Device Details


Overview

Name | Version: VibeStrip 1.0
Author: OspreyInstruments
Device Type: Audio Effect
Description: At the request of a supporter, I made a channel strip... my response to some of the recent "Waves" controversy". This is called "VibeStrip" because it is intended to impart character and flavour, and is intended on broad-strokes tone sculpting, not anything precise or surgical. This is how I believe analog hardware is best used in the real world as well. Quickly dial in a sound you like and move on... This design philosophy carries forward throughout the interface with main controls at the forefront, and some advanced parameters hidden away in context menus... they are there if you need them. Also, I felt no need to clutter up the interface with labels and values on the main panel controls - use your ears!

Preamp Section
This models two preamps: a Leslie 122 tube amp (triode and pentode so it produces a blend of both odd and even harmonics), and a Neve 1073 transistor console. The latter if a very simple model that I derived from reverse engineering the Kush Omega-N plugin. It is shockingly simple actually. It is just a (potentially) high gain tanh() stage being mixed back with the dry signal (at quite a low level). It produces only even order harmonics, unless biasing is added with the "Neve Bias" parameter.

Both preamp models utilize basic (albeit, heavily tuned) waveshaping techniques to capture many of the nonlinearities of the original hardware. However, they are just static waveshaping models, and fail to capture some of the other artifacts of amplifies. For this reason, I followed them with two optional modules: a crossover distortion (effect produced by Class-B amplifiers due to misalignment at the zero crossings), and hysteresis (a time dependant effect produced by magnetic saturation, such as the output transformers found in both of these preamps). Because each of these modules respond differently when driven harder, I have provided additional gain parameters in the advanced menu to tune each stage.

Gate / DeEsser Sections
There is nothing really "special" about these processors, they are included just as a quality-of-life feature. The gate is actually the first processor in the chain (followed by the deesser), hence the input gain in the context menu.

Equalizer Section:
This is taken directly from LunchboxEQ, which itself is my clone of the Kush Electra. There's nothing really unique about this, it is just based around cascading biquads (Robert Bristow-Johnson type), but the wider Q and tasteful parameter range produces gentle curves and many sweet spots. Once again, Gregory Scott's taste is impeccable.

Optical Compressor Section:
The EQ drives the compressor, which is my favourite topography for tone-shaping. The compressor itself is lifted from my standalone device "Optical" with no changes made. In fact, Optical was made with the intention of including in this channel strip.

The key feature is the 4 selectable vactrol models that impart different attack and release times and curves on the compression. In actuality, the light emitter and the photoresistor both have different on and off times and exhibit different non-linear behaviour (curves, current/voltage/light sensitivity) that compound when fused into an optocoupler. The LDR side of the optocoupler is usually in the feedback path of an opamp in the forward signal path, as the rectified detection signal is actually a feedback topography. All that to say, I tried to capture as much of this complexity as possible, while also approaching it sensibly. I actually stripped back a lot of my original signal processing that directly modelled a specific compressor circuit - it was more trouble than it was worth.

The various modes produce drastically different effects. LED, being the fastest, is good on percussive sources like drums. The electroluminescent panel (found on LA-2As) is much slower and smoother, and great for vocals and bass. Play around with these and see what you like!

The VU meter shows the compression, and when clicked, turns off the tube saturation on the output of the compressor. That should be the only non-obvious GUI easter egg. Everything else is pretty straight forward. There are also tool times in for the device info box if there is anything you are not sure of.

Enjoy! :D

Details

Live Version Used: 10.1.18
Max Version Used: 8.1.5
Date Added: Apr 30 2023 21:45:43
Date Last Updated: No Updates
Downloads: 0
Website: https://ko-fi.com/s/bc80618445
License: None
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Comments

Hi! thanks for this, it sounds really good on the master in a test run.

stoked to check this out - thanks!
brilliant work on this. Loving it and using it a lot! Thank you
Thanks for your comments! Glad to hear it is working well for you guys.

I'm trying to track down bugs that a couple users were experiencing so its valuable to hear its working well for some/most people :)

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