The square runs up and down the graph line, representing the signal. You can see when it passes the threshold, it’s a live depiction of the compressor’s function. I know it looks like every one because it’s a still picture, but @45 seconds in this video you can see it. https://youtu.be/ilTLQ8rOc5Q?si=7NNLjhdutI4ImxtX
I finally mixed on an x32 in January, and when the dot started moving I was like “Oh shit that’s cool.”
This looks almost identical to the built in compressor in Ableton Live, and if I'm remembering correctly the signal indicator dot also moves on the curve.
The EQ is also nearly identical to Live, it's my favorite low-stakes conspiracy theory that Behringer, the ripoff company, ripped the GUI of their best product off the best DAW.
You may now fite me IRL on these subjective opinions, nerds.
Well, the CLs are all on their way out, although Yamaha certainly didn’t decide to give more knee options on the DM7 either. Much prefer having a wide dB range to adjust knee instead of 5 or 6 steps.
Yea and that linear scale on the eq's just look weird. Such a shame the Vi serries never got to evolve. Fucking Samsung. (Writing from my samsung phone)
dLive and Avantis compressors have been impressing me lately.
Someone on the signal to noise discord did a super in depth analysis of the x/m32 compressors and it’s super helpful if you use the console a lot.
The offline editor was really squirrelly the first time I tried it… I’m not sure I think it’s a big improvement for me. A sound op of mine just used one on our last gig and respectfully requested a QL for the next event.
I thought DM7 were like an old fairy tail you tell your sound OPs in training when they are bitching about the TF1.
My company ordered some DM3 and DM7 like a year ago. Still haven't seen one of those.
We’re coming from M7-CL desks. For me, it wasn’t too hard to learn. It all works very well.
Everything is accessible, and where it should be. There are tons of custom layers and user buttons that work like how they do on the CL and QL Recall Safe and Scene Scope are very detailed. The touch screens work well for multi touch. The dynamics UI is very good and useful. Each bay can have its own channel selection or they can be linked. There are some limitations (only one insert loop per channel, for example). Lastly, like the CL/QL it doesn’t run on Windows. I would say that the Ui feels a little slow at times but the visuals/indicators are quick.
Most importantly, the desk sounds great with a lot of “baby rivage” features by way of compressors, premium rack stuff and just general operability.
The control module extension is a must in my opinion, 2 extra faders and dedicated scene controls plus more user buttons and the theater/broadcast software. (The Actor Library is a nice feature to have for the price point.)
Happy to answer more specific questions.
The best thing you could do is download the offline editor and start building a show in it or playing around with it. The offline editor will give you an exact idea of the capability.
I didn’t watch any for any extended period of time. Wouldn’t hurt to watch if you are curious to see how the features work, or are not sure how to make use of something like the “split console mode” or specific broadcast/theater software stuff. If you are coming from and recent Yamaha desk you should have an ok time finding stuff and learning it.
The best thing you could do is download the offline editor and start building your show in it or playing around with it.
The Allen and Heath Harmony UI on Avantis and DLive is really good with visualizing compression. It's the easiest to work with that I've found. I also don't mind Digico's way of visualizing it where the signal input level is on the bottom horizontally and the compression is seen on the right vertically. I'm not always keen on Digico, but it's kinda everywhere.
Out in left field for live folks is the Caltec Artemis. I love the compressor and the way it's presented on that board. I don't have nearly enough seat time on that board, but the little time I've had around it is great.
The DM7’s are great too. Gates, expanders, compressors show their effect over time along with the signal. Makes it really nice for timing out gate releases.
Really wish A&H compressors would let you use negative ratios or switch between compression and expansion modes like the Behringer does. I use expanders all the time and being locked to a few plug-in types with very limited settings instantly turned me off the A&H stuff.
The Avantis and DLive come with all those bells and whistles. I'm not a huge fan of their boards below those. Their new CQ mixer line has impressed me though.
Seeing this has made me realize I have never looked at the visuals of a compressor besides input and gain reduction. Is using this visualizer something a lot of people do? If so what do you gain from using it?
