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James... « Cool it on the compression Jack! »
Published on 08/08/11 at 19:59I was skeptical about these artist plugin's but I'm a big fan of Jack's work so I decided to take the plunge. Setup of course is easy. Waves offers so many options for those with different setups. Stereo, mono, vst, whatever. I use cubase and I never have a problem with their stuff. Regardless of how much I like it I always find they have a consistent quality. The Puig vocal plugin isn't rocket science. You only have a handful of controls and the presets are pretty usable depending on what music you're doing.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
I'm guessing that this plugin was intended to work in a large band mix. That's how I use it at least. I'm not running a ton of channels in cubase. Just drums. bass, guitar. some synth, and the rare string track every so often. So my mixes probably aren't quite as dense as some. I do layer guitars a lot though. I will say this plugin does make the vocals cut through in a pleasant way. The tone shaping is great. But it seems like the plugin has this crazy strong compression that makes me want to rip my headphones out. I tried dialing it out and it's hard to get rid of it. Basically on all but the most meager of settings, my vocals end up sounding like they've been compressed to the absolute limits and back.
Honestly though, I think if you have a super thick mix this would come in handy. Sometimes you really have to push vocals for them to come through in a large cluster of tracks. I can see the excessive compression being useful for that capacity and I guess I should've known better knowing JJP's catalog. He is known for epic mixes. I just wish there was a way to tone that whole thing down. For my uses I'll give it a 5 but I think for the right person it could be a 9.
OVERALL OPINION
I like how easy this plugin is to use and I think if it didn't sound so dynamically processed it might be my #1. The "magic" button is a mystery to me really. The manual doesn't really explain jack about it. Well, it tries but does more harm than good I think. I get the feeling this vst was supposed to be geared toward beginners. Makes sense. But honestly I still think it's a quality plug. I have the other JJP plugins and I have used some more than others. This one for me is a bit of a miss. I have found other waves plugs I like better for vocals.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
I'm guessing that this plugin was intended to work in a large band mix. That's how I use it at least. I'm not running a ton of channels in cubase. Just drums. bass, guitar. some synth, and the rare string track every so often. So my mixes probably aren't quite as dense as some. I do layer guitars a lot though. I will say this plugin does make the vocals cut through in a pleasant way. The tone shaping is great. But it seems like the plugin has this crazy strong compression that makes me want to rip my headphones out. I tried dialing it out and it's hard to get rid of it. Basically on all but the most meager of settings, my vocals end up sounding like they've been compressed to the absolute limits and back.
Honestly though, I think if you have a super thick mix this would come in handy. Sometimes you really have to push vocals for them to come through in a large cluster of tracks. I can see the excessive compression being useful for that capacity and I guess I should've known better knowing JJP's catalog. He is known for epic mixes. I just wish there was a way to tone that whole thing down. For my uses I'll give it a 5 but I think for the right person it could be a 9.
OVERALL OPINION
I like how easy this plugin is to use and I think if it didn't sound so dynamically processed it might be my #1. The "magic" button is a mystery to me really. The manual doesn't really explain jack about it. Well, it tries but does more harm than good I think. I get the feeling this vst was supposed to be geared toward beginners. Makes sense. But honestly I still think it's a quality plug. I have the other JJP plugins and I have used some more than others. This one for me is a bit of a miss. I have found other waves plugs I like better for vocals.