Last week I posted an article where I took quotes from 10 very successful audio engineers who told me what their favourite in-the-box equalizer was.

CLA-2A基于著名的电子光学电子管压缩制作而成，声音平滑且频率特性明显。 CLA-3A基于上世纪70年代著名的晶体管压缩器制作，有着快速的响应和丰富的谐波失真。 CLA-76基于上世纪60年代中期线路压缩放大器制作，提供超快的50ms. Get the guaranteed best price on Compressors & Limiters Software like the Waves CLA-3A Compressor / Limiter Native/TDM/SG Software Download at.

So this week is the exact same concept except for the fact that it’s all about compression!

I love asking these guys what they are using inside-the-box because let’s face it, we’re all using digital tools and we are all striving for the best sound possible. So it’s cool to know they are using some of the most basic tools but yet still turning out hits.

Enjoy the read!

The La2a Silver from UAD in limiter mode and the 1176 Rev A from UAD. I find I reach for those a lot. I like the La2a a lot on vocals and when I compare it to the analog it’s very hard to tell the difference. You honestly need to have really good cables, converters and everything else to hear the difference. They did amazing work on that plugin. For the 1176, I like to use it mostly in parallel for drum sounds and bass and I go crazy. With UAD I find that you can push a little bit more than other emulations.

– Luca Pretolesi (Diplo, Skrillex, Major Lazer, Lil Jon, Snoop Lion)
Read Luca’s Full Interview

I like the CLA 76 for a couple reasons: I really like what it does to the high end and high mids, I also like that there are 2 very different sounds (the blackface/blue stripe) in the same plug in. Its a very universal plug-in you can use it on drums bass guitar vox busses etc. It shines in “that” sound.

– Marc McClusky (Weezer, Bad Religion, Everclear, Motion City Soundtrack)
Read Marc’s Full Interview

I know the RCompressor quite well and I know what the attack and release sound like. It’s not a tool that’s going to solve every problem or give you tons of character but it’s a good broad stroke, in regards to spotting a problem or wanting to change a sound and needing a tool to do it. I guess it would be between that and the CLA compressors from Waves Audio. But it all depends. On the song that I’m working on now, it’s a male led rock song, so immediately I would just reach for the Waves CLA 76 for that vocal. Whether it sounds like a real 1176 or not is irrelevant because it’s a plugin that I just like the sound of a lot.

– Paul Gatehouse (Janet Devlin, Nell Bryden, Honey Ryder, Alistair Griffin)
Read Paul’s Full Interview

The CLA compressor I like a lot on vocals, and I use a lot of the UAD stuff. It’s hard for me to pinpoint because I probably own every plug-in available. But as a general rule, most of the UAD products I’m just a huge fan of, and it’s all over my mixes.

– Mark Needham (Fleetwood Mac, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Elton John)
Read Mark’s Full Interview

There are probably three of them. The Pro Tools compressor I use all the time, the RComp I use all the time and the Metric Halo Channel Strip compressor gets used a lot.

– Phil Tan (Mariah Carey, Rihanna, Snoop Dogg, Katy Perry)
Read Phil’s Full Interview

My 2buss is always Cytomic’s The Glue, which is an SSL emulation (although I have been messing with the IK Multimedia Buss Compressor recently). I follow it with Variety of Sound’s Ferric TDS which, although technically not a compressor, gives me a couple more dB of compression. So it’s those two in series, each one doing a tiny bit. For individual tracks I would say the vast majority of the time it’s one of two compressors. One is the IK Multimedia Black76 which, in my opinion, behaves the most like the real deal and it works on just about anything. The other is VladG’s Molot Compressor in Alpha mode which emulates optical compression and again, works on just about anything. Between a solid FET like the Black76 and a solid optical like the Molot, you pretty much have almost everything covered for channel duties and it’s very fast to get a good sound with either without having to get too twiddly with the knobs. I’ll reach for something else when a signal calls for a more specialized approach (any of the IK compressors and a number of others). But mixing is about emotion, so I don’t want to get bogged down digging through 80 different compressors – I’ll reach for something that I know will work so I can keep my mental flow going because it’s what’s in my head and my heart that is going to make a record sound like a hit, not how fancy I get with all my plugins. And those two compressors almost always work.