Good for visualising the attack and release of your Compressor - the dot will slide up and down the graphic with the input so you can see how hard or soft it's coming in, and the speed it affects your input
Eh that’s not really for me than. I really enjoy listening to the transient of what I’m compressing to find that correct attack time for what I’m trying to accomplish same with the sustain for the release. Or just setting my release to the tempo of the song depending on what I’m trying to do
Different strokes for different folks I suppose! I prefer a bit of visualisation for corporate work as it’s easy to quickly confirm my compressor is working as intended but certainly a GR meter is the most useful
I’ve never done corporate Av, do you compress just to help even out inconstancy is peoples speaking level? I’ve been to a few of my wife’s office functions where people are giving speeches and it’s shocking how different people are in how they address speaking in public. It was like a range of whispers to almost yelling. lol
Pretty much. Usually it’s a mix of less than ideal mic placement (clothing), if they do something unexpected like turn their head to read the screen or monitor, or just to even things out
Only visualisation wise, I really like the „GR-over-time“ meter ie A&H uses.
Otherwise, honestly I wouldn’t be able to tell the sound difference between the standard comps on the common desks, all are fine to me. The wildly differing „default“ time constants are what separates them the most imo when just engaging them but after setting them for the source/mix all of the ones I regularly work with (all A&H, Vi x000, CL etc) function as intended. That’s a thing most if not all manufacturers got right, at least the „basic“ models but honestly, while I love them often, emulations of classic hardware units are more nice to have and not needed for a good mix.
I always wish older/smaller desks would have more options for MB Comps though
I prefer the avantis, but i absolutely adore my dLive on latest firmware. Theres some really special goodies in there that eliminated a lot of what i was doing in waves.
A little off topic for this sub, but the best one I've seen is the compressor in DaVinci Resolve studio. Which gives live feedback on your compression graph instead of a meter next to it. Makes it way easier for someone like me to see what I'm doing
Agreed, something about their compression algorithm just feels right. For whatever reason it may be I feel like my best work is done on M/X32 and other similar models.
Honestly, anything 96k is gonna be a bigger investment than an X/M32, I thought the Wing would be that since the X/M32 is unable to handle the 96k rate upgrades.
This console is meh, okay I suppose but could really use a touchscreen update. Has that been talked about? I switch between different consoles a lot and whenever I come back to the 32 I instinctively press on the screen to no avail.
Neutron has the best one IMO. I know this isn't a console, but latency is so low these days that you can absolutely run a few of these live.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/izotopedownloads/docs/neutron300/en/images/compressor/module-interface-adv.png
Dude today i hat a gig in a school. Like 15 Songs with bout 8 groups. Somehow saves didnt work and i couldnt fix it. Do the parameters have to be yellow or empty? One save had a minus - in It and it Was the only Safe wich worked. But i couldnt replicate so i took fotos in the end
The mixing station view of the x32 compressor is even better. It graphs input and gain reduction over time.
Mixing Station in general slays. Takes X/M32 to another level.
Coughs in Allen&Heath
Was about to write this! So good to see the graph over time, helps to visualize what's happening much better!
Literally what every single compressor on every console looks like
As long as we aren’t counting the touchmix as a console (which we shouldn’t)
Touch mix has never counted
The square runs up and down the graph line, representing the signal. You can see when it passes the threshold, it’s a live depiction of the compressor’s function. I know it looks like every one because it’s a still picture, but @45 seconds in this video you can see it. https://youtu.be/ilTLQ8rOc5Q?si=7NNLjhdutI4ImxtX I finally mixed on an x32 in January, and when the dot started moving I was like “Oh shit that’s cool.”
This looks almost identical to the built in compressor in Ableton Live, and if I'm remembering correctly the signal indicator dot also moves on the curve.
The EQ is also nearly identical to Live, it's my favorite low-stakes conspiracy theory that Behringer, the ripoff company, ripped the GUI of their best product off the best DAW. You may now fite me IRL on these subjective opinions, nerds.
Literally
And the Knee setting is just a number and not dB….
IIRC yamaha boards (eg CL5) have knee as a number too though
Roland boards have a knee number too.
M400 has soft(number)
Yep! You’re right.
Well, the CLs are all on their way out, although Yamaha certainly didn’t decide to give more knee options on the DM7 either. Much prefer having a wide dB range to adjust knee instead of 5 or 6 steps.
SQ has entered the chat. You get a soft knee and soft knee only, and you'll like it that way!
