tarrtime « Under-rated guitar compressor »
Published on 12/05/12 at 06:06I purchased this plug-in as part of the Waves Gold Bundle. The Renaissance Axx compressor is a software plug-in to be used inside a DAW. Waves plug-in are easy to install and authorize. Their plug-ins can be directly downloaded from their website and take about 5 minutes to get authorized.
The Renaissance Axx plug-in was designed to be super easy to use. Compressors can have a lot of settings (attack, release, threshold, ratio, knee, etc). This plug-in makes is simple if you don't know much about how to use compression. There is a slider on the left to pull down until you squeeze the input signal enough, and there is a slider on the right to pull up and down to change the output volume. Waves includes 'presets', but I think they are unnecessary. Essentially this plug-in is just one big preset to begin with, as the settings for release, ratio, knee are already fixed behind the scenes.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
This compressor levels out the volume of a guitar track very well. This compressor doesn't add a lot of 'color' to the track like a Waves H-Comp or CLA-76 compressor does. There are plenty of situations when I want the level of my guitar track to be evened out, but I don't want the sound to change dramatically. In those situations, I call up the Renaissance Axx, and I like the results.
OVERALL OPINION
This plug-in is marketed for adding compression to guitar tracks, and does a great job at its specialty. Honestly, I haven't tried the plug-in with any other source material (drums, bass, keyboards, vocals) because I have a lot of other compressors. I wouldn't be surprised, though, that this compressor could do a decent job for other instruments. If this was the only compressor I owned, it would probably suffice.
Some people won't like the limited about of features/controls. There are plenty of other plug-ins to buy if you want a lot of knobs to tweak. Sometimes it is just easier to load up Renaissance Axx and move on.
The Renaissance Axx plug-in was designed to be super easy to use. Compressors can have a lot of settings (attack, release, threshold, ratio, knee, etc). This plug-in makes is simple if you don't know much about how to use compression. There is a slider on the left to pull down until you squeeze the input signal enough, and there is a slider on the right to pull up and down to change the output volume. Waves includes 'presets', but I think they are unnecessary. Essentially this plug-in is just one big preset to begin with, as the settings for release, ratio, knee are already fixed behind the scenes.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
This compressor levels out the volume of a guitar track very well. This compressor doesn't add a lot of 'color' to the track like a Waves H-Comp or CLA-76 compressor does. There are plenty of situations when I want the level of my guitar track to be evened out, but I don't want the sound to change dramatically. In those situations, I call up the Renaissance Axx, and I like the results.
OVERALL OPINION
This plug-in is marketed for adding compression to guitar tracks, and does a great job at its specialty. Honestly, I haven't tried the plug-in with any other source material (drums, bass, keyboards, vocals) because I have a lot of other compressors. I wouldn't be surprised, though, that this compressor could do a decent job for other instruments. If this was the only compressor I owned, it would probably suffice.
Some people won't like the limited about of features/controls. There are plenty of other plug-ins to buy if you want a lot of knobs to tweak. Sometimes it is just easier to load up Renaissance Axx and move on.