I am about to start mixing a boat load of stuff that i have been tracking. At least 2 cd’s worth of content.
Been curious about the SS VCC for some time. Just wondered if there were any Nuendoites out there using it and have any thoughts about it.
I am an AVID Steven Slate Drum user, and LOVE that drum system.
THe VCC, is it a CPU hog on a quad core type system?
Does the sound improve THAT much on Nuendo? (i did a summing buss shoot out years ago when it was the talk of the town, and Nuendo in the box won!)
Is it worth the $$
Does the UAD Studer do a similar thing?
Denicio-
I’m using it- it can be a subtle change…or not! I like the fact that that you can increase the “gain” without increasing the level to fatten things up. I had a little trouble with the downloaded version- Nuendo 5 GUI would temporarily stall, but that was fixed with beta ver. 1.1.2. (Thanks support folks!) I also have a quad core, and it doesn’t put a noticable load on the CPU.
I like it on a drum bus or elec. guitar. If you insert a “channel strip” on each track it can take up screen real estate fast! You can gang channel the channel strips to another channel strip or to the mix bus to control them all. If you purchase an iLok2 you can get a demo version.
I have been using this since the public beta, and despite the fact it is still slightly buggy, I will not stop using it.
It’s superb.
Nothing like the UAD A800 - it’s a different thing as that is modelling tape and the tape machine, this does the non linearities in the actual consoles.
Years ago, with the help of Fletcher at Mercenary i did a Summing Buss Shoot out. Had the folcrum, Dangerous Buss and the rolls. Used a ton of pre’s to compare. At the end of the day, the engineers i sent the files to…and some mastering guys…all picked the Nuendo In the Box mixes. Ever since then i have been leary of ‘snake oil’.
I know from personal experience that Steven Slate DOES NOT sell snake oil, as his SSD Drum interface is what i rely on to cut drums with. Just a bit hesitant of the VCC thing. Hmmmmm…now you guys got me to thinking …and my wallet is already protesting!
Hi Dennis.
Where resources permit (in other words, not on a 200+ track 5.1 mix) I use a VCC on every channel and a VMB on every group channel & the main mix buss (3 of them if it’s a 5.1 mix)
The sole buggy issues remaining for me (and SSD are working on this) is that I occasionally get a small glitch in playback when I first open up an instance of the VMB GUI to adjust it.
Once first instance has been opened, it does not happen again until it has been closed for a while, then I get the same issue. This may be related to having oversampling switched in though.
It definitely does not crash Nuendo at all - very stable here. Working in versions 3, 4 & 5 with no trouble.
Right now, I would not be without it. Next up is a second UAD-2 Quad & the A800 though - the combination of the 2 should be very, very nice indeed.
Currently I have been using the same console & buss throughout the project.
Mixing console types is something I will probably attempt at some time very soon though.
(The reason for this is so I can properly learn what each type is doing before mixing them up)
I don’t mind at all - I tend to use the Neve more than the rest right now because it does something seriously nice to the low end - it’s hard to find the right words to describe what it is doing. There is a “gotcha” though, as the Neve seems to add a distortion to the very bottom end and a 20Hz HPF is often needed to correct for this.
Additionally, if you have a meter loaded first you will get a good idea of what is happening here. The first VCC you load will raise the noise floor and each further instance will increase this but it is not a problem - far from it, it seems to be part of the process and a future release will allow this to be turned off at STOP.
Let me explain - years ago, I remember reading an article that stated the problem with digital recording is that it is too good - we are just not used to the massive dynamic range on offer compared to vinyl (CD has a theoretical dynamic range of 96dB against about 40dB for vinyl) and it was suggested that adding a small amount of noise - properly shaped - would make the final CD sound better.
Then the next big myth was that digital summing was broken, and Analogue Summing boxes became almost a “must have” accessory. The idea is a good one but for the wrong reasons.
The story went that mixing on a large console gave a better stereo image and sounded more detailed, open and with a better low end. This was almost a universal feeling, so how to account for it? Someone decided to blame digital summing, and the analogue summing box was born. It turns out there is nothing wrong with digital summing these days (the days of undithered fixed point mixers are long gone) - after all it is simply addition which is something computers are rather good at. It turned out that it was the actual electronics themselves in the consoles that add the magic - audio takes on the character of the console’s components, if you will, as well as the circuit design. Harmonic distortion, crosstalk, noise and component saturation all played their part and every console appears to have it’s own “signature” sound.
I’m not going to even try to claim this plugin will replace a Neve console, or a Trident console or any console.
That would be absurd. What they can do is impart the character of a large format console to your work without the hassle of the footprint & the maintenance bills. We have found a similar effect with some of the UAD plugins too - for example, their Pultec internally upsamples to 192kHz so it can accurately model the non-linearities in the “Golden Unit” modelled by UAD, and simply inserting this onto a track or a 2-buss will add something to the audio just by being in the path & powered up - no cut or boost needed.
But I am getting off topic here - sorry.
Back to the VCC - coming in a future release will be something called “Console drift” - we can see it already but it’s not yet switched in. This will allow you to simulate the small changes in sound from channel to channel that you get on a real console. Should be fascinating.
As Steven Slate says, “Try it - if you like it, use it”.
I think you’ll like it - I certainly do.
Sadly no - I ran out of demo on the Studer, and if I buy it I just know I will need (want?) another Quad to run it on.
It’s going to happen - but not until July.
Neil,
OK, i am now in Day two of using my very own VCC.
All i can say is WOW! THe neve, as you suggested, is to me the clear winner of the bunch (for the way i like to hear mixes).
Its the magic thats been missing all along in the DAW world.
My mix sounds dull and lifeless when i click it into bypass mode! Its adds some life, some dimension, and some bottom…in a way that no other plug in has done (by my estimation).
Like the UAD card when it came out…being the game changer it was…THIS VCC is exactly the same thing. I saw on other forums where guys would say “I want to go back to older mixes now and add the VCC”…it somewhat sounded like Hype to me…but now… i TOO want to go back to old ITB mixes and add it. Problem is getting the bands to foot the bill on a second round of mastering and manufacturing!!
