Happy Tuesday!
As promised/threatened, here is another email with usage ideas, inside information, and whatnot on our plug-ins.
El Juan Limiter
The El Juan is the first of our plug-ins using our proprietary licensing system. From now on, all our plug-ins will be using it and we’ll upgrade the original 5 too. Soon.
The El Juan started as a joke. A certain plug-in company changed their business model, switching over to subscription, which pissed a lot of people off. Dan was on Social Media, listening to the complaints, and posted something along the lines of “I’ll make a version of XXX and give it out for free if 1000 people like this post."
A few days later, Dan got to building the El Juan. The origin of the name you should be able to figure out.
The El Juan definitely excels at making things louder, and it does this by limiting and makeup gain. But it also has waveshaping.
Waveshaping
When you change the shape of a waveform, it adds additional complexity, in the form of additional harmonics. A simple sine wave goes in, waveshaping can add an octave to it, or thirds, or whatever you want, really. Waveshaping can add a bunch of sweetness or a bunch of garbage.
The “traditional” analog way to waveshape was to clip the waveform by overloading a component in a circuit or an entire device. Yes, saturation and distortion are forms of waveshaping. Digitally, one can apply math to replicate analog saturation and distortion, and that is waveshaping. Or, unlike the analog world, one can use math to add a very specific, controlled series of harmonics to a waveform.
A simple way to think of this: when I refer to waveshaping, I’m referring to math that adds a limited, very controlled set of harmonics. Saturation uses math to add more than one or two harmonics, and distortion adds tons more harmonics. Waveshaping - simple and a little. Saturation/Distortion - complex and a lot. The El Juan’s waveshaper adds some harmonics, which result in a richer, fuller sound. It doesn’t add saturation per se, it’s waveshaping, it’s adding some of the elements of saturation - the nice ones!
The El Juan has two different waveshaping options, which change the harmonic structure of the signal feeding through it, much the same as feeding the signal through a different console brand will affect the structure of the signal. And this gives you a hint as to how we use the El Juan. Like the PSC and the AIP, we almost always start the El Juan by flipping it around to the back and playing with waveshaping and input eq.
Here’s a video which shows a lot of the power of the El Juan.
The available settings are clearly marked and the effect will be obvious to your ear. Start back here, getting something that you like that fits your mix. Then, switch around to the front and use the limiter section to further process your sound.
Goofy Goofy Secret: the original marketing for El Juan was supposed to be like a Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western comic book. The Tale of El Juan was narrated by a robotic turtle named “Old Pedro.” However, when I was typing things out, I made a typo and wrote "Old Pedo.” I thought it was hilarious, so there was a running gag of Old Pedro and various other characters mispronouncing his name and Old Pedo, I mean Old Pedro, having to constantly correct it.
Again, I thought it was funny. But a few people found it less so... and somewhat insensitive, childish, stupid, tone-deaf, etc. So Old Pedro the Turtle got shelved and thus died one of the great marketing ideas in North American history.
Puff Puff mixPass
The Puff makes things apparently louder by using... waveshaping! The Puff Puff is basically a dedicated waveshaper. If something is already compressed and still not sitting there correctly, the Puff will make it a bit louder (and actually undo a bit of the compression by popping out the peaks a little bit).
How does waveshaping make things sound louder? It adds harmonics, and typically, when you add things in audio, there’s a power and loudness, unless things are out of phase. That’s a very simple way of explaining it. Try this: think of additional harmonics as adding density — the signal becomes thicker, richer, and our ears perceive it as louder. Note that the Puff makes things PERCEPTUALLY louder, but there isn’t much of a change on the meters. You don’t get a different LUF reading typically.
Quick Tip: Dan’s basic trick is if something sounds good, do the same thing again. Put a Puff Puff on a channel or a bus, and then add another one, Most of the time the result is a delight.
Both El Juan and Puff are designed as bus processors. That doesn’t mean they won’t work on a single channel, but our development thinking was that these are things you slap on a bus or across a mix. Both do similar things but in very different ways, and there’s also some redundancy. The El Juan also has waveshaping and the Puff also has a clipper on it.
Here’s a thing: You’ve slapped the El Juan across your mix bus, you’re doing some mighty fine limiting and things are sounding good, and you think, “Let’s add the Puff Puff to this and see if we can’t end the loudness wars once and for all.”
Where do you put the Puff? Before the El Juan or after? That’s a good question.
I’ve tried both, and I usually wind up with it after. So, once I limit things with El Juan, then I put the Puff on after it and play around with it a little more. I almost always swap the positions of the two, but generally, the Puff goes after.