– Chris Carter (Jasmine Trias, The Backstreet Boys, J. Holiday)
Read Chris’ Full Interview

For mixing vocals, I like to use the Puigchild 660, hitting a few dB’s. I also like it on guitars where I’ll usually hit it pretty hard. I think it sounds pretty cool. It’s transparent enough that I can hit it pretty hard and it doesn’t sound awkward but it still does the job that it needs to do especially with the acoustic guitar. I would say besides the Waves C1-sc Compressor, I use that one the most.

– Adam Barber (Boyce Avenue, Creed, Limp Bizkit, Backstreet Boys)
Read Adam’s Full Interview

It’s always tricky just picking one as there’s always a variety of sources and reasons to use compression. But I think one compressor I always enjoy trying out is the UBk-1 from Kush Audio. Does a bunch of cool stuff and works well on most sources.

– Ghislain Brind’Amour (Rihanna, Anjulie, Karl Wolf, Victoria Duffield)
Read Ghislain’s Full Interview

One thing I use in the box a lot is the Vocal Rider from Waves Audio, it’s the best. I used to do that on the console and if you get it set right, it’s really good. What I used to do is send the key input of everything else but the vocals to a bus, off the console. That bus goes to ‘key in’ on the vocal rider, so it will automatically set the level of where everything is supposed to be around, where the vocal should sit. Then I’ll compress after the vocal rider so you’re compressor isn’t taking really heavy hits from the vocal. You can set your compressor really nice so you’re not burying it or anything. Everything that’s getting sent to your compressor is being sent evenly.

– Chris Bell (Madonna, Seal, Rufus Wainwright)
Read Chris’ Full Interview

My favorite compressor? That’s a hard question because there’s a lot of compressors I’m thinking of and they all have a certain characteristics I love. I like the Kramer Pie, and have been using it a lot lately. All the CLA classic 2A, 3A, 76. There are some compressors I go to for as an effect more than the compression value. For example the Eddie Kramer Series Bass or Drums have cool vintage sound to them that I’ll use to achieve a particular effect and I will compress before with something else. I can’t tell you I have this one go to compressor, because for me it’s usually a combination.

Pair your AirPods and get music and handfree link connected (see pic2). Intel Bluetooth) appear in 'computer management' window, then congratulations. Ignore the BT equipment without driver. Change your PC/latop sound volume output option to 'Bluetooth Headset'. Install the BT driver (it may take 3 minues), and if you see 'Bluetooth Auxiliary' and your BT brand item (e.g. Driver jaf for windows 7 download.

– Lu Diaz (P Diddy, 50 Cent, Beyoncé, Mary J Blige)
Read Lu’s Full Interview

What’s your favorite in the box compressor? Leave a comment below.

Free EQ Cheat Sheet + Video Explanation

'Justin, this was a really good strip down of the EQ. I've been writing and singing for about 5-7 years now and started with producing and mixing just some months ago. And your simple, strategic way to explain helped me a lot. Big thanks from Sweden.'
- Simon Obom

Not all of us can afford to have our tracks mixed by Chris Lord‑Alge. But Waves' latest plug‑in bundle might just be the next best thing..

Over the last couple of years, Waves have persuaded a number of big‑name engineers and producers to have their favourite effects and processing chains turned into Artist series plug‑ins. The biggest of all these scalps is arguably Chris Lord‑Alge — the superstar mix engineer who, along with his brother Tom, has perhaps done more than anyone else to shape the sound of modern rock records.

If there's one adjective that is widely associated with the Lord‑Alge sound, it's 'compressed', and Waves have already released a bundle called CLA Classic Compressors, containing faithful emulations of some of Chris Lord‑Alge's favoured spanking devices. The new Artist Series collection, by contrast, models the entire signal chain that Chris Lord‑Alge favours for various named instruments. (The equipment that goes to make up this chain is not always specified, but to learn more about his mix techniques and gear, take a look at Paul Tingen's Inside Track feature from May 2007: /sos/may07/articles/cla.htm.)

The CLA Artist Signature Collection consists of six plug‑ins: CLA Drums, CLA Bass, CLA Guitars, CLA Effects, CLA Unplugged and CLA Vocals. All share a similar user interface, which somewhat resembles the LARC fader controllers for Lexicon reverbs. Five or six faders control different components of the overall effect, while illuminated buttons above them switch between different styles of that process. So, for example, several of the plug‑ins feature a delay: the slider controls the amount of delay added to the signal, while the associated button switches the delay time between slap, eighth and quarter notes. An additional slider at the left adjusts input sensitivity — naturally, all the plug‑ins include a healthy amount of dynamics processing, so this is important — and in some cases there are extra controls above this. In general, I liked the no‑nonsense interface a lot more than that of some of the other Artist‑series plug‑ins.

