DMG Trackcomp

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Lost to the Void
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DMG Trackcomp

Post by Lost to the Void »

Amazing compressor from DMG

https://dmgaudio.com/trackcomp
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Mattias
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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by Mattias »

I'm ashamed to admit I've not yet tried this software although I'm a fanboy of our friend Dave's work and own most of the plugins.
When shit settles down a little I'll give this one a spin! I expect to put on my lab coat and whip out the much needed doctor degree while digging into it.
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Lost to the Void
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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by Lost to the Void »

Haha, it`s pretty straight forward for DMG. I can`t speak for the accuracy of the emulations, but they feel authentic in motion.
Seems pricey but compared to competition I think it`s a bargain.
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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by CRDM »

Still enjoying this one Steve? Any more thoughts after some time with it?

I am going to give it a proper demo in the coming weeks to see if it fits into my set up. I'm looking for a great sounding, low cpu comp that can be used on channels and busses and this sounds like it could be the ticket. I've been reducing my itb tool set to just a few, great sounding and versatile plugins and it looks like this would cover a lot of ground with the different compressor models. I look forward to hearing what the different saturation sections sound like, that's cool they've modeled each stage.

Did you get the time to try it yet Mattias? If not maybe this will remind you of it!

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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by dubdub »

Oh wow, I've been randomly demo'ing this and I'm usually not enough of a compressor-nerd to get super impressed by any but this one just immediately sounds awesome to me. I've been using the 1776 and SSL models on drums and I love how you can really hear them grab the signal when you push them and they also get really nice and gritty when you push them. Haven't really heard that on other ITB compressors like that.

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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by Rickskii »

Wow, what a nice compressor. Just wondering if it is worth over £70?

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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by Lost to the Void »

CRDM wrote:
Thu Apr 19, 2018 8:34 am
Still enjoying this one Steve? Any more thoughts after some time with it?

It's not the best compressor in the world, individually I might reach for different emulations for specific things.
Such as the 1176 I prefer Stillwell Rocket, which is like an 1176 from the future.

But it's definitely one of the best. It's a jack of all trades and it almost masters them all.

I still find myself reaching for specific compressors for specific tasks.
But, this gives you everything in one package, it's more than worth the price because of this.

If I didn't have so many compressors this would be a great one stop shop to keep yourself down to a minimal setup.

It does a lot of things that you would expect from "real" compression. It's attack an release feels more "real" than some stuff. Which is always a bugbear of mine with soft comps.
It breathes and pumps in a musical way, and it can be transparent as well as filth.

Yeah, you can't go wrong at the price.
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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by timc3 »

Lost to the Void wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 3:13 pm
It's not the best compressor in the world, individually I might reach for different emulations for specific things.
Such as the 1176 I prefer Stillwell Rocket, which is like an 1176 from the future.
Perhaps a stupid question, how do you decide which compressor you want for specific things?

Reason I am asking is I tend to hate trying out multiple different compressors (or any plugins) whilst I am doing stuff as it takes me even further into unproductiveness. I tend to reach for certain compressors based on the emulation of whether its FET (drums and bass), VCA (sometimes on bus), Vari-Mu, Opto and the associated characteristic etc.. And if it doesn't work I remove it and try something else. Or is it just experience and I should be playing more?

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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by timc3 »

And should say I have seen http://www.subsekt.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8418 for Mixbuss, but I was thinking in more general terms.

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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by Lost to the Void »

timc3 wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 8:05 pm
Lost to the Void wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 3:13 pm
It's not the best compressor in the world, individually I might reach for different emulations for specific things.
Such as the 1176 I prefer Stillwell Rocket, which is like an 1176 from the future.
Perhaps a stupid question, how do you decide which compressor you want for specific things?

Reason I am asking is I tend to hate trying out multiple different compressors (or any plugins) whilst I am doing stuff as it takes me even further into unproductiveness. I tend to reach for certain compressors based on the emulation of whether its FET (drums and bass), VCA (sometimes on bus), Vari-Mu, Opto and the associated characteristic etc.. And if it doesn't work I remove it and try something else. Or is it just experience and I should be playing more?

I think it comes down mainly to experience.
My main thing is how the envelopes react to signal, not all attack and release curves work well with drums, despite their speed.
No all compressors respond to bass in a nice way, big super hot signals are too much for them.
There are a number of factors really.

How the ratio responds to input, how the knee operates, good/bad saturation, ratio range.
Whether it "pulls" the sound back or pushes it down.

I suppose what I am saying is you learn your compression, or any effect really, as you learn an instrument.
Nuance, finesse, brutality, breaking point etc etc
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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by WOLF! »

I think this guys (Rick Beato) knows his stuff and explains it quite good:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/7oOmX3JHwtE?t=681[/youtube]

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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by dubdub »

WOLF! wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 8:55 pm
I think this guys (Rick Beato) knows his stuff and explains it quite good:
[youtube]https://youtu.be/7oOmX3JHwtE?t=681[/youtube]
The more I see of him, the more I find him obnoxious, he's ok in this video but there are some videos where it becomes obvious that he is incredibly arrogant and full of himself. There was one livestream where someone asked an innocent question and he went on this huge rant calling that guy a loser and bragging about how long he has been in the business and how he has a platinum record and yadadada. Classic knowitall.

