WTF is a Compander? 

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This man is David Attenborough of audio community!

I've been a Satin user since it launched. A few years ago a friend asked me to help him transfer some 16 track 2" multitrack tapes from a session originally done at the legendary Rudy Van Gelder studios in Englewood, NJ back in 1972. I just happen to have a 16 track 2" Scully machine. So he was excited that I could help him. The problem was that the tapes had dbx Type I NR on them. My machine came with 16 channels of dbx Type I NR but only eight were working. Enter Satin, which had just come out at the time. I transferred the tapes into my computer raw and then applied the decoding in my DAW. It worked perfectly. Thanks for the great video on companders. They are fun to play with and I agree that no other plug-in offers that functionality, as far as I know.

It's a combination of a computer and a panda

I flat out brickwalled and then clipped the like button.

Dan. In the first damn minute of this video you've given me a Eureka moment. I've been at a music studio to try using analog gear, in my early training in audio engineering, I've never understood why compression was so prevalent in general, but particularly why the owner of that music studio kept telling me to always apply 2 or 3 dB of compression when recording any kind of drums. I understood that you (almost) always apply some compression anyway in order to get the sounds to sit nicely in the final mix, and that it's very rare that you don't apply any compression at all, particularly in a rock context. I had accepted this idea as a rule of thumb for recording while keeping in mind the targetted shape of the signals for a final mix. But you've reminded me of a day I've never known (at least, I never took interest in audio engineering in that day because I was a small child): recording to analog tape. And now finally I understand that anyway a compressor is required simply to not hit analog tape too hard. And this was probably where this audio engineer who was training me was getting his habit from (he is an older guy), and I couldn't understand why he recorded this way since it looked to me he was sending his signal to a great AnalogDigitalConverter anyway and probably could record his takes clean in ProTools. And now even more I understand why people rave so much about analog compressors and how important they are, and I also understand even more that when you are working with these restrictions, you are forced to keep your signals within a more constrained dynamic range. I have the opposite issue: being a digital kid, I have so much dynamic range I struggle to find the right balance for my signals that tend to come in and out of the mix if I'm not being careful. I know all of this sounds super obvious, but because I've never seen a recording studio digital tape in my life and never experienced the hassles of analog recording of the old days, I never put 2 and 2 together, for me tape is an effect, not a medium. And finally, now that I've had this eureka moment, I'd like to try to do a mix by applying tape emulation on every track, as an exercise in discovering how mixing with these restrictions in dynamic range can maybe train my ears to get used to their sound, and later mix without tape emulation but with my ears attuned to what a sensible dynamic range is, for a classic record.

The compander + saturation trick is incredible. It sounds nuts, because you can absolutely crush the sound and still get the dynamics. I love to hear that kind of sound in recordings (arctic monkey's AM, for example) and I had no idea how to get it. Thank you so much !

I'm shocked. The B sounds exactly like I remember from my teens. I don't want drastic changes in EQ most of the time, but this tutorial has provided lots of options I hadn't considered. Dan, I'm a longtime fan, and I've joined the RU-vid membership to support your channel. UPDATE: Just retested the plugin on a master test using the compander. Why isn't that on by default? U-he would sell a LOT more licenses. SOLD! I'm able to get a really great profile that doesn't badly skew the source. This alone didn't impress me before. But with the compander... holy shit. A Type compander with NAB circuit. OMG!

your videos are ridiculously informative. edit: hip hop producers have never dialled anything back in our lives XD

Dan's tutorials and lessons sound for me like songs of a band that I love....each video is a new hit...thanks for being that special.

you're knowledge is amazing, and your easy way of showing everything makes us plebs able to grasp stuff!!

Wtf is a compander + satin + drum mixing tips ( 3 tutorials packaged in ine ) Dan you clarity in explaining things is profoundly unique.

Holy moly, thank you soo much for this excellent video. You got me totally excited about using this with Decapitator (I absolutely love this saturation plugin)

Thank you Dan. U-he Diva, Bazille, Zebra, Ace, Hive are all great but my absolute favorite from them still is Satin. I enjoyed a lot to step a little deeper into this amazing plugin. I'd be glad if some day you maybe do a video about Presswerk too :)

Great tip! Satin helped me out a great deal when I was transfering analog recordings made using dbx noise reduction. Bypassing tape and EQ and just using the decoder made it possible to enjoy the recoding once again. Great plugin!

Your videos are amazing the best audio demonstrations on youtube.

That piano sound you chose as the background music at the start is one of the best ones i've ever heard. Heavy yet filigree, a smooth shape with a deep reaching foundation

Always excited for more Worrall heat! Bomboclart! Best audio pro vids on RU-vid! Thanks for your great work your videos are so interesting!

