appreciate the content though! Thank you for taking time out to give me a better feel for it.
It's a matter of what suits the vibe of the music, what you are stacking it with or balancing it against in your toolbox - and how you'd expect it to sound on the average (or FLAC for us snoots) playback system. A bright recording of an acoustic combo may suit the WA unit best; keep a natural sound-stage while smoothing transients. For darker buss sources that I want to perk up I'd forego the WA and try the SSL Native first; if too artificial or not vibing then move to the Waves etc
i own the ssl buss compressor with the uc1 i purchased the warm audio to do my own comparison .. i returned the warm audio.. i couldn't justify keeping it being that i just bought the uc1.. the difference was minimal with the ssl edging it out in my opinion .. i expected more out of that transformer button.. i found myself going back to my cubase stock tube compressor for its drive nob and charactor nob for that lil mojo or color . using that in tandem with the ssl buss compressor give me the optimum sound im looking for.. Im not saying the warm audio is bad but i can definitely can do without it.. i was disappointed in that tranformer buttom you have to hit the unit really hard to hear the difference .. it might be good for tracking that might be where it shines but not on the masterbuss where you tend not to hit things as hard.. and it not having a mixnob to blend the wet and dry signal was a bummer too for me..
The Warm Bus Comp can also be used with Comp disabled and Transformer engaged. This gives an analog vibe to the mix. This mode can be tried in combination with a stereo bus comp plugin. For what it delivers the WA Bus Comp is priced very well.
yes, is a very natural sound. I use the bus comp in my mix bus aways with the same setting. (att:10/R:1.5/rel: .1/ hpf:60) threshold and make-up gain is my only adjustment, after that is pretty the same no matter what kind of music I do. I also found that with the release knob is not a good way with the "auto" option, I get the best results with the ".1" option, very very open sound in that way and I'm not the only one with the same conclusion.
even in cheap earbuds I can hear significant difference how smooth the transients are handled by the hw piece. Even the most expensive software emulations cannot handle transient heavy material such as acoustic guitar better than the basic 100$ DBX 160A. To my taste the UA emulation of the 1176LN is the best overall software compressor, but for acoustic guitar I always put spiff or punctuale of any other transient shaper after to soften harsh spikes left after sw compressors
Mostly that happened to me a week ago. Ive used vst since the first and never had a real hardware, i was very surprissed with the changes it does. Maybe is about the depth/width of the tracks/busses get, when the audio is passed through it. The cables/patchbay whatever needed is a must, to have this sound in your mix ;) I don´t think any regular plugin can go close to it, maybe UAD, i never had those. Warm Audio BUS-COMP will be with me always :)
I agree. There is something with the WA compression that makes it sound just a little "better" I'm a big fan of their products. But the difference is very small. For the average bedroom recording (and pros) the plugins is good enough.
Agreed, I went years and years without trying to go out of the box for mixing, and the plugins are very good so aint no shame in being 100% in the box. There's just a little extra something with the WA BUS-COMP, and I like running audio through the Transformers, which fills in the source material with some pleasant harmonics, so in this instance it's worth the extra effort.
You’re right , however there are guys out there who own super high end audiophile gear and they would be able to hear all the nuances. But those types of people are a very small percentage of the population
Not sure what the concern is about the ‘extra’ work to print a buss mix-down (in hardware) unless 1) you are on a breakneck deadline 2) don’t have the hardware in the first place or 3) you don’t hear a substantial sonic improvement in the result, which is certainly subjective and material dependent. Personally - I have both SSL plug in and the WA - I use them both for different needs and tasks, and even concurrently I.e. I might put the SSL as an insert on a drum group to control dynamics, and print the whole song thru the WA for cohesion and sometime colour. Re ‘colour’ I find I need to be careful with the MA transformers engaged as I find these can blur the centre image of the mix, more so if compression is pushed harder, unless the HP filter is engaged The problem I find with cutting out the LF is a subtle phase shift at the cutoff frequency. not sure what the slope of the filter is since WA does not publish it.