Different Drums

In CLA Drums, to pick a starting point more or less at random, the extra control I mentioned adapts the plug‑in to the source, so you can tell it whether it's dealing with a kick drum, snare, tom, overhead, room mic or, er, cowbell. The first two faders apply 'bass' and 'treble' EQ, with frequency ranges chosen using descriptive names such as 'roof' and 'top' rather than values in kHz. You then get a choice of three compression and reverb styles, and hard or soft gating.

In practice, I found myself really liking this plug‑in on overheads — I've never usually had good results from using lots of reverb and compression in this context, but a couple of fader moves in CLA Drums produced a really punchy, hard‑hitting sound that barely needed the addition of close mics. I tried it on kick and snare and found the results less to my taste; it's easy to push things too far and end up with a sound that is flat and lifeless. Overall, I was left with the impression of a plug‑in that excels if you want a particular kind of rock drum sound, but would be less useful in other musical contexts. There is also the practical point that, like many of the Waves Artist plug‑ins, this is a very CPU‑intensive design. Running a separate instance on every channel of a multitrack drum recording would take serious computing power.

Voices Of God

CLA Vocals retains the Bass, Treble and Compress sliders of CLA Drums, and adds three more of its own, offering different flavours of reverb, delay and stereo effects. Of the six plug‑ins, this was the one I found myself using the least, perhaps because a 'one size fits all' processing chain for something as variable as the human voice is never going to suit all tastes and all voices. We are, after all, talking about the most important and prominent element of the mix, and to my mind, you really need fuller control over reverb and delay times than can be provided by a single slider. Still, the slap delay sounds like a slap delay should, and the stereo options do a nice job of thickening the vocal without making it sound too obviously chorused or warbly.

Strings & Things

I got a lot more use out of the CLA Guitars plug‑in. This provides the same palette of sliders as CLA Vocals, albeit with different reverb and delay patches, and adds a simple but hugely effective Re‑Amplify control. I know not what amplifiers were modelled to create this, but I want them! In particular, the Crunch and Heavy settings really seem to nail that modern rock sound that somehow preserves note definition despite being ridiculously distorted. The two EQ sliders provide enough tone shaping to get most guitar sounds into the ballpark, the reverbs suit rock guitars well, and the chorus‑style stereo effects are very musical. Once again, it's a pretty genre‑specific plug‑in, but one that offers a fast and very convincing route to a classy, modern rock‑guitar sound.

Going Lower

Better still is CLA Bass. Its various ingredients are all familiar effects I'm used to applying using individual processors, but somehow I've rarely managed to marshal them to sound anything like this good. The CLA Guitars plug‑in's Reverb and Delay sliders are replaced here by a sub-harmonic synth and three flavours of distortion, and there's no separate re‑amp option. What's perhaps most impressive is the way all the different elements of the plug‑in seem to work together, to craft a bass sound that is somehow polished yet rough, simultaneously. You can add as much bass as you need to anchor the bottom end, but at the same time use copious amounts of distortion to make the instrument punch through in the mid-range. You can squash it to the point where it becomes a furry, round ball of sound, and it will still somehow sound alive. It is, in short, great, and what's more, if you stay away from the distortion, it works on almost any style of electric bass. Most impressive.

Unplugged In LA

The CLA Unplugged plug‑in seems intended to mop up most of the other elements you might find in a typical rock mix, such as acoustic guitars and pianos. To the familiar low and high EQ and compression sliders, it adds a delay and two separate reverbs, each of which can have its pre‑delay adjusted.

Actually, I think I found out how to install this patch on the WON Half-Life Game of the Year Edition:1) Go to your Half-Life folder (mine is usually C:SierraHalf-Life) and rename 'hl.exe' to something like 'hl.exe.disabled'2) Create an empty text file and renamed it to 'hl.exe'3) Download this patch4) Click on the patch to install into your Half-Life directory5) Start Half-Life normally6) If you're on Vista or later, make sure the Data Execution Prevention thing allows the Half-Life launcher (aka hl.exe)If it works with me on 64bit Vista, I think it can work anywhere.+1 vote.