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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by Divjak »

TrackComp is currently my fave compressor. I really like how you can step out of boundaries of HW with it. (Even tho I never owned any HW haha) For example I really like to abuse OPTO mode of the compressor, dial in very fast attack and release and it makes nice distortion as the result. Its also feature packed. I really like the option to disable stereo link. Placed in the right FX chain that can make some mad stereo field.

I think you should not look at it like HW (the video above explains HW), its much more. :)
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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by 0dd »

Lost to the Void wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 8:28 pm
timc3 wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 8:05 pm
Lost to the Void wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 3:13 pm
It's not the best compressor in the world, individually I might reach for different emulations for specific things.
Such as the 1176 I prefer Stillwell Rocket, which is like an 1176 from the future.
Perhaps a stupid question, how do you decide which compressor you want for specific things?

Reason I am asking is I tend to hate trying out multiple different compressors (or any plugins) whilst I am doing stuff as it takes me even further into unproductiveness. I tend to reach for certain compressors based on the emulation of whether its FET (drums and bass), VCA (sometimes on bus), Vari-Mu, Opto and the associated characteristic etc.. And if it doesn't work I remove it and try something else. Or is it just experience and I should be playing more?

I think it comes down mainly to experience.
My main thing is how the envelopes react to signal, not all attack and release curves work well with drums, despite their speed.
No all compressors respond to bass in a nice way, big super hot signals are too much for them.
There are a number of factors really.

How the ratio responds to input, how the knee operates, good/bad saturation, ratio range.
Whether it "pulls" the sound back or pushes it down.

I suppose what I am saying is you learn your compression, or any effect really, as you learn an instrument.
Nuance, finesse, brutality, breaking point etc etc
Just when you think you're getting the hang of compression the idea of distinguishing these nuances takes it back to black magic land. Guess that's all just expirience though. Curious about the push/pull of sound, could that be viewed as the difference between a positive and negative decay slope? Positive pushing it and negative pulling?
"After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music". Aldous Huxley

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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by timc3 »

Interesting, time to spend some more time with them.

Thanks for the great answers.

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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by Lost to the Void »

0dd wrote:
Thu Sep 13, 2018 9:08 am
Lost to the Void wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 8:28 pm
timc3 wrote:
Wed Sep 12, 2018 8:05 pm


Perhaps a stupid question, how do you decide which compressor you want for specific things?

Reason I am asking is I tend to hate trying out multiple different compressors (or any plugins) whilst I am doing stuff as it takes me even further into unproductiveness. I tend to reach for certain compressors based on the emulation of whether its FET (drums and bass), VCA (sometimes on bus), Vari-Mu, Opto and the associated characteristic etc.. And if it doesn't work I remove it and try something else. Or is it just experience and I should be playing more?

I think it comes down mainly to experience.
My main thing is how the envelopes react to signal, not all attack and release curves work well with drums, despite their speed.
No all compressors respond to bass in a nice way, big super hot signals are too much for them.
There are a number of factors really.

How the ratio responds to input, how the knee operates, good/bad saturation, ratio range.
Whether it "pulls" the sound back or pushes it down.

I suppose what I am saying is you learn your compression, or any effect really, as you learn an instrument.
Nuance, finesse, brutality, breaking point etc etc
Just when you think you're getting the hang of compression the idea of distinguishing these nuances takes it back to black magic land. Guess that's all just expirience though. Curious about the push/pull of sound, could that be viewed as the difference between a positive and negative decay slope? Positive pushing it and negative pulling?
Well, I'm using quite flowery terms there.
To be more objective it's generally the difference between feedforward and feedback compressors.
Though not always.
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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by 0dd »

And again some new terms. Here what I've found on gearslutz for the curious chaps like me, Steve go ahead and correct if there's some usual comp missconception.
Feedforwards can be very controllable and can be punchy and direct. Easier to get it to do exactly what you want, Massenburg seems to be a big fan of FF, however most classic old comps are feedback, generally preferred for their 'musicality'.

Feedbackwards can be a little softer and more musical in its compression action, but not always. The SSL is a great example of this not holding true. But as mentioned it uses a hybrid FF/FB arrangement.

In FB, as mentioned you are detecting compressed signal thus eventually detecting a signal with an already altered dynamic range.

However during the initial onset of compression with a feedbackwards type, the initial transient can pass through the gain cell and output stage before triggering compression. Thus when it finally catches up with itself, transient overshoot can occur. This is where the comp lets the transient pass, then realises it should be compressing, pulls hard (over compresses) and then the sidechain detector will stabilse reducing the overall amount of compression (after is realises it overcompressed), so you get a blast of overcompression just after the transient. Certain comps are terrible at this but its also very cool. The Toft DC-2 FET comp (and a number of other FET comps) do this.

More often in a number of modern comps you are seeing FF compression followed by FB limiting, detector signals combined into one CV to control one gain cell. Drawmer use this technique. Very common in VCA comps with both comp and lim sections.

It is very possible to have a circuit blend between FF and FB. This is like the old and new switch on the API 2500.
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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by Lost to the Void »

None of that text really is that helpful.

There are exceptions to all of that, especially in software land.
You just have to play with it and listen and work out the sweet spots.

A feedforward compressor can be really slippery and musical and a feedback compressor, can also, conversely, be quite tight. Not in general but....
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Re: DMG Trackcomp

Post by dubdub »

https://dmgaudio.com/trackcomp#history

New update with an improved 1176 model.


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