Stillwell The Rocket on Master Bus, anyone?

[MindMunch]

Recently got Stillwell The Rocket compressor plugin to tame my drums. Very unique comp for smashing things.

I´ve read on the "manual" (if you can call that a manual) that it can be used as a masterbus compressor, and I thought it would be great to cut some peaks before hitting the maximizer, but I´m having some trouble. The release and the attack seems too fast even on the highest setting, and I don´t really understand what the "impetus" knob stands for.

Has anyone tried using it on masterbus with success? If so, care to explain the trick?

 

[koalamo]

Recently got Stillwell The Rocket compressor plugin to tame my drums. Very unique comp for smashing things.

I´ve read on the "manual" (if you can call that a manual) that it can be used as a masterbus compressor, and I thought it would be great to cut some peaks before hitting the maximizer, but I´m having some trouble. The release and the attack seems too fast even on the highest setting, and I don´t really understand what the "impetus" knob stands for.

Has anyone tried using it on masterbus with success? If so, care to explain the trick?

well considering its modeled after an 1176 i'd imagine you wouldnt want to use it on the master bus...but i could be wrong

 

[arv_foh]

I have never used it on the MB... on a lot of other stuff though

 

[MindMunch]

well considering its modeled after an 1176 i'd imagine you wouldnt want to use it on the master bus...but i could be wrong

Nah, I think you´re right. Probably the only way of using it on the masterbus is as a "fake limiter", with the insane attack, but for this task I already use the TLs.

 

[26]

I don´t really understand what the "impetus" knob stands for.

impetus seems to add some mids and fatten things up. it also smears things up, unfortunately.
it's easy to get fooled by more impetus = better. keeping it between 20 and 50 thickens without smearing up too much, if i remember correctly.

 

[koalamo]

Nah, I think you´re right. Probably the only way of using it on the masterbus is as a "fake limiter", with the insane attack, but for this task I already use the TLs.

haha yeah i tried cla on my mix bus before i got the glue and it was pretty bad to say the least, I guess you could just use it to tame the peaks but you'd probably be better off with a regular transparent compressor/limiter

 

[RLab]

I used it on the masterbus of a folk rock song with one of the "vintage mixer emulation" preset, can't remember which one but it was pretty nice, smooth and gluing... However I'm not sure it would work for more extreme sound

 

[Tachy]

I use it mostly in the drum bus for parallel compression for tighten up drums..it works pretty good, don't know in master bus...

 

[MindMunch]

It seems that Density MKII (2bus comp) and TLs Maximizer (brickwall limiter) won´t leave my masterbus anytime soon.

 

[botus99]

I thought it would be great to cut some peaks before hitting the maximizer

That's exactly it. I used it that way on the master buss for several sessions a couple years ago (something I may have to try again soon, those mixes turned out nicely). Its really hard to tell you what it supposed to SOUND like or what settings to use since I don't know what else is on your MB and or anything else about your mix.

Point is, as always, use your ears and try to shave off peaks without it destroying anything. A good way to see where you should be is to shave off the peaks with GCLIP (ONLY to get an idea of where you're peaks are sitting and how they react to compression/limiting/clipping), then turn off GCLIP, it sounds terrible on the MB. Now that you have a better idea of where you're mix should sound at the breaking point, replicate it, only better, inside The Rocket.

Do whatever else you do, and bam! Good luck man