Major Tom Initial Transient Sound

Stillwell Audio Plugins Major Tom
1

Hi All,

Am really liking Major Tom, particularly for extreme rhythmic uses. I find it can clamp down with amazing authority on staccato sounds, and I love how one can dial up a variety of releases.

But I’m having a recurrent issue when compressing ordinary drum groups, in that on any but the mildest settings, particularly on drum sounds where the initial transient has any high end content (for instance a closed hat stroke simultaneous with the kick hit), the initial part of the transient is slipping through and creating a “CH” sound that I’m finding disproportionately loud in relation to the rest of what the compressor is offering me. And unfortunately I’m finding it impossible to bring that “CH” down without either severely low-passing the sound (not good :confused: ) or reducing the extremity of Major Tom’s settings so that I’m not getting to enjoy the very effects I love about Major Tom.

I’m wondering if there might be a way to attenuate or even completely clamp down on that first transient, maybe an “extreme attack” option or somesuch, or at least something to bring its amplitude down. I don’t mind it on one or two tracks, but when most my tracks begin to exhibit a predictable “CH” on the one, it suddenly becomes a bit of a problem. :frowning: It has such great character and such shaping power that I would love to be able to use it more freely, and I really think this might deeply enhance its usability.

Thanks for your time.

Cheers.
:sunglasses:

2

Let me dig into it with a couple of engineer buddies to see what the possible causes and fixes would be (I find it useful to discuss what would happen “real world” with a piece of hardware doing something…I can often translate that behavior into code.

Thanks for the feedback, here and on KVR. It’s appreciated.

Scott

3

Well hey, thanks for taking the time to consider it.

Cheers!
:slight_smile:

4

So far, initial response is that the original box we’re modeling after had the same behavior…and that newer models of the box had an additional limiter to do peak limiting above the comp threshold. That could certainly be added down the line, but I’d definitely like it to be optional…sometimes you WANT it to bark like it’s doing now.

Scott

5

Yes, that’s [i:89829]definitely [/i:89829]true, I neglected to mention that in my first post.

It’s simply that, when used (particularly on drum sounds with higher frequency content) on higher ratios and lower thresholds – which is where Major Tom really starts to get tasty and interesting, imho :smiley: – the sound is very recognizable, almost like a special effect, and though I wouldn’t hesitate to use it on the drum group of ONE song on an album, it does mean that if I use it on the drum groups of SEVERAL different songs on the same album, it’s going to sound a bit like I used the same gimmick everywhere.

But hey, if it’s a behavior of the original unit, who am I to complain? :confused:

I DO think, however, that some sort of way to clamp down on that initial “CH” sound, or reduce its amplitude in some predictable way, would greatly increase the number of instances in which one could use Major Tom, which strikes me as a really cool thing. It would make it a bit less of a “special circumstances” compressor. On the other hand, if the coding would be hellish, that’s a different affair, of course.

Must say I’m loving it on lower frequency sounds at extreme settings! :exclamation: It’s almost like MT gives one the ability to mold certain staccato sounds like they were clay, and there have been more than a few cases in which it was almost like I had reversed the sample. I just find that [i:89829]really [/i:89829]cool.

Thanks for considering it, I just request that you don’t completely shelve the idea.

Cheers,
Seth
:sunglasses:

6

Problem ingeniously solved. Thanks VERY much, Scott.

I can see Major Tom become a major part of my toolkit. Great work.

Cheers.
:sunglasses: