Audiodamage "Rough Rider" - Free compressor from audiodamage (dl link in post)

Rough Rider is a modern compressor with a bit of "vintage" style bite and a uniquely warm sound. Perfect for adding compression effects to your drum buss, it also sounds great with synth bass, clean guitar, and backing vocals. Definitely not an all-purpose compressor, Rough Rider is at its best when used to add pump to rhythmic tracks. Of course, you can use it however you'd like. The Compressor Police aren't gonna come to your house and give you a citation. Slap it on a track and crank some knobs.

The front panel layout is done the same as many hardware compressors, so it will be immediately obvious how to use it. A brief overview of the controls:

Ratio: The ratio knob is logarithmic in operation. Completely anti-clockwise is 1:1, and completely clockwise is 1:1000. The 12 o'clock position is 1:10, so everything to the left of center is single digits, and everything to the right is "atom bomb squish," essentially.

Attack and Release: We left off the actual time values, so you're gonna have to use your ears, like the he-men did it in times of myth.

Meter: That honking big dial in the middle of the UI is the gain reduction meter. It basically shows how much compression is occurring.

Sensitivity: usually called "threshold" now, but we think "sensitivity" always made more sense. Turn to the right, you get more compression, essentially. Turn it all the way to the right, and you've got a distortion box, the sound of which is tuned by Ratio, Attack, and Release.

Makeup: 30 dB of gain to compensate for the attenuation caused by the compressor.

Active: From the front panel, this is simply an off/on switch, but if you automate it, strange things happen...

MIDI Learn: Like all of our products, the VST version has MIDI Learn. Download any manual from the current product line for an explanation of how this works, as it is common among all our VST products.

Rough Rider is available as a VST effect for Windows, and an AU or VST for OSX. The OSX versions are Universal Binaries, and require OSX
10.4.0 or later.

http://www.audiodamage.com/images/pr...shot/rr_ss.gif

DOWNLOAD:

Windows vst - http://www.audiodamage.com/demos/WIN_rough_1001.zip

Mac Osx - http://www.audiodamage.com/demos/OSX_rough_100a.zip

Ooooh nice, will download it now.

cheers for the heads up - i have been looking for this kind of compressor - ta

There's some nice ideas on k-v-r to 'solve' the 'problem' one might have with the dev's decision to implement a lowpass above say 10 KHz. Just in case that might be what's stopping peeps from using this one.

im using it on the mid-drums for a new track and it sounds totally sick! i love this comp.. probably not the best choice when you need precision and clarity though.

It sure as hell is sick. Some interesting ideas on this page of the k-v-r thread. There are pre and post presets for iieq eq which will bring back the 'missing' highs, if you want. Plus the idea to use the plugin merger by christian budde.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewto...=asc&start=225

that plugin merger looks so cool.. was lookin at it earlier..

gonna start messing with a few diferant things.. maybe some waves comps with a sonalksis tape saturation..

Also have a look at the vst oversampler. There was one by a person called arke before but when this is done it is more convenient i reckon. Man - these possibilities we have. Another great little vst i have rediscouvered in a way is otiumfx sonitex. There's some pretty crusty vinylish presets to send som epercs through. The demo has a beep noise but if you export long enuff loops you can can get passed that limitation and render and then cut shit up so you are left with loops without the noise.

http://www.otiumfx.com/sonitex.php

Thx, will check this at home. I love AudioDamage plugins, so good and so cheap.

Looks nice D/L now! Thanks rhythmtech :)

little hint for everyone.

the "active" button when pressed is straight on/off BUT if automated it responds like a mix knob.. get some lovely stuff going with it when automated

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rhythmtech

little hint for everyone.

the "active" button when pressed is straight on/off BUT if automated it responds like a mix knob.. get some lovely stuff going with it when automated

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excuse me if this sounds stupid...

when would you automate a compressor? never thought of doing it before, what applications does it have?

Nice one mate, on the D/L!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by p_brane

excuse me if this sounds stupid...

when would you automate a compressor? never thought of doing it before, what applications does it have?

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plenty of reasons, some musical and some more dynamic based.

for instance you could automate the mix to slowly build a drumbeat up from dry to compressed by bringing in a heavily compressed beat under the same one thats pretty dry. this would be similiar to parralell compression except you use the mix automation.

or you could use it in mixing to keep a part under control that has a very high dynamic range and cant be just "set & forget"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rhythmtech

plenty of reasons, some musical and some more dynamic based.

for instance you could automate the mix to slowly build a drumbeat up from dry to compressed by bringing in a heavily compressed beat under the same one thats pretty dry. this would be similiar to parralell compression except you use the mix automation.

or you could use it in mixing to keep a part under control that has a very high dynamic range and cant be just "set & forget"

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cheers for the reply rhythmtech. obviously got a lot to learn about dynamics.:smile: