One more extra control is a Fast/Slow release switch, whereby selecting Fast halves the response time. Darkness is a low-pass filter cut-off, allowing users to shape the tone of the post-Crunch output signal, while Mix is self-explanatory but extremely useful, since it allows an easy method of parallel compression: the facility to combine the dry signal with the processed one, leaving transients untouched while the decay portion of a sound is audibly pumped up. The Deluxe model features two additional rotary controls: Darkness and Mix.
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I was provided with both versions of the software for review.
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This free promotion has long since expired, but SoundToys have now released for purchase a new version of the software with expanded functionality: Devil-Loc Deluxe. Crush is essentially an input gain control, which correspondingly adjusts the amount of level reduction being applied, while Crunch adjusts the make-up gain, and associated "transistor" distortion. The original Devil-Loc-branded as an "Audio Level Destroyer"-has just two rotary controls: Crush and Crunch. I've seen the Level-Loc described as both "a cheap, near-useless compressor that sounds terrible" and "a legend…a really funky compressor." Regardless as a rare piece of '60s hardware which stamps its mark indelibly on audio passing through it, prices for these units have been rising steadily, and SoundToys saw the potential for a software version. Devil-Loc was inspired by, and partially modelled after, a 1968 processor by Shure: the Level-Loc Audio Controller. Processors of this type are consequently less precise but much faster and more musical to use.īack in March of this year, SoundToys-a company with a rich heritage in audio processing technology, whose mission statement is to develop "plug-ins with attitude"-made a new compressor plug-in available for free. As a result, users are guided by their ears, going by what sounds good instead of taking a more scientific approach to dynamic control.
Similarly, controls for response time are often labelled simply "Fast / Slow" or something equally arbitrary. Many have a fixed threshold and/or ratio, so that the amount of gain reduction is controlled simply by increasing the input level. These "character" processors, in both their hard and soft versions, generally include fewer controls than compressors designed for precision. Other notable (and free) compressor plug-ins which follow this trend include the excellent Blockfish by digitalfishphones (now sadly discontinued) and SSL's LMC1, modelled after the heavy compression applied to studio talkback on their E-Series desks. These plug-ins tend to be designed-sonically and visually-to mimic vintage transistor-based compressors, such as the legendary hardware by Urei, Fairchild or Teletronix. There is a flip-side to compression software, however, with considerable demand for more "outgoing" plug-ins which, rather than working transparently, impart sonic artefacts to a signal and make an audible feature of the gain manipulation taking place. Many software models-particularly those native to a host DAW-will do this in a clean, functional and precise way, acting on the volume level but otherwise leaving the audio signal pretty much unchanged: they sound "digital."