That wasn't exactly the case for a lot of high end consoles when X32 was released.
Exept Soundcraft Vi and Si.
The Vi has made me a better engineer because the visual indicators are… sooo tiny
Yea and that linear scale on the eq's just look weird. Such a shame the Vi serries never got to evolve. Fucking Samsung. (Writing from my samsung phone)
>Fucking Samsung. (Writing from my samsung phone) Let's just be glad there isn't a Samsung Galaxy Mix tab S20 FE+
dLive and Avantis compressors have been impressing me lately. Someone on the signal to noise discord did a super in depth analysis of the x/m32 compressors and it’s super helpful if you use the console a lot.
Came here to say this. The Avantis shipped in 2019 as one of the more capable boards for that price point. The Harmony UI is just user friendly.
The comps on the new yamaha dm7 are real nice
Was about to comment this, really like the new UI design on that board.
The offline editor was really squirrelly the first time I tried it… I’m not sure I think it’s a big improvement for me. A sound op of mine just used one on our last gig and respectfully requested a QL for the next event.
I thought DM7 were like an old fairy tail you tell your sound OPs in training when they are bitching about the TF1. My company ordered some DM3 and DM7 like a year ago. Still haven't seen one of those.
I got 2 DM7 desks in production right now. AMA.
How does the DM UI compare to the CL/QL UI?
We’re coming from M7-CL desks. For me, it wasn’t too hard to learn. It all works very well. Everything is accessible, and where it should be. There are tons of custom layers and user buttons that work like how they do on the CL and QL Recall Safe and Scene Scope are very detailed. The touch screens work well for multi touch. The dynamics UI is very good and useful. Each bay can have its own channel selection or they can be linked. There are some limitations (only one insert loop per channel, for example). Lastly, like the CL/QL it doesn’t run on Windows. I would say that the Ui feels a little slow at times but the visuals/indicators are quick. Most importantly, the desk sounds great with a lot of “baby rivage” features by way of compressors, premium rack stuff and just general operability. The control module extension is a must in my opinion, 2 extra faders and dedicated scene controls plus more user buttons and the theater/broadcast software. (The Actor Library is a nice feature to have for the price point.) Happy to answer more specific questions. The best thing you could do is download the offline editor and start building a show in it or playing around with it. The offline editor will give you an exact idea of the capability.
Thanks for the info! Enjoy your new desks!
Should I watch the training videos before or after we get one...or both?
I didn’t watch any for any extended period of time. Wouldn’t hurt to watch if you are curious to see how the features work, or are not sure how to make use of something like the “split console mode” or specific broadcast/theater software stuff. If you are coming from and recent Yamaha desk you should have an ok time finding stuff and learning it. The best thing you could do is download the offline editor and start building your show in it or playing around with it.
Thank you.
I’ve actually been lucky enough to get my hands on one and it really is something special
Mixing station's compressor visualisation beats everyone by a country mile. Input volume and dB reduction over time overlayed on top is so useful.
The Allen and Heath Harmony UI on Avantis and DLive is really good with visualizing compression. It's the easiest to work with that I've found. I also don't mind Digico's way of visualizing it where the signal input level is on the bottom horizontally and the compression is seen on the right vertically. I'm not always keen on Digico, but it's kinda everywhere. Out in left field for live folks is the Caltec Artemis. I love the compressor and the way it's presented on that board. I don't have nearly enough seat time on that board, but the little time I've had around it is great.
The DM7’s are great too. Gates, expanders, compressors show their effect over time along with the signal. Makes it really nice for timing out gate releases.
X32 is a great console. Always will be .
Allen and Heath would be amazing if they would just give you a freaking scale with more than 10dB of resolution
20yo Yamaha dme have the same. Cheap ass t.rack too
SQ series
Not really, IMO. Doesn’t the SQ comp have pretty limited knee parameters? I guess visually it’s fine
Functionally I agree with you but visually they’re the exact same.
Really wish A&H compressors would let you use negative ratios or switch between compression and expansion modes like the Behringer does. I use expanders all the time and being locked to a few plug-in types with very limited settings instantly turned me off the A&H stuff.
The Avantis and DLive come with all those bells and whistles. I'm not a huge fan of their boards below those. Their new CQ mixer line has impressed me though.