Brilliant. Thank you, Dan!

Wow, that made my day, thanks a lot. I've been using this plugin for quite some time and never thought about that, that's excellent !

I randomly bought this Korg KEC-42 compander at a shop & I had no idea what it was supposed to do but this video helped a lot

What an impressive variety of results that plugin can achieve! Added to my wish list.

Whoa. I feel like this is going to be a game changer in me getting more lively sound out of drums machines and sequenced percussion parts. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I own satin and new the basics of compansion from reading the manual, but that last trick sounded fantastic. And true iron as well. Been on my very short list of plugins to get for a while but haven't got round to it yet. Even with decapitator it gave a real deep, posh texture to the sound. Cant wait to experiment. Thanks again

We just recently purchased some Dolby A cards with their Cat 360 units and oh boy, it is such a lovely effect. I used it onto tape encoding as part of the mastering process and decoding back into pro tools. I can’t wait to start using it on individual tracks soon too in a session. We also modded one card so we can individually bypass the 4 bands for some cool exciter effects. Great video, more engineers should know about this technique! Great watch as always :)

First subscription on YT....i have been using internet since dial-up modems...Thank You DAN.

First! Thank you Dan! I’ve learned so much about dynamics, phase and eq thanks to you and your work

They gave older recordings a nice "pump" that brought vocals out but in modern music, where the snare and kick are usually loudest, they don't quite sound as good. But if you want a great example of companders at work, "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney had one prominently in its final mix process because of how worn the tape was from recording in a humid, hot studio in Africa. Very "pumpy" mixes but still musical.

This was nostalgic, Dolby tape machines, Cassette Decks and the Walkman-s type B trick! 😭 Awesome tutorial once again! Thank You Dan! 🍻

compress the like button XD really enjoying these videos, i'm a technical oriented person and i like all the detail, it's really helping me understand whats happening to the sounds more than well, i like it with these settings

I was 8 years old (now 55) already experimenting with this. Now later I still use these techniques but for FM clipping pre emphase for the endstage clippers in the play automatization, I use this plugin before it hits a leveler, but it adds some warmth in the digital DSP's for FM. My secret blackbox you could say. Love this stuff, Dan, thanks again!

That True Iron plugin is terrific. Thanks for this. Very informative. It would be nice if U-He released some mini plugins with just these processes. A simple compander plug would be amazing!

Another great tip! Very creative - thanks so much!

Really interesting - thanks Dan.

Definitely gonna experiment with this. Thanks!

Amazing and very interesting, thanks for share!

Wowwww…. Back in the days when this plug in was released, I used Satin only a couple of time and decided to use another tape emulation with less options. This video is a gift, i will give another try soon as possible

Every Time Dan Worrall speaks: *My mind blown* edit: I was literally trying to find some way to tame my distortion on a filter I had in my reason rack just last night and I couldn't find a transparent enough distortion to properly overdrive my filter

Great stuff, thanks Dan

Jealous that I didn’t think of dynamics as another sort of emphasis / de emphasis technique. Really smart.

uhx type II is my favortie, sounds incredibly smooth and spacious while maintaining optimal detail in the very high & very low end

Just love your vids, instalike even tho i dont know what its gonna be about lol Also, Dan speaks in the tempo of the song, and usually a snare is exactly where he stops speaking :)

Amazing!! Thanks Dan!!

Thanks Dan for the tips

OMG Thank you! I ALREADY love my SATIN plugin, but DAMN 🤯 ...I'm even MORE madly in love with it NOW 🤔 You've opened up an entire Arsenal of NEW WAYS to contour dynamics in my tracks 🤩 I've been a fan of your tutorials for a while, but this SERIOUSLY has made me look @ ALL my Plugins with NEW EYES. You are one Hell of a FIND against the Ceaseless Ocean of Bad/Mediocre/Just Dead Wrong sound design Instruction on RU-vid. Respect! 😎👍⚡💥

Thanks Dan, I learned a lot

You never disappoint, Mr. Worrall.

this guy just makes you want to listen to what he says and do what he does!

Oh boy ! Dan , you have just sold a Satin licence to me with this video! The best videos on RU-vid!🙏

I grew up in the 90's with a cassette in my hand and I have to say that this video enriched me a lot. Although I didn't enjoy it much at first. But the ending is amazing!!! I have to try it. Thanks for the inspiration!

Great video has usual. Thanks ;)

Sweet baby Jesus, this is pure gold! :) Much love for sharing the knowledge!

This is glorious!

