Tube Compressor Revisited in Cubase 12

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Tube Compressor Revisited in Cubase 12

hello everybody andrew blake from  thedigitalaudiomanual.com  today we're going to have a look at the  tube compressor in cubase 12. but before  we start i want to remind you that  there's a link below to the free content  navigation guide which is an easy to  navigate webpage with links to all the  content on this channel and besides that  in the near future i'm going to begin  adding tips and other bits of  information that will only be available  there you know things like simple steps  that will get you started and up and  running quick things that are in the  videos but are written down in simple  steps that serve as quick reminders when  you need information down the road if  you're working with programs like  wavelab or cubase plug-ins or the cable  guys shaperbox2 and many many other  projects that are in the works then i  know you're going to find just like i  have that this is an invaluable study  aid and the other thing i want to make  sure you understand is that this is not  a simple pdf this is a constantly  updated page that has any information  that is new or anytime videos are  changed really anything updated and once  you have it you will always have the  latest information constantly updated so  if you haven't gotten it already go to  the link below click on it and save it  to your favorites it's my gift to you  and it's absolutely free okay so let's  get started  so i did a video quite a while back on  tube compressor but it was just kind of  a rough overview and i've been using  this thing a lot lately and i gotta say  it just sounds so good that i thought it  was time to revisit it and for those of  you that are skilled with compression  recommend that you you know come back  and have a good look at this compressor  if you haven't seen it in a while and  those that are new to compression or  just kind of getting into it  by the time i finish this video i'm  going to show you a couple of quick easy  steps to get into this and have you  basically running it like a pro  but before we get there we're going to  kind of break it down and learn what  these controls do because this is a  reference video too in case you ever  want to dive in deeper into it  all right so for my little musical  example this time i reached back into my  early training classical training and  kind of took the feel from an early eric  satee type song so if you ever took  piano lessons you might know what this  is of course it's my rendition it's not  uh the famous composer by any means but  it gives the feeling of what i'm looking  for so what i'm going to do i'm going to  play this little piece that i put  together and i'm going to play it  without the compressor first and then  i'm going to play it again with the  compressor and see if you can hear any  difference it's just a short little  excerpt so here's the first time without  the compressor  [Music]  all right so now i'm going to turn the  compressor on and if you hear the same  thing i do  the amount of depth and extra emotion  that it brings in or adds to the song is  to me is very significant let's listen  again  [Music]  it just seems to for me it just adds  dimension to the sound so i just i'm  really impressed with this compressor so  let's look at it okay so first up let's  just talk about the basic ways to access  this plug-in one way is uh just to go to  a track hit your little e button  in the e  track picture there's an option that  says compression and a down arrow if you  hit that down arrow you get an option  for three different compressors and one  of them is the tube compressor if you  click on that guy then it shows you the  tube compressor which you can also then  hit an e on that and expand that to a  full screen view this is the one i've  been using a lot personally  the other way is go about the same uh  steps open up the e and go over to your  inserts and then the inserts  there's a category called dynamics you  hit dynamics and down there there's one  that says compressor but you want to  keep going all the way to the bottom at  the bottom there's one that says tube  compressor you hit that and there it is  and then you can hit the e on that one  and there you have it as well either way  works good and either way pretty much  does the same thing  no real advantage over the other except  for if you want to add more than one  then the inserts work good  okay first up we have this vu meter  right front and center here and this is  probably one of the things that i'm i  like the most about it it just gives you  a real visual and it responds real well  and to make the vu meter come alive you  have to use the input there's no real  threshold on this  compressor so as you turn the input up  you will see the vu meter start to  respond  then we come to  the input meters and the output meters  you have visuals on those the input is  not determined by the input of this knob  here this is showing you how much  compression is being applied the input  on the other hand is showing how much  strength is coming into it so if i have  a really loud signal coming in  up to possibly distortion or not enough  signal  [Music]  that's what the input tells you the  output which is determined by the output  knob in this case the signal is pretty  