Master Bus Compressor question.

[Pi_K]

wow, those are some inserts there in the screenshots...
thanks for share Tassy, I guess that I have to let go some concepts before moving on further!

[Subzero]

wow, those are some inserts there in the screenshots...
thanks for share Tassy, I guess that I have to let go some concepts before moving on further!

The only concept that matters in my opinion, is training yourself to use your ears for mixing. Presets can be a nice as starting points and some times a time saver. But there is no solution that fits everything.
My recommendation to you is to load a song that you're familiar with it's sound, into mixbus, then start fiddling with all 3 comp modes, one at a time.
The best way would be to start with each mode by lowering the thresh hold enough until you actually HEAR what it's doing (disregard the metering).
The first thing you'll notice is a lower overall volume as you lower the thresh hold more and more. Don't pay attention to this, just compensate for the difference with the gain knob so that the level stays the same weather the comp. is engaged or not.
What you should be trying to hear is what's happening to the attack of the material (does it become more "punchy" or "muddy") once your ears start recognizing this, start playing with the various parameters and see how they effect the sound. Do this one mode at a time and disregard any values / numbers displayed on the channel strip or any where else. Use ONLY your ears.
Once you get the feeling for this, try to shift your ears attention to the whole "picture". Does the material sound tighter in terms of all the parts/instruments sound "connected" or does something stands out or sounds as if it was added to the track separately. Once you start recognizing this, once again play with the various parameters and see how they affect the sound.
I'd recommend doing this with a plugin that has all the controls only AFTER you do this with the mixbus compressors, as the lack of some controls will force you to work more creatively which will result in a better understanding of what a comp is and how/why/when to use it.
Hope this helps ...

[Theotherguy]

In short, you need to practice.

[Pi_K]

Subzero, thats a very good point the last thing you said. Having less controls forces you to "see" what's going on instead. I hear you and of course Theotherguy as well.
I have to deliver a mix this week, so in the meantime I will be "practicing" on the fly.
Also I get the point on presets and that's how I use them, as a starting point for what matters to threshold and make up gain for example, but the initial experiment here was asking for replacing those "go-to's" from some mixers using plugins like SSL G bus and replacing it like the built in compressor in Mixbus, in terms of "analogish" adds and that kind of stuff that the other plugins claim to do also.
I see that Mixbus has based on the "sound" of a console besides the workflow, having the saturation knob on the mixbuses and the master. But is that it? I mean if I add to the ecuation the EQ and Comp from Harrison, doesn't I ended up with the same "analoguish" button that the Waves SSL offers in that plugin?

I can rely that question to my ears and so, but honestly Im sure will not have the right answer without asking the owners or the more experienced people using Mixbus.
Anyway, and honestly, this will be the first song that I recorded-mixed and "mastered" using just Mixbus, hopefully will have the sound I can deliver not in my mind, but at least the best what I can do so far.

HOPEFULLY

[Subzero]

Any one using mixbus professionally might tell you that the mixbus "sound" is more convincing then other analog emulations out there. But in my view there's more to it then that "sound".
All in all, if you know what you're doing and use properly coded software, you can get any sound you want.
The term professionally used in the last sentence, adds the time factor into the equation, because for those of us doing this as a job , time means money.
So for those of us that chose to use mixbus as the tool for the job earning our keep, it is simply more effective (in terms of time and workflow) to use it then other software to achieve the best results for our clients.
My two cents ...

[Pi_K]

I get your point perfectly Subzero, thanks for your reply man.