Warm Audio is the warmest :) SSL is the freshest and more open than the rest. Wave is lacking in mojo and townhouse is pretty nice overall. Hardware also sounding different through different converters and also in which sample rate you are recording outboard gear. 96kHz is (almost) without high end roll-off. Nice comparison. Thanks a lot!
I could definitely hear adifference is a huge difference if you ask me not a bad choice for keeping it I use all the software compression plugins on this video also where I believe to have a super glue compression on all my mixes.
I totally agree . I heard similar responses between warm audio and brainworkx. SSL would come next Waves does something where it takes the naturalness away and chokes whatever is going through it like a boxy sound. I dont like it .
Wow nice video... I've got the bus comp and its a beast can you do a video on your gear that's in your rack? I would love an inside look at how and what else you use thanks...!
Well, hardware doing it's thing as usual. The only time it 'lost' here is against the SSL plugin on the Chill Hop example. And i feel thats because that example really does not benefit from the hardware SSL bus compression 'record sound'. It's more like an Electronic genre birthed from the plugin sound. Sort of flat, dry, precise. The SSL plugin suited it well.
see, they say plug-ins are fine for clean compression, that's inaccurate, isn't it? plug-ins are certainly usable, but the hardware is doing something wonderful even as it performs its "clean compression" function. is an ssl bus compressor clean? i think the difference i'm hearing here between the warm and the plug-ins is certainly not a difference in "character" or "coloration." i'm hearing clean compression all around, more or less. but the movement is not the same, is it? compression is movement, often times. it's not about "shaving off x dB," ugh. it's not just controlling dynamics, not always. that isn't what excites me about compression, not at all. it's the difference in size and life and movement that inspires me and makes me the avid compression junkie that i'm. is there a similar qualitative difference between hardware and software equalizers? if there is, i haven't heard it yet. but hardware compressors...i'll be bouncing through those for a long time, now that i've really gotten into it.
Plugins are by definition going to maintain a linear response unless the code enables any non-linearities to be introduced. Analog gear always imparts some harmonic distortion/non-linearity as the signal's gain is altered in a circuit. It depends whether you know what to aim for when listening to hear some% of THD/distortion. For most people if it sounds "fuzzier" or "screams" then it's "distorted". Most guitar players won't consider anything under 50% THD (+ lots of compression) to be distortion - but mere "Overdrive". Contrast this to a great mix or mastering engineer in their proper environment - they can notice changes of less than 1% THD. A studio is not a lab but it is like one in that you need the right tools to focus (no different form a microscope)and you have to know what to listen for. Hearing and listening aren't the same thing. "I hear that" can mean anything, but listening means your aiming your mind at a specific idea of _what to decide about._
Thanks for the vid. WA just have a great soundstage on the full mix Side information just gets pushed into the right place. SSL and waves suck IMHO. Townhouse definitely the best soundng of the plugins..
Good comparison. One suggestion, can you not use hip-hop loops or electronic music ? Most of the loops are already compressed by the manufacturer. Try a real set of drums, an acoustic guitar, a violin that is properly recorded. Or better still, a real orchestra or real vocals (clean), or a bunch of BG vocals. Then compare these compressors. You might be surprised at the result. I'm saying this because most of the comparisons are done with electronic music.
Wow. It’s rlly hard to tell the difference. I rlly can’t notice one. Would have to rly focus in on it. The more you focus in on music. The less enjoyable it becomes. Just keep creating it.
The BX Town Home is 90% of the WA sound It's not worth 700 for the other 10% Spend that on a good interface, Mic and Better Controller and Some good Headphones Much better use of money on your Home Studio Slate FG Red actually sounds better than WA and BX
I been using the Slate FG RED with a Physical Dbx 266XL Compressor The two TOGETHER sound better than WA yeah That thing ain't worth 700 more like $400
I kind of agree with what you said apart from the FG Red argument - Red compressor is a feed-forward style compressor, so it's more suitable for squashing and controlling than for adding glue and movement. So you can't really compare the two - CLA uses Red, Michael Brauer often uses SSL Bus Compressor, and Joe Chiccarelli uses Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor wich is also feed-forward (discrete section), so it just depends on what you're after.
I ended buying the warm audio G Bus....its a little cleaner and more depth than the bx townhome....but im final post mastering Bx Townhome Klanghel DC83 SPC Comp and Buster SE are at the Top
All of the natural tones of the instruments/vocals, as well as stereo imaging are enhanced with the Warm Bus Comp engaged. For the price point, and a heavy user of one, I truly love this product. The noise floor is great on it as well! In my opinion this would be my choice in order, due to the what the compressor is actually bringing to the audio sources.
1) Warm Audio
2) Townhouse
3) SSL Native
4) Waves
Some say the noise level is not that good, so you say it's O.K. even if you go "all in" with make up gain?
Nice! to my ears I think I dig the SSL native plug most of all. Actually has me looking at purchasing. Thanks for the vid!
There is a kind of movement happening, mostly in the low end, that just isn't there in the plugins. It's most noticeable in the chillhop and acoustic guitar bits. I think i'll need to buy one, because i cannot unhear this. So thanks for that i guess :p
On the full mix (which I was the most concerned about) the peaks received around 5 - 8dB of compression consistently utilizing the Warm Audio unit vs 4dB of compression on the SSL Bus Compressor 2 plug-in. Because of this, the SSL plug-in is going to sound like it's more "open". It simply just had less compression. If you're like me and trying to figure out which one you want between the two don't use this particular example as reference. I do appreciate the content though! Thank you for taking time out to give me a better feel for it.
It's a matter of what suits the vibe of the music, what you are stacking it with or balancing it against in your toolbox - and how you'd expect it to sound on the average (or FLAC for us snoots) playback system.
A bright recording of an acoustic combo may suit the WA unit best; keep a natural sound-stage while smoothing transients.
For darker buss sources that I want to perk up I'd forego the WA and try the SSL Native first; if too artificial or not vibing then move to the Waves etc
i own the ssl buss compressor with the uc1 i purchased the warm audio to do my own comparison .. i returned the warm audio.. i couldn't justify keeping it being that i just bought the uc1.. the difference was minimal with the ssl edging it out in my opinion .. i expected more out of that transformer button.. i found myself going back to my cubase stock tube compressor for its drive nob and charactor nob for that lil mojo or color . using that in tandem with the ssl buss compressor give me the optimum sound im looking for.. Im not saying the warm audio is bad but i can definitely can do without it.. i was disappointed in that tranformer buttom you have to hit the unit really hard to hear the difference .. it might be good for tracking that might be where it shines but not on the masterbuss where you tend not to hit things as hard.. and it not having a mixnob to blend the wet and dry signal was a bummer too for me..
The Warm Bus Comp can also be used with Comp disabled and Transformer engaged. This gives an analog vibe to the mix.
This mode can be tried in combination with a stereo bus comp plugin.
For what it delivers the WA Bus Comp is priced very well.
yes, is a very natural sound. I use the bus comp in my mix bus aways with the same setting. (att:10/R:1.5/rel: .1/ hpf:60) threshold and make-up gain is my only adjustment, after that is pretty the same no matter what kind of music I do. I also found that with the release knob is not a good way with the "auto" option, I get the best results with the ".1" option, very very open sound in that way and I'm not the only one with the same conclusion.
even in cheap earbuds I can hear significant difference how smooth the transients are handled by the hw piece. Even the most expensive software emulations cannot handle transient heavy material such as acoustic guitar better than the basic 100$ DBX 160A. To my taste the UA emulation of the 1176LN is the best overall software compressor, but for acoustic guitar I always put spiff or punctuale of any other transient shaper after to soften harsh spikes left after sw compressors
Mostly that happened to me a week ago.
Ive used vst since the first and never had a real hardware, i was very surprissed with the changes it does.
Maybe is about the depth/width of the tracks/busses get, when the audio is passed through it.
The cables/patchbay whatever needed is a must, to have this sound in your mix ;)
I don´t think any regular plugin can go close to it, maybe UAD, i never had those.
Warm Audio BUS-COMP will be with me always :)
Great comparison! Cheers to useful reviews! 👊 Sidenote.. Is that a Yamaha m406 racked in the desk?
Thanks! Yes it is, I've had the M406 for a long time now, it's got lots of character :)
It was really easy to tell when the BusComp was engaged. The other compressor required you to really listen to hear the differences from each other.
Warm audio wins here for more depth and width adds to the mix while townhouse is second and ssl beats waves for sure …
Very much agree with this!
Great job
I agree. There is something with the WA compression that makes it sound just a little "better" I'm a big fan of their products. But the difference is very small. For the average bedroom recording (and pros) the plugins is good enough.
Agreed, I went years and years without trying to go out of the box for mixing, and the plugins are very good so aint no shame in being 100% in the box. There's just a little extra something with the WA BUS-COMP, and I like running audio through the Transformers, which fills in the source material with some pleasant harmonics, so in this instance it's worth the extra effort.
You’re right , however there are guys out there who own super high end audiophile gear and they would be able to hear all the nuances. But those types of people are a very small percentage of the population
The difference is really apparent when you're using live instruments.
@@VintiqueSound I have a 1176 Bluey which is magical, but in my opinion, the warm audio buss just squach the transient compared to the ssl plug in.
Not sure what the concern is about the ‘extra’ work to print a buss mix-down (in hardware) unless 1) you are on a breakneck deadline 2) don’t have the hardware in the first place or 3) you don’t hear a substantial sonic improvement in the result, which is certainly subjective and material dependent. Personally - I have both SSL plug in and the WA - I use them both for different needs and tasks, and even concurrently I.e. I might put the SSL as an insert on a drum group to control dynamics, and print the whole song thru the WA for cohesion and sometime colour. Re ‘colour’ I find I need to be careful with the MA transformers engaged as I find these can blur the centre image of the mix, more so if compression is pushed harder, unless the HP filter is engaged The problem I find with cutting out the LF is a subtle phase shift at the cutoff frequency. not sure what the slope of the filter is since WA does not publish it.
A comparsion Warm Bus Comp with Behringer 369-KT? 😀
Warm Audio is the warmest :) SSL is the freshest and more open than the rest. Wave is lacking in mojo and townhouse is pretty nice overall. Hardware also sounding different through different converters and also in which sample rate you are recording outboard gear. 96kHz is (almost) without high end roll-off. Nice comparison. Thanks a lot!
Hello, I would like to know what is the 1U YAMAHA device on your desk and its model. I hope to get your reply. Thank you!
It's a Yamaha R1000 digital reverb. I did a demo video of it here: ruclips.net/video/QaPu3MwJhrQ/видео.html
@@VintiqueSound Thank you very much for your reply! !
I could definitely hear adifference is a huge difference if you ask me not a bad choice for keeping it I use all the software compression plugins on this video also where I believe to have a super glue compression on all my mixes.
Thanks for the comparison. The Warm Audio is next on my list. BTW, what desk are you using?
I like the Warm Audio and Brainworx the best. The SSL is okay, don’t like the Waves. I had a hard time distinguishing between the BW and WA.
I totally agree . I heard similar responses between warm audio and brainworkx. SSL would come next Waves does something where it takes the naturalness away and chokes whatever is going through it like a boxy sound. I dont like it .
That old Yamaha mixer tho!!
Wow nice video... I've got the bus comp and its a beast can you do a video on your gear that's in your rack? I would love an inside look at how and what else you use thanks...!
Warm all day
For me Warm has more meat and power, plugins are loose and weak.
In the first audio clip the Warm audio sounded like it was compressing far more than the plugins
Hey, I thought this was a good video. One of the more "transparent" comparison videos. Good job man.
