Tone Projects announces Unisum Mastering Compressor
by Rune L-H   5th March 2020

.. just saying.

(hint: if you got PT on Mac, jump on this opportunity. This plugin is _the_ compressor to try out!)

Can't wait to see it released, seems like a great tool!

Any idea on the price?

This has the most compelling feature set I've seen in a (sort of) wideband compressor, with some rather clever and novel additions to the standard fare.

Really looking forward to the release! Hope testing and dev go smoothly.

Thanks guys, testing has finished and everything seems more or less ready to go. Gotta say I'm blown away by the response so far.

The expected official release date is Thursday, April 2nd, but subscribers to our newsletter will get early access later today.
Intro Price: $149 (reg. price $199)

Cheers,
Rune

Deleted post.

I don't know if someone can make a comparison with the VSC-3 from
Vertigo Sound. It's been a long time since I demoed it, but I remember
that is sounded silky and punchy but not the agressive type. This one
reminds me a lot of this feeling. Anyone can relate to that ?

It's a different beast really. Own and love both (yup, bought Unisum after a few of minutes of test, had to). I'd say it's at least as "classy" sounding (dare I say more ?) as VSC-3, but much, much, much more versatile (consequently, less immediate...).

The various Styles to tailor the detector circuit are stellar (and you customize them further). For instance, I've always loved more compressed midrange (I'm addicted to Kotelnikov GE's FDR bell), and it's effortless to set here, with very elegant sounding results.

It's a bit early to say, tho I believe itt might revealed to be as versatile as DC8C3 (I haven't tried Compassion in ages) with the intuitive UX you'd get with Kotelnikov GE. Many stellar features really, and it sounds absolutely lush and pristine at once. Not as CPU intensive as one might fear.

On the top of that, great communication with Rune!

Ps: yup, I bought to many compressors lately, ah! I feel like I'm going to use that one a LOT.

You named it, the "classy" sounding thing. Sounds silky to my ears, not gritty
or pumpy. Pretty hard to express what I'm hearing but I feel like it's delicate and edgy at the same time. Like great transient response but not harsh or sharp in any way. Really like this comp. Still a bit pricey to me, but definitely a very good tool.

Unisum is an absolute masterpiece. It has this strangely silky smooth controlled behavior to it's basic sound. Very hard to describe. The way it can grab transients and "calm down" material is exceptional, even at very low