Waves NLS comparison CLIP!

[Clark Kent]

Here's an A/B/C comparison of the Waves NLS enabled and disabled and maxed out. I wanted to keep this blindfolded since I think I'm not hearing much of a difference enough to prefer one over the other although I really pushed the NLS. The difference is mostly just volume but I made sure the volume balance was just about the same in all clips.

Which one do you prefer? A/B/C?
Which one do you think is the NLS? A/B/C?

 

[ze kink]

A sounds better IMO, the B I feel is smeared in a bad way. I'd also guess that B is the NLS.

 

[mva801]

Def. like A better. Seems more clear and defined.

 

[mickrich]

A sounds better to me too.
Sounds more "excited" so I am guessing A is NLS.

 

[Sloan]

On HS80M's here and I can't hear a big enough difference.

 

[Clark Kent]

Very interesting results here. I'm starting to think I should really push the NLS to it's max to make it more obvious. I think I hear the biggest difference in drums. Overheads/snare/kick sound a bit different. Transient sharpness should be the clearest way to tell which is which.

 

[UncleBob]

I preferred "B", although with a bit more level matching the difference is negligible, not worth the money or cpu hit for me.

 

[006]

On HS80M's here and I can't hear a big enough difference.

Yeahhhhhh buddy +1 to this.

 

[FrancescoFiligoi]

B sounds better to me, more overall sharpness.

 

[kev]

Would pick A as the NLS. Prefer B. Im not sure "analog goodness" is right up the street of this type of music- if it were a big rock track I might be persuaded the other way. If i'm wrong though then fuck a duck....

 

[Ermz]

It's hard to make these comparisons, because you have to 'mix into' either the flat ITB settings, or the console emulation. You can't just mix into one then either add or remove the saturation and prove something meaningful with it.

 

[Clark Kent]

It's hard to make these comparisons, because you have to 'mix into' either the flat ITB settings, or the console emulation. You can't just mix into one then either add or remove the saturation and prove something meaningful with it.

Well I think I didn't favor NLS nor un-NLS since to be honest I never mix in a surgical way. Everything you hear is RAW. The way I build mixes is that I find a good guitar tone by itself, good samples, bass DI. Very little if any EQ. Vocals get pretty surgical when I'm mixing but other than that I mix in a "less is more" fashion and concentrate more on the volume balance and I think that is the key. I'm not saying my mixing is anywhere near professional mixing but I like the tones I get and I get them easy and quick.

So sure you can go surgical on the EQ and compressor and use NLS for a small effect and get different results but I assure you that's not what happened here. This comparison will tell you: "What will the NLS do to my mix if I simply apply it to everything." I did not pre-mix this song. Volume balance was mixed in a similar way for all clips.

I made a third clip where I'm basically using the NLS on maximum just where the needle is still moving:



I guess this is the way I will be using it in the future. It did miracles to the bass sound.

 

[Uros]

Yeah, not much difference here.

You say that you pushed it to the max. Keep in mind that the NLS meter is full scale peak, even though it says it's VU on the screen, so your levels should hover roughly between -18 and -6dB.

Although you mix the way you mix, Ermz' point still stands, as these things make you use less EQ and compression when you mix into them. Try it on the last pre-insert slot on a channel (not first). I am demoing it atm, and I am still not sure, but it definitely can do more than subtle.

 

[Clark Kent]

I totally understand Ermz's point and I agree with him. My point was simply that I didn't really post process anything heavily in this mix so this comparison "should" be fair since the only thing I really "mixed" was volume balance and I think I balanced them almost exactly the same. Personally I'm digging the tones of the clip that has no NLS on and I just spent money on this product so I "should" be biased.

My conclusion is that I don't really here a big difference. The drive is set to full in all of the instruments in the C clip.. I backed up the volume on the plugins so they don't clip. The funny thing is that I can deffo hear a big difference when switching between the different consoles but I guess I chose the most transparent consoles for each instrument. I didn't like the middle console for anything really. It sounded very digital.

 

[Scottxx]

I like B. But I don't know which is the NLS sample.

 

[aviel]

i demod it.. the channel does make an audible difference to my ears.. specially for base drum and stuff.
but the CPU hit doesnt really worth it

 

[kaomao]

where's the difference?

 

[UncleBob]

On all my own testing I found, once you match the volumes the difference is really hard to tell if any at all, there's the video on buttsluttz showing how it ever so slightly widens mono sources (which even then is barely noticeable, you can only really SEE it on a phasescope).

Mix B is what I'd expect from the plugin but it wouldn't surprise me if mix A is the NLS (mix B sounded a bit sharper and wider and "3d"............a BIT)

 

[Trevoire520]

Quick listen, to me it sounds like:
A-No Summing
B-NLS Maxed Out
C-NLS

?

 

[Clark Kent]

A has NLS and B doesn't. The difference is really small. I think I hear it mostly in the fast transients like the snare. It smoothens them out a bit. Dunno if I'll use this much...