Like button compressed, a brick now, I’d say haha. Great vid as always, keep it up Dan!

Thank you, Dan, for that demonstration. I often use Satin for Lo-Fi productions. But I didn't know all this incredible informations. Thank you very much for that. PS: Could you please enable English subtitles on your videos. I can understand some technical aspects better with subtitles. It's the difference between seeing and hearing when you're not fully bilingual. Thx. :)

Never used Satin in any production....but now....i like it!

"How cool is that?!" Indeed - thank you very much for this deep and helpful insight in Satin!

12:43 Yes sir it is!

Oh man, I think I might have picked the wrong hobby. Add the 2:00 minute section of this video to my ever growing list of 'couldn't hear the difference'! 🤣 Deeply appreciative for all of your excellent insights all the same, as always. Cheers Dan!

Bit pissed so will need to watch this again :P

13:07 this trick only makes the whole video worth it. Amazing

Very clever Thankyou

In fact, you deserve my subscription. #subscribed

you sir, are a treasure

Speechless...

Damn that's a real nice trick with the two instances

Thanks dan!

Ah yes, the "But Wait, There's More" school of dispensing audio wisdom.

Pristine! Thank you!

Thanks Dan!!!

Your videos are so informative. Thank you. I don't know if you are payed for this but you should be.

We still use the Dolby trick. The original Dolby A devices are still banging around quite a few studios because they are still used on vocal chains as a parallel effect (with dry signal mix). But you can recreate the Dolby A device in your daw with some clever busing and eq.

Title is spot-on lol

Thank you!

I don't like that blinking bypass button. At first I was like why the hell is Dan toggling the bypass so rapidly! I realized pretty quick but it still tripped me out every time. I've never seen a plugin do that.

Great, dude

Thanks!

I haven’t seen many demos on a compander.Nice.

Satin is pure love. Such a simple yet powerful tool it's hard to believe at first glance. As always, thank you Dan!

I'd never tried Satin as I was happy with Reelbus, but you've just persuaded me :)

I do not understand all of his tutorials, and do not have resources to try much of the techniques in them, but what I have tried works well enough to say this guy is brilliant. I would love to hear his thoughts on Kirchoff eq.

Companding also lends the E-mu Emulator II its lovely sampling characteristics.

As a simple solution for saturation inside a compander, there is BoostX by Initial audio (comb-filters when parallel though) and Antares Warm with its Omni tube. For something more (too much?) tweaky, there is Melda's MCompressor or MDynamics where you can design your own compressor in one instance and a mirror expander in another instance and use an emp-deemph technique.

I love u-he and the great sound it can involve but is there a lot of difference from an ott in live exept the multiband aspect ?

Approached chronologically, the entire decade of the 1970s is an education into more and more compression/expansion/NR. It was the inevitable consequence of multitrack recording going from 2 to 16 tracks in the space of a decade. The higher the track count, the more gates and expansion is needed to manage the (potential) hiss&noise accumulation.

All of this needs to come out in a 15 hour masterclass and I am putting down 100s of monions for it. Thanks Dan...this is the goldmine of audio tutorials :)

With the Soundtoys in between, it went all Bonham.

By the way, the Audiority LDC2 appears to be a reveered compander plugin. I can't speak to its quality yet though, haven't demo'd it yet

2 words: THANK YOU !!

ahh the great sound of dbx. always loved it although it’s less than perfect.

Cool video!! anyway to simulate this compander effect in reapers stock plugins? linked EQs within compressor / expander plugins?

Love Satin... just wish I could afford it right now.

I wonder if there are other plugins that have this encoder-decoder thing, just 2 separate plugins, so I can cram my little saturators in between...?

This was an eye opener for me. A plugin that can do the all time Dolby cassette trick :-) (and a lot more!). I would have expected this to be in Wavesfactory Cassette, which I bought after watching your video, but it wasn't. At least the Dolby-B trick from the consumer machines. I pointed them to your video :-). Just curious what you can do with the lower part in the interface, especially the playback head. Can it be used as a tape echo?

i beg you for a mixing in mono video, ive been mixing in mono for ages now but im sure you got some tips n tricks that will make my brain explode haha also when i have a melody that is hard panned and its super quiet in mono i find it difficult to level what can i do against that

What about Waves Abbey Roads Saturaror with compander?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the new Fresh Air based off modding the same Dolby units?

Doesn't Abbey Road Saturator have a compander built in as well?

Is A type and B type Dolby and the both other ones dbx?

@Dan worrall Hi there Just came across your RU-vid Channel .. hoping to learn some Technics off tutorials like the way you dont rust quickly on to the next thing .