Let the man cook

I bought a new house recently and have been tied up in getting it all into shape for the past 3 months. I'm feeling very comfortable and happy at the moment, and itching to get back to writing some of the world's best analog modelling DSP. For now I'm finishing up a few of the more technical parts of The Scream manual, then doing a few vids of tube screamers in general before moving it to final release.

Once that is all done with that I'm on The Glue v2. I've ordered and received the DIYRE kit for the G-Series SSL bus compressor, and have also ordered but still not received the Stam Audio version as well, and also some local people with SSL desks to compare to. I'm going to measure every component in the DIYRE version before soldering it together, and modelling the entire thing as accurately as possible given current tech / CPU constraints, and will allow for full component parameter level randomisation and customisation of _everything_. This level of detail is currently available in The Scream, which has a few "warming" presets available that allow for subtle bus warming / saturation and variation here:

https://cytomic.com/files/forums/scr...ory-bank-1.zip

So if you're after some bus warming type warmth check out the worlds most detailed tube screamer emulation:

https://cytomic.com/product/scream/

Once I commence work on The Glue v2 i'll post videos of progress along the way as I'm measuring component values and soldering the DIYRE bus compressor together and doing various measurements of the circuit.

Congrats on the new house 🏡 always fun to put your things in order and stamp your personality on it…

Personally i'm not bothered about timescales with all this, I am just happy to know that the Glue and the Drop are going to be continuously supported and updated in the future.

Will you add the drive Mod in the DIYRE's?

If I can get an output transformer model I am happy with done then this will definitely be included.

This still lives on my master buss permanently in zero latency mode and then I up the quality when it's time to mix down. But I even compose with it active from the very first bit of music I make in any project.
I have tried every SSL bus compressor emulation currently in existence bar the new Softube Bus Processor (as long as it's 64 bit and has a demo) and The Glue is still my favourite. To be fair, there's some good ones out there indeed but with The Glue, I get the lovely zero latency option and can change that on the fly and it sounds realistic to the hardware.
The worst one currently still being sold (imo) is the Waves one, and a perfect example of bad gear getting over hyped and over used, even in 2024. It's mushy rather than sticky and distorts way quicker than the others. I think it's a good analogy to a discussion I was having in another topic about my Adam monitors not being "good enough" for some people, in that it's a case of getting used to something and mixing well despite the limitations.
Although the Waves SSL does not sound like a real hardware SSL compressor, once a good mixing engineer has learned exactly how it behaves, they can learn to make the best of it. It's not that it can't achieve a good sound, it's that it's not an SSL. At all.

Highly recommend the Glue and the Drop. In fact I barely ever go for any other filter plugin these days either unless I want a specific step sequencer type scenario. For all my manual filter adjustments and for automated sweeps, I only use The Drop. Nothing sounds better (imo).

Andy's support has also been *impeccable* over the years. Fast and helpful every time. Maybe I am biased cause he's an Aussie, but I don't think so in this case. He's just a good bloke.

The other one I like a lot is the UAD one, especially after they updated it with mix and HPF detection controls. I avoid it due to latency unless it's in a situation where I am going straight to a mix down and wasn't the composer of the track.

From memory, as this was a while ago, the Overloud one was decent also. I happen to think the IK has a nice sound, even though it lacks a mix function. I've heard nothing but good things about the Softube. I also think the official SSL one is pretty good and I have that in the SSL sub but again I just auto gravitate towards The Glue as I know it so well and it's become an integral part of my entire compositional procedure.

Great, if so please add it to main GUI instead of hiding it in the hidden/schematic tab. Id say just remove the Peak clip and put the drive in there so you dont have to redesign, its pretty useless and out of place imo.

Well, to each his own, and frankly I haven't used Peak clip in Glue for years, but a while back it was my main clipper because of the efficient and great quality oversampling in the plugin.

Good plugin but i prefer waves. Glue has more features no doubt.

Waves IMO doesn't sound like SSL at all, so perhaps you don't like the SSL hardware sound to begin with(?)
I think in this case it's a bit difficult to say it's subjective when there are countless audio examples out there showing how *wildly* different it sounds to the hardware it supposedly emulates.

I'd be curious what you think of SSL's own plugin as well as Overloud and UAD if you have the chance to try them at some stage.

For me, Waves older analog emulations are pretty much the bane of the plugin world (Puigtec, CLA series, SSL series etc), and when technology, CPU and their own skill improved over the years, their next gen plugins were in a different league entirely. I think if waves did an SSL bus comp v2 now, it would sound completely different.

I am genuinely intrigued now to know if anyone else prefers Waves SSL bus comp over the Glue. The latter was modeled with such fanatic attention to detail that I am always surprised if someone dislikes it, but as always, to each their own, and neither I nor you are "right", as what sounds good to the individual and works for them is ultimately all that matters.

I use both tbh.

They both have amazing sounds to them, but the Glue for me gets the "GLUE" moniker , that is what I predominately use it for. Always have done. I recently picked up the SSL version, and haven't had time to use it for that purpose yet but it won't replace the glue. I am so thankful to have many tools to use.

I don't think many of us have actually used an SSL desk at all, so the original hardware sound is something we can only trust to the likes of Andy who have modelled their plugins on the original.

Take Puigchild and Puigtec from waves, or the CLA 76 , they are not the original hardware versions that they are modelled on, rather the versions used by JJP and CLA. But they are nice. And cannot be too far from the originals, so you can say one or the other suits, I have other Pultec VST's and Fairchild VSTs that ARE modelled on the originals so I can call on either. I think not actually knowing what the originals are like kinda helps tbh because you aren't comparing anything to that.