Here’s a video where I’m using Puff and El Juan together. Some good ideas here.
Quick Safety Tip: Even though the Puff doesn’t typically change the meters, it doesn’t mean that putting it on last won’t clip your mix bus. One thing I do is have a True Peak meter on the bus after the Puff, and I make sure I’m keeping the true peak value at -1 or even -2, depending. We could have a whole ridiculous discussion of all this stuff and I assure you, we will, and soon.
The WOW Thing
The original WOW thing was a cheap plastic box you could slap on your computer speakers to get things a little wider sounding for, I don’t know, more drama when playing Legend of Zelda. Eventually, the WOW thing found its way onto the guitar tracks of a number of famous albums in the 90s and suddenly it’s a must have guitar secret. And to be honest, it’s great for that. But at its heart, it’s a psychoacoustic processor that uses delay and phase shift to fool your ears into thinking things are outside of the geometry of your speakers.
The WOW gently gets rid of everything below about 1kHz - the more you turn up WOW, the more this frequency cut happens. Hence, the WOW thing by default makes things brighter. And this is where the misnamed TrueBass control comes in, it adds back bass. Actually, it invents bass. It’s not TrueBass at all. All the real bass on the track died in a horrible filtering accident earlier in the signal flow. And this is what I love about the WOW Thing: it’s a great bass/low end enhancer.
I use the True Bass on kicks, bass — anything where I want something kind of big, low and pillowy, rather than something super tight down there. It works great for this. Also, you can’t go wrong putting the WOW thing on reverb returns.
Here’s a video I did a few months back in which I stem mixed a song using only The WOW Thing. There’s a ton of ideas in this video on how to use it to get more bass, more motion, overload it for additional harmonics...!
Pumpkin Spice Latte
This is a surprisingly complex little plug-in disguised as a seasonal beverage.
Pumpkin Spice was designed to be an all-in-one, a mini-channel strip that could get something rough and chewy out of a vocal track. Of course, people are using it all over the place, not just on vocals. I like it especially, a friend of mine swears by it on brass, and it does work.
There are limiters and compressors all over the place on the Pumpkin Spice, and they’re all interactive with the rest of the controls so that you don’t really know they’re there. You can slap this sucker on a raw vocal track and you’d be surprised by how much things will get under control without touching a knob.
Pumpkin Spice is a quick idea tool. Throw it on a track, play around and get some ideas. Perhaps execute the ideas using more adjustable plug-ins, like swapping out the reverb for something with more adjustments, but often it sounds so good as it is, we just leave it on the track.
Fun Usage: Set the delay time to under 5ms or so. Crank up the feedback and you’ll get crazy comb filtering, a “stuck flanger” effect. Change the delay time to shift the resonance up and down. Then, automate that delay time every now and then to wake everyone up. Fun stuff!
That’s it for this Tuesday. See you next week... on Monday.
Warm regards,
Luke
Happy Monday -
Korneff Audio started on a Black Friday five years ago, with one plug-in, the original Pawn Shop Comp. Five years later, we’ve got nine, and a bunch more waiting to see daylight. So, I guess happy birthday to us?
For this episode (producer/engineer John Agnello calls each of these an episode... sounds like an eventual podcast...), I thought I’d be extra useful by giving some info on our plug-ins, specifically going into how Dan and I use them in the studio, some design background, some usage hints.
There’s so much though, that I am splitting this into two emails, one today and one tomorrow. SO... keep an eye out for New Tuesday!
Factoids and Uses and Whatnot on All Our Plugins, going by age
Pawn Shop Comp/Pawn Shop Comp 2.0
It’s misnamed. It’s really a vintage channel strip consisting of a tube preamp coupled to a FET-style compressor. It works on everything, including the mix bus, but it’s el supremo on vocals and bass. Tons of saturation options because of the preamp, and the ability to switch in different tubes and transformers. The way we use the PSC is to put it on a channel, flip around to the backside, fiddle with the preamp and the tubes and transformer, and THEN adjust the compressor. Think of it as selecting the console you want to use before engaging the channel EQ.
Fun Factoid: The Operating Level control is a circuit Dan nicked off a cassette tape duplicator his Uncle Bob had given him when Dan was a wee teen. He liked how it sounded, so it wound up in the Pawn Shop Comp.
Usage Secret: I’ve mentioned this before... two of them, one right after the other, set one to respond quickly and the other a bit more slowly (play with attack and release). Swap the order in the inserts ’til you get something smooth.
