So im out here experimenting with compressors, trying not to spend too much MORE $$$
I see lots of nice free 1176, la2a, Fairchild clones etc
only “problem” I see is that quite a few of them are 32 bit only.
How much real audible difference will this make?? ok, for real, none ot my ears since my ears arent that sensitive yet…but how much theoretical difference or would it only be noticeable in certain applications??
Thanks, JJ
Cannot address the question, but what do you want out of a compressor that your stock/current one cannot give you? Tossing out names like “fairchild” “la2a” will not get you any closer to petting a mythical unicorn. Do you need better work-flow?, ease of use?, shit-ton of knobs? Better understanding of how to adjust the attack and release to make a snare crack!…these would seem like more relevant questions then what 32/64/128 bit depth a tool has.
Maybe this will help?
From my understanding, 32-bit vs 64-bit plugins have only to do with what architecture they run on. So they wouldn’t affect the audio quality at all.
I have 64 bit Reaper and Win 7- 64 bit, if I try and run 32 bit plugs they will work sometimes but not always, sometimes buggy. So if you assume that the future is 64 bit . . . . might not be good to get too attached to 32’s.
A 32-bit plugin can still process audio in 64 bit floating point (other way around as well), so a plugin being 32 bit does not really say whether it sounds good or not.
However…
Those plugins that are 32-bit only are usually because they are made in something like synthmaker, and in my experience, tend to be quite buggy and resource heavy. If you aren’t having stability issues with them, then I see no reason not to use them if you like the way they sound.
well AFAIK there ARE differences in the way these classics and their clones were designed to operate. If nothing else, just look at attack times. If you put 2 compressors next to each other and both have a knob that goes from “slow” to “fast”. Well on one of them the “slow” is 10ms and on the other its 50ms. Pretty significant difference. Id hate to be sitting there going “i dont get it, ive got it set on a SLOW attack time”…not realizing that slow for that particular compressor is still FAST lol.
of course, my current ear cant always tell the difference but thats EXACTLY why I want to spend time using different models. Otherwise id just use ReaComp 30 different times in every project lol.
or look at EQ’s. No matter that I have Slate and Waves stuff now. I almost always use ReaEQ as my go to for surgical EQ. So even moreso than a compressor, an EQ is an EQ is an EQ, right? Yet most folks use various EQ’s. Sometimes it seems to make more sense to use ReaEQ as the surgical tool but then to use something like a 5 band parametric or channel strip EQ to put some sort of final general slope on something as opposed to doing all of the clicking required to do the same using ReaEQ
or guitars. I mean, why have more than one then right? Why buy a Les Paul if you already have a Strat? Doesnt a Strat have all the same notes on it?? lol
Peace, JJ