If a plugin works for you, stick to that, doesn't matter how its modelled compared to the original.

Which reminds me I need to find good NEVE stuffs

Accurate emulation doesnt mean its gonna fit the song 100% of the time, sometime the opposite is what you need, its really subjective.

This makes sense. Enjoy!

SSL native bus comp is just a standard digital compressor ported from c200 console.

Best ssl bus plugs I’ve used are the glue, softube bus processor, psp busspressor, and then more flexible compressors set like an ssl like Oxford limiter and dynamics, molot ge, powair with tweaked adaptive glue preset.

Waves sounds nothing like any ssl bus comp or the smarts. UAD2 one adds bass for some reason. The plugin alliance bx townhouse is okay and the bettermaker bus compressor is a more aggressive ssl with no over sampling so craps out and the bx_glue just sounds digital

Honestly a ton of hardware clones are awful too with mono detectors and dysfunctional auto release from the gssl diagrams. What’s really funny is ssl’s over featured new compressor the buss+ (did they just make this in china because api made the 2500+ ?) ways to defeat the design of the compression and of course like everything new ssl will be hard to repair and I doubt it will last 16 years and behave the same like the glue has since it got over sampling in an early update :D

The cla 76 is so far from the any analog and any fet compressor that pretty much anything you buy is much better than it. Even a cheap fostex mn-50 clone or behringer made kt-76. It is basically a defective, random digital compressor with a distortion algorithm that leaves ice picks everywhere from pumping around. Every single production that used it would be less modulated if they use any hardware fet compressor or used a better digital compressor and applied the distortion separately. It’s one of the worst popular compressors of all time along with the Alesis 3630. It’s worse than the 3630 and Behringer Composer (muntzed dysfunctional Drawmer dl 241) because its control ranges are entirely defective. Every single vu of gain reduction is random and wrong with it because it cannot attack that quickly and an 1176 or any clone is very fast with most of the overshoot coming from being a feedback compressor.

Now the JJP plugs are cool because they are messed up. They sound like insane guitar pedals and are really bright. They’re not really functional in anyway and are rather stiff. I doubt waves modeled the action and saturation of inductors and tubes, just went for cool digital distortion with them. Remember puigchild hardware? That was a weird moment.

Waves API 550 plugs for example do not model the hardware band dependency, frequency drift, slew limiting, individual bands clipping, etc. but they still sound functional. Just stiff. The API 2500 is much better than the Waves SSL bus but pretty much sounds nothing like the hardware. It sounds like standard digital “fake rms” (it cannot detect signal peaks so cannot detect signal sms. Amplitude and power both incorrect. Similar to certain very popular contemporary plug) with controls of a vaunted hardware compressor but it isn’t as sonically defective as the waves ssl. Hardware can be pingy too and can go nuts in feedback mode with auto gain on leading to more compression because makeup gain is fed back into it :D

Take a look at VoosteQ Model N ... very nice sounding plugin imho with lots of character.

@ ssl plugins:
I don't like the waves either, but the softube bus processor is pretty sweet on the master bus because it has some additional control which the glue does lack.

But I still use the ableton The Glue version all the time and for groups or single tracks it is hard to beat from a ressources factor. So after all that years still a great plugin. (can't say that for most old waves though)

I don't know how accurate the IKM Neve stuff is, but I recently got the TRacks upgrade so I have some which will do me.

But that ST Bus Compressor looks lovely too .

Yeah it sounds pretty good but it has latency now and you can't disable it like you could in the past, so I don't "compose into it" at all, which is why the Glue is still the best all rounder for me.
But sure, if you are doing a mix down, IK is a contender.

News update 2 Aug 2024: The Glue v1.7.3 is out, you can grab it from: https://cytomic.com/glue

- New: added text display of RMS and Peak gain reduction when mouse is over the VU
- New: updated to Juce 8.0.1
- Fix: renamed embedded fonts to avoid collisions with system fonts
- Fix: added back shift modifier for fine control of knobs on drag and wheel

For those that were having issues installing on macOS Intel, please delete the downloaded .dmg and re-download it from the web page as the old installer only included the arm version

Thank you ANDY !!!!!!

still a great sounding compressor

I matched it up agaisn't my hardware SSL the otherday and it holds it's own very well.



M

The Glue V1.7.5 (24 Aug 2024) is out:
https://cytomic.com/glue
* Fix: workaround for bug in Juce 8 D2D crashing when drag resizing on Win
* Fix: using non-bold font on menus for improved readability on non-HiPDI monitors

Closing/reopening the UI resizes the plug-in back to 100%. In fact, even after saving settings as default the UI goes back to 100% when you remove the plug-in and insert it again.

macOS 14.6.1
MacBook Pro M1
REAPER 7.20

Thanks for spotting this. The Glue v1.7.6 fixes this and is up on the web page.

The Glue V1.7.6 (26 Aug 2024) is out:
https://cytomic.com/glue
* Fix: User Interface scale now recalls correctly between closing and re-opening the user interface, from the song state, and from the global default.

Hi Andy, just a note for you .... I just updated from 1.7.4 to 1.7.6 !! the Version Number in my Components Folder still says 1.7.4 for some reason !!! BUT the Plugin itself (under The Glue Name) shows 1.7.6

It sounds like you may be on mac and may be using Logic, as this is the only combination that doesn't re-scan newly installed plugins properly that I know of. Try logging out of your account and then back in again, or a reboot. If that doesn't work then try deleting the entire plugin, and then re-installing, then reboot.