Talkback Limiter
This beast is another FET-style limiter, based on a circuit found in SSL consoles designed to keep studio talkback mics from destroying speakers and ears. Hugh Padgham and Peter Gabriel invented gated drum sounds with this circuit.
Yes, it is amazing on drums. It makes anything snap and click and punch. It lives on our snares, kicks, room mics, etc. It’s probably the best overall drum compressor out there.
But, and I suppose it’s part of the FET transistor modeling, and the artifacts produced by an FET, the TBL adds a thickness to things. It’s hard to describe but I can hear it in my head. It has a similar sound to Neve Diode compressors. It makes me clench my jaw and want to bite something. If you know Neve compressors, you know what I’m talking about. Anyway, the TBL is really great on things like vocals and acoustic instruments provided you back the DRY WET BLEND way way down towards DRY. Like, barely crack it open. It adds a little beef and evenness. We typically follow it with another compressor.
Fun Factoid: for distortion effects, click around to the back and mess with the trimpots. AND for a real adventure, on the front panel, click on the power lights at the top and see what happens...
Amplified Instrument Processor
I wrote about this thing's monstrously good sounding EQ a few episodes ago. Further, I wrote a whole course on how to use it. If you want to be enrolled in the course, reply to this email and I’ll sign you into it.
Usage Idea: Put an AIP on each of your submix buses. Switch on the Proprietary Signal Processing button on the front, and then play around with the three different settings on the back - one is tube-ish, one is tape-ish, and one is California 1970s’ solid state-ish. Again, do this BEFORE you do anything else with the plug-ins. It’s like picking out different sounding channels for each grouping of instruments.
Micro Digital Reverberator
You know who likes reverb units with almost no controls? Me. I love messing around with compressors, and EQs, and delays but when I get to reverbs I just want presets that sound good. I don’t even like adjusting simple things, like the decay time. Maybe it’s from screwing around for hours on 480Ls and always going back to the presets. Who knows.
Do This: Even though the original hardware units this puppy is modeling were basically designed to go on an insert or across a whole mix, put the MDR on its own channel and feed it via a send. Why?
1) You want to be able to EQ your reverbs. This is a HUGE trick. This guy explains it better than I can, so go read this.
2) You want to be able to feed the output of one reverb unit into the next, and so on.
What?? Cascade the reverbs?? YES!!!! It’s total insanity and fun!
In fact, do this: Put THREE MDRs on three separate channels. One is a short small room, one is a plate, and the last is a huge concert hall. Use the small room to widen and add a touch of ambiance. Use the plate for vocals, but just a smidge, and then use the concert hall for pads, etc. NOW... feed a bit of that small room INTO the concert hall, but just a touch, to have some movement and depth way way back there in the speakers. For special moments, like the end of a solo, or a chunk of vocal line when the singer screams out his ex-wife’s name in anguish, or when someone has decided a certain single snare hit is incredibly important, feed the small room into the plate and the plate into the concert hall. Obviously automate this stuff.
Fun Factoid: Everyone overlooks this, but the MDR has stereo widening/narrowing on the back....
The Echoleffe Tape Delay
This is one intimidating monster. I’ve seen grown mix engineers fling themselves into oncoming traffic when they discover there are individual EQs, bias, and pan settings for each of the three delay lines. I have stood over their mangled bodies, finally at peace, and I’ve whispered, “Did you know you also have complete control over wow, flutter, tape age, head bump, as well as tape formulation, and you can switch off the Echoleffe’s delay function and just use it as a tape saturation simulator?"
This thing is the opposite of the MDR. It’s bristling with controls like a pissed-off German porcupine. It’s a pity, because once you get the logic of the controls, the ETD is quick to use and impossibly versatile. It can do easy things, like adding slapback on a vocal (it’s overkill for that, honestly), but it excels at making sounds you’ve never heard before.
The ETD can turn a single note into a keyboard pad that modulates and moves. It can twist delays into reverbs and musically sync the whole thing to the tempo of the track.
Usage Ideas: Set the delay times to below 11ms - set all three of them differently. Pan them everywhere. Play the track, and adjust the feedback for each delay line on the front panel, then go to the Tape Maintenance Panel and futz around with wow and flutter — this will add modulation to the delay times and suddenly you’ve got flanging happening that is out of this world and panned all over the stereo image. Gradually increase one of the delay times to get pitch-shifting effects. Automate the changes of the delay times. Play with the REVERB DENSITY switch on the front panel to basically DOUBLE the number of echo returns.
Even if you never buy this thing, download the demo and spend a week writing songs with it.