Having spent quite a while crafting what I thought was a pretty good stereo acoustic guitar sound using other plug‑ins, I thought I'd test CLA Unplugged by seeing if it could match my own efforts. I killed the other plug‑ins, inserted CLA Unplugged, chose the first preset with 'acoustic' in the title.. and wept bitter tears, because not only did it match the plug‑in chain I had laboriously assembled myself, it sounded miles better. I suppose that's why people pay Chris Lord‑Alge a lot of money to mix their records. On the down side, this is even more CPU‑intensive than some of the other CLA plug‑ins, so I ended up applying it off‑line in most cases.

Effective Effects

Finally, there's CLA Effects, which as the name suggests, offers a palette of six different effects and processes. Some, such as the EQ and distortion, obviously work better when the plug‑in is used as a channel insert, while the phaser/chorus, reverb, and short and long delays could work equally well on an aux send. To this end, a Direct button beneath the output level fader lets you set the overall mix to 100 percent wet.

A neat and fun idea is the Hold/Throw switch above the input sensitivity fader. When mixing, you often find you want to apply a long tempo sync'ed delay to just one or two phrases in a vocal performance, and this provides an easy way of doing just that. As the man himself explains: 'All you have to do is duplicate your vocal track, put it on 100 percent wet, automate the throw button in all the spots you want, and you're done.”

As you'd expect, all of the six effects here sound great, but the way they're put together into a single unit highlights a problem with the overall design of these plug‑ins. To my mind, a nice way of using the CLA Effects plug‑in would be to run several instances of it on separate aux sends, each with only a single effect active. That way, it would be easy to balance the amounts of delay, reverb and chorus you want on each individual source. And you can do that — but as I've already mentioned, these are CPU‑intensive plug‑ins, and the particular problem with this arrangement is that even when individual effects such as reverb or delay are deactivated, they still use CPU power. So if you create six instances of CLA Effects, each with only one effect active, you'll be using six times as much CPU power as you would if you had one instance with everything switched on. On my (admittedly not particularly new) test machine, each instance I added bumped up Cubase's CPU meter by about 20 percent, so using six in a mix would be a complete non‑starter. The same applies to the other plug‑ins in the series. I wanted to use them on everything, but I simply couldn't! It's been a long time since I felt the pinch of CPU resources so acutely when mixing. I asked Waves why the plug‑ins work like this, and they told me that not all plug‑in hosts are capable of changing processes 'on the fly', so this was the only way to maintain universal compatibility.

Getting The Job Done

Reviewing these plug‑ins was an interesting and, in some ways, humbling experience. In the past, I have tended to be prejudiced against computer programs that try to do things for you; in the long term, surely it's more useful and more rewarding to learn how the different types of mix processors work and apply that knowledge in practice, rather than relying on what is at root an opaque, preset‑based approach? You'd think so, but the awkward fact is that for me, at least, these restrictive and apparently simple plug‑ins quite often produced better results than I could get in other ways. And at the end of the day, what really matters is how the final mix sounds.

It's not surprising that these plug‑ins are CPU‑intensive, though it is disappointing that the individual elements within them don't release CPU resources when switched off. But if you have the power to run them, the temptation to load up a single plug‑in and choose a preset rather than spend hours mucking about with complex effects chains becomes very strong indeed! They won't suit every genre of music, but there's a place for them in almost anything involving guitars and drums, and to my mind, these are perhaps the most successful Artist Signature Series plug‑ins yet. Now all we need is the plug‑in that automatically invoices record companies for thousands of dollars on our behalf..

Alternatives

Well, you could hire Chris Lord‑Alge to mix your track..

Pros

• Fantastic‑sounding processors that are versatile enough to cover most elements of a rock mix.
• Easy to use.
• Capable of creating some sounds that are not easily reproduced with other plug‑ins.

Cons

• All of the plug‑ins are CPU‑intensive, and don't release CPU resources even when individual processes are switched off.

Summary

Waves' CLA Artist Signature Series bundle won't mix for you, but it will get you a long way towards a classy, modern rock sound — if your computer can keep up.

information

Sonic Distribution +44 (0)845 500 2500.

Waves +1 (0)865 909 9200.

Test Spec

Dell Inspiron laptop with 2GHz CPU and 4GB RAM, running Windows XP SP3.