Is there any way to turn off the Multiband Compressor automatic makup gain? I want to use it strictly as a downward compressor (to control peaks).
Does the Cubase Multiband Comp have auto gain makeup?
According to the manual - and my ears - yes it does which is confusing the heck out of me. It doesnât work like âtraditionalâ compressors.
How do I use it to control band peaks without bringing up the level (and messing up my EQ balance) when there isnât a peak?
I cant find any reference to an auto makeup gain in the manuals could you provide me a link or pointer to the reference please.
The stock Cubase Multiband compressor doesnât have a make-up gain feature. Could it be your settings are a bit aggressive and/or fast?
It all depends on what result you desire. Maybe try this first to master the basics.
Not very true, simple test:
-insert multiband compressor
-drag band 2, 3 and 4 as far right as possible.
-set band 1 to a ratio of 8:1 and drag the threshold all the way down, for a normal piano track, it indicates a 35 dB gain reduction at -60 dB threshold but the volume level is pretty much constant.
From Andreas at Steinberg: âThe effect you hear comes from the âAuto MakeUp Gainâ, which is automatically activated for each band. Donât mix that up with the Auto switch, that turns the auto release on and off. Changing the threshold parameter leads to a new calculation of the Make-up Gain value. It has kind of a âcompensationâ functionality.â
And why would one need to do that? Extreme settings should not be needed for everyone else in the world not to notice something amiss at normal operational settings. Multiband compression is a bit extreme for a piano anyway.
One might need it if the playing was so fantastic, the recording dreadful and the performer dead but under normal circumstances I wouldnât see the point in those settings at all. 
Quite true and the way it is expected to work.
Now. Why do you want it reduced/eradicated? The question doesnât make sense without a purpose. There are many other ways to control the peaks and the Multiband compressor is not a âdownward compressorâ or not the last time I looked in the manual it wasnât.
Thanks for the link, as you can see from my contribution, Iâm not a fan of MBCâs but the fact that each band of the cubase MBC seems to have an auto gain makeup puts me off even more.
The Steinberg Multiband-Compressor
works differently. It is more like a four band loudness optimizer. It was designed to work this way, thatâs all.
Surprising that itâs not mentioned in the documentation?
Ah, cheers for the link, I wasnât aware of the Make-up Gain. Very good to know.
The Steinberg Multiband-Compressor
works differently. It is more like a four band loudness optimizer. It was designed to work this way, thatâs all.
Not much of a surprise there.
I believe TwinOak provided these settings as a means to TEST the plugin, not for operational use in a mix.
To me it is unexpected. The MBC in Cubase does not work like a traditional mono or multiband compressor and would more correctly be labeled a âMaximizerâ as Andreas suggested.
One of the most useful applications of an MBC is to zero in on problem areas in the spectrum and only compress where needed - and not affect the EQ balance when no compression is taking place. (This is not the same thing as sidechaining a mono-band compressor).
I will use a 3rd party plugin to get what Iâm after. Thanks.
But one would want to TEST it on something realistic like a full mix (a drum / brass mix even) and not on a single instrument.
The manualâs not bad on this. Using something else that does the job YOU want it to do is fine BTW.
3rd and 4th paragraphs may give a clue as to itâs intended use.
It actually is (imo, mmv) a bit of an oversight not to be able to switch of auto makeup gain. Multibands get used for a lot of different things and some of those cases you may want some bands compressed and the gain not auto-corrected, like de-essing with a single band of a multiband comp, or taming an occasionally offensive vocal frequency range. In that regard it works like dynamic EQ.
Not a big deal but it makes the plug a bit less useful overall.
If that is the way YOU prefer to test it, that is fine BTW. Twinoaks repro is spot on to reveal the results. Multiband compressors have more uses than a full mix.
True. IIRC, the multiband comp actually has presets for vocals.
No, not test in that sort of way, it was just a simple method to show/clarify that the plug-in DOES have automatic make-up gain, nothing more.
It probably does because dynamic eqing a vocal helps vocalists with a wide range, which usually have frequency shifts as they move up octaves. It is a lot easier to stabilize the vocal tone than re-eq the mid-frequency content of a song to keep a vocal in the context of the mix. A great tool if that is the approach for this type of result.
Auto gaining the bands, which is unavoidable with this plugin , may bring the need of a eq after it for styling.