low you won't see it but as i turn this  up  see the output gets raised way up over  what the input is and of course on most  any kind of plugin you use  usually you want to balance those out so  if you see a real discrepancy between  the input and the output you want to  bring that down to where it's pretty  much the same then you have  these  two knobs the drive  and the character they kind of work hand  in hand together the drive as i turn it  up you'll hear a more saturated signal  come in and the character will increase  more of that saturation into the high  end and less into the low end the more  you turn it up  [Music]  all right so i'm going to turn this  drive up a little bit  [Music]  and it becomes again there's a slightly  more saturated signal  all right now if i go to the character  and i turn that up  it affects mostly the high end of it  brings out a little bit more of a shine  to the high end  very subtle  then we have the attack time  the attack time  does just that it chokes down the attack  or it kind of lets the attack through  there it's coming through pretty much  untouched  there it's choked down  you have the release control  the release control  if you turn it up  the compressor holds on to the signal  if you turn it down  it lets go very quickly  they have an auto release switch  which makes its own determination and i  have to say  with a lot of the steinberg uh  products the uh plug-ins i've used  especially the compression ones any of  these auto release  unlike the auto makeup gain that's  another story but these auto releases  i find them to be very very good most of  the time you can kick on the auto  release and basically forget about the  release  and now this brings us to the mix knob  and this is again this is the thing that  why i really think this compressor is  really nice the mix knob  basically allows you to you know bring  in as you would think the amount of  compression  as opposed to the uncompressed signal so  in a way you've got a built-in parallel  compression right on the compressor now  uh you know you have to take that for  what it's worth but i really like the  result so let me let me demonstrate if i  play this  if i have the mix knob all the way down  i'm hearing this hi-hat  pretty much unaffected  and if i turn it all the way up  because of these settings of attack and  release that i have  the hi-hats being very much affected by  compression but by using various amounts  of this mix  you basically get the option to dial in  the dry regular uncompressed sound  with the compressed sound  and you wind up in my opinion  with a very musical  you know the the  what can i say the velocities become  more alive  all the way up it becomes pretty flat  but this mix knob  really just makes this compressor  a different kind of compressor  you have this ratio which really  basically you know there's again there's  no ratio button here so this kind of  like kicks it from a low ratio to a very  high ratio and you can see that pretty  much uh reflected in the meter watch the  meter at the low ratio  shown between 4 and 6 db reduction  if i kick this high on  really jumps up to about 14 almost 14  [Music]  and then we have this side chain option  and without going into a big amount of  detail here i'll show you basically what  it allows you to do is uh cut or boost  certain frequencies in the compressor so  for example  we have a bass sound  and right now if i turn this frequency  knob  nothing changes because i don't have the  side chain on on the other hand if i  turn the side chain on  and then i go over to this monitor which  allows me to hear the effect of what i'm  doing  and i leave it on the high pass  as i turn this up you'll hear the highs  disappear  so the further down it is the more of  the high signal  [Music]  turn the monitor off  [Music]  so i'm getting more of the base and less  of the high  [Music]  so it just gives you the option to  actually  almost have like an eq built into the  compressor  okay so i told you i was going to show  you an easy way to use this and that's  what i'm going to do so  take a track for my thing here i'm going  to use my piano track  and you load up this  tube compressor  open it up so you can see it and only  use two knobs all right you're going to  use the input  and you're going to look at the vu meter  here you're basically going to turn this  input up  until you get between four and six  reduction on this meter once you have  that going go over to the mix knob  turn it up  until you hear the volume drop and then  back it off a little bit  and that's it  [Music]  and i tell you if you do that on some of  your tracks just for experimentation  you're going to find all of them  just come alive  i want it to breathe a little bit that's  all i'm trying to do  [Music]  and that's it  so there you go open up the compressor  kick your input out between four and six  and play with the mix knob until the  volume drops and then back it off  all right there you go for today  so if you haven't picked up your  navigation guide grab that before you go  links to all the content on the channel  ever growing  free to use  it's there for you it's there for me  it's a great learning tool and it's a  great reviewing tool  [Music]  the tube compressor play with it don't  be afraid of it  you're gonna like it  alright i'll see you in the next video