Why thank you ;)
Warm is the winer
Well, hardware doing it's thing as usual. The only time it 'lost' here is against the SSL plugin on the Chill Hop example. And i feel thats because that example really does not benefit from the hardware SSL bus compression 'record sound'. It's more like an Electronic genre birthed from the plugin sound. Sort of flat, dry, precise. The SSL plugin suited it well.
see, they say plug-ins are fine for clean compression, that's inaccurate, isn't it? plug-ins are certainly usable, but the hardware is doing something wonderful even as it performs its "clean compression" function. is an ssl bus compressor clean? i think the difference i'm hearing here between the warm and the plug-ins is certainly not a difference in "character" or "coloration." i'm hearing clean compression all around, more or less. but the movement is not the same, is it? compression is movement, often times. it's not about "shaving off x dB," ugh. it's not just controlling dynamics, not always. that isn't what excites me about compression, not at all. it's the difference in size and life and movement that inspires me and makes me the avid compression junkie that i'm. is there a similar qualitative difference between hardware and software equalizers? if there is, i haven't heard it yet. but hardware compressors...i'll be bouncing through those for a long time, now that i've really gotten into it.
Plugins are by definition going to maintain a linear response unless the code enables any non-linearities to be introduced. Analog gear always imparts some harmonic distortion/non-linearity as the signal's gain is altered in a circuit.
It depends whether you know what to aim for when listening to hear some% of THD/distortion.
For most people if it sounds "fuzzier" or "screams" then it's "distorted". Most guitar players won't consider anything under 50% THD (+ lots of compression) to be distortion - but mere "Overdrive".
Contrast this to a great mix or mastering engineer in their proper environment - they can notice changes of less than 1% THD. A studio is not a lab but it is like one in that you need the right tools to focus (no different form a microscope)and you have to know what to listen for. Hearing and listening aren't the same thing.
"I hear that" can mean anything, but listening means your aiming your mind at a specific idea of _what to decide about._
Thanks for the vid. WA just have a great soundstage on the full mix Side information just gets pushed into the right place. SSL and waves suck IMHO. Townhouse definitely the best soundng of the plugins..
Good comparison. One suggestion, can you not use hip-hop loops or electronic music ? Most of the loops are already compressed by the manufacturer. Try a real set of drums, an acoustic guitar, a violin that is properly recorded. Or better still, a real orchestra or real vocals (clean), or a bunch of BG vocals. Then compare these compressors. You might be surprised at the result. I'm saying this because most of the comparisons are done with electronic music.
Wow. It’s rlly hard to tell the difference. I rlly can’t notice one. Would have to rly focus in on it. The more you focus in on music. The less enjoyable it becomes. Just keep creating it.
The BX Town Home is 90% of the WA sound
It's not worth 700 for the other 10%
Spend that on a good interface, Mic and Better Controller and Some good Headphones
Much better use of money on your Home Studio
Slate FG Red actually sounds better than
WA and BX
You are correct!!!
I been using the Slate FG RED with a Physical Dbx 266XL Compressor
The two
TOGETHER sound better than WA yeah
That thing ain't worth 700 more like $400
SSL 2+ Slate Subscription
Good headphones and a Berringer or DBX comp
That's all about $700
I kind of agree with what you said apart from the FG Red argument - Red compressor is a feed-forward style compressor, so it's more suitable for squashing and controlling than for adding glue and movement. So you can't really compare the two - CLA uses Red, Michael Brauer often uses SSL Bus Compressor, and Joe Chiccarelli uses Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor wich is also feed-forward (discrete section), so it just depends on what you're after.
I ended buying the warm audio G Bus....its a little cleaner and more depth than the bx townhome....but im final post mastering
Bx Townhome
Klanghel DC83
SPC Comp and Buster SE are at the Top
Slate FG RED wiith/ or. Without a regular comp like DBX or Berringer sounds better than all three of these
Or the BX with a regular comp
waves suck, ssl too clean. warm audio sounds cool.
Ssl sound better than all of them warm audio just sound muffed and crush waves lack details and town house sounds fuller and rounder
🤣
meh