Licensing
Our original five plug-ins are iLOK-based for security purposes. Yes, we are phasing that out and soon our original five will use our own proprietary licensing system developed by Dan, the damn genius. When will this happen? We are hoping very very soon, but no promises. But know that we’ve heard your requests to get the heck off iLOK and we are working towards that.
I don’t have a new record this week. I’m still listening to Kim Deal every day. It gets better and more creative and insightful with each listen. But here’s a great interview with her on the Broken Record podcast. She talks about everything, including the new album. And she’s really really funny! And so so smart. She talks a lot about Steve Albini, and sadly, she occasionally refers to him in the present tense, as though he was still alive.
Warm regards,
Luke
Happy Monday!
I wish I could go back to ten-year-old me listening to the radio when I heard this for the first time. The damn DJ didn’t say the singer’s name, and I misheard the title as “Rocco,” or “Rock Oh."
Of course, the title is "Rock On,” David Essex’s biggest hit, and 51 years later, it's still amazing.
Essex was more successful as an actor than a musician, but he had 19 top 40 singles in England during his career, as well as successful albums. Rock On cracked the Billboard Top 40.
Slapback on the Vox
Rock On started with a demo, which consisted of Essex singing and playing drums on a garbage can as a drum. The engineer on the session put a loud slapback echo on the demo, and that is really the crux of the sound of it, and what makes it so frickin’ distinctive.
But the lead vocal isn’t echoed the entire time. It sometimes splits and hockets from the left channel to the right, sometimes it’s doubled, sometimes there’s a harmony. There’s a wonderful moment where a mass of vocals drop in like Māori warriors performing a Haka. Supercreative use of vocal texture, and keeping the ear’s interest while never losing the thread of the song.
Chordless Arrangement
The vocals have so much breathing room because of the minimalist arrangement of producer Jeff Wayne. Wayne heard the demo and figured out a score for drums and percussion, bass, and a few string players. The music bed is melody lines rather than chords. In fact, the only true chord is the massed vocal.
The classically trained London string players hired for the session were playing too tight and in tune for Wayne and Essex’s taste. They solved the problem by getting them all a little drunk.
Enter Herbie Flowers
Wayne’s arrangement had a rudimentary bass part. Fortunately for the session, the guy they hired was Herbie Flowers.
Herbie Flowers was a top session man in England. He occasionally toured, but touring got in the way of his very busy studio career. By the end of the '70s he stopped counting the number of records he’d tracked on (over 500 at the time). Flowers played double bass (traditional upright string bass), electric bass and tuba, and was equally proficient playing rock, jazz, classical - whatever the session called for. He played bass for Bowie, Elton John, Miles Davis, all the Beatles except John, and tuba on Abbey Road.
Steal These Ideas
Flowers was also a businessman. At the time, session players got more money the more tracks they laid down. Herbie talked Wayne and Essex into letting him put two tracks down, one low and the other high. The result is the incredibly cool bass part on Rock On. It’s the lick that makes the record.
Flowers tuned the low bass down a half step, which resulted in a low-end mess of rumble at the end of each iteration of the riff.
Usually, putting reverb on a bass isn’t a good idea. But with the right arrangement, it can certainly work, and it does on Rock On. The riff Flowers came up with for the overdubbed high bass part, slathered with plate reverb and a hint of delay, sounds like a guitar part. There’s not a guitar to be found on Rock On.
Check This Out
I found this brilliant guy, Chris Eger, who put together what sounds like a note-for-note version of Rock On, with him playing and singing every part. It's a vision of what happened back in 1973 at Advision Studios in London. It’s a deceptively simple song.
Check out his channel. It’s so damn cool!
The Whole Album is Killer
While Rock On is the standout track, the entire Rock On album, which was Essex’s debut, is a sonic adventure. It’s 70s glam, but it’s peppered with horn arrangements that evoke Vaudeville, strange strange vocals, clever arrangements and wonderful production touches. And tons of Herbie Flowers bass lines with a fat sound that manages to be low and articulate at the same time.
There’s a semi-reggae tune called Ocean Girl... I don’t even know where to begin with this track. Is that an early use of vocoder on that vocal on the left channel? And if not, how did they do that effect? There’s something that sounds like a slide guitar flitting around the background, but I think it’s an Ondes Martenot, which is an obscure French electronic instrument, developed in the late 1920s. It sits somewhere between a cello and a theremin. It’s credited on the album. I think it’s lurking on Ocean Girl. What do you think?
Actually, this whole album is really worth a listen. Seriously. Put it on and cop a bunch of great ideas off of it.
Until next week... Rock On!
That was cheesy.
The Guys at Korneff Audio