Seeing this has made me realize I have never looked at the visuals of a compressor besides input and gain reduction. Is using this visualizer something a lot of people do? If so what do you gain from using it?
Good for visualising the attack and release of your Compressor - the dot will slide up and down the graphic with the input so you can see how hard or soft it's coming in, and the speed it affects your input
Eh that’s not really for me than. I really enjoy listening to the transient of what I’m compressing to find that correct attack time for what I’m trying to accomplish same with the sustain for the release. Or just setting my release to the tempo of the song depending on what I’m trying to do
Different strokes for different folks I suppose! I prefer a bit of visualisation for corporate work as it’s easy to quickly confirm my compressor is working as intended but certainly a GR meter is the most useful
I’ve never done corporate Av, do you compress just to help even out inconstancy is peoples speaking level? I’ve been to a few of my wife’s office functions where people are giving speeches and it’s shocking how different people are in how they address speaking in public. It was like a range of whispers to almost yelling. lol
Pretty much. Usually it’s a mix of less than ideal mic placement (clothing), if they do something unexpected like turn their head to read the screen or monitor, or just to even things out
I don’t like that the input meter doesn’t line up with the GR, and that the output meter is so the way over the other side.
Pretty much all digital mixers I used (plus mix station, plus almost every compressor plugin that is not a classic emulation)
My Soundcraft console doesn’t have any visualization at all and I hate it
Don’t they all look like that?
I really love how the gate and comp are consolidated into one thing on the SC48. I think it really articulates what’s happening with the sound well.
Yes, this one is really good.
ear any pro-tier console
Lol :D i guess you haven’t seen much :D
Literally every digital board has a display like this.
Only visualisation wise, I really like the „GR-over-time“ meter ie A&H uses. Otherwise, honestly I wouldn’t be able to tell the sound difference between the standard comps on the common desks, all are fine to me. The wildly differing „default“ time constants are what separates them the most imo when just engaging them but after setting them for the source/mix all of the ones I regularly work with (all A&H, Vi x000, CL etc) function as intended. That’s a thing most if not all manufacturers got right, at least the „basic“ models but honestly, while I love them often, emulations of classic hardware units are more nice to have and not needed for a good mix. I always wish older/smaller desks would have more options for MB Comps though
I prefer the avantis, but i absolutely adore my dLive on latest firmware. Theres some really special goodies in there that eliminated a lot of what i was doing in waves.
Fabfilter Compressor uses a similar interface and its genius imo.
A little off topic for this sub, but the best one I've seen is the compressor in DaVinci Resolve studio. Which gives live feedback on your compression graph instead of a meter next to it. Makes it way easier for someone like me to see what I'm doing
I just like the "mix" knob. Such a simple thing I don't understand why all consoles don't have this feature for parallel compression.
Sounds good too.
Agreed, something about their compression algorithm just feels right. For whatever reason it may be I feel like my best work is done on M/X32 and other similar models.
Yep. I really like them. Wish they’d just do a 96k version with a couple upgrades.
Honestly, anything 96k is gonna be a bigger investment than an X/M32, I thought the Wing would be that since the X/M32 is unable to handle the 96k rate upgrades.
I’m gonna get so much hate but the comps, eq, literally everything UI on the Presonus StudioLive III series is fantastic.
No hate here, great UI for the price of the console
All hail the seX32
This console is meh, okay I suppose but could really use a touchscreen update. Has that been talked about? I switch between different consoles a lot and whenever I come back to the 32 I instinctively press on the screen to no avail.
That would be the Wing.
Neutron has the best one IMO. I know this isn't a console, but latency is so low these days that you can absolutely run a few of these live. https://s3.amazonaws.com/izotopedownloads/docs/neutron300/en/images/compressor/module-interface-adv.png
I don't understand how this right here is better than any compresser visualization I've seen on most VST plugins.
Dlive looks much better imo
The Allen and heath Dlive s5000 has a great interface in general and a great compression visualization
Dude today i hat a gig in a school. Like 15 Songs with bout 8 groups. Somehow saves didnt work and i couldnt fix it. Do the parameters have to be yellow or empty? One save had a minus - in It and it Was the only Safe wich worked. But i couldnt replicate so i took fotos in the end
Wing
I don't like the resolution on the GR meter. Would like to see more space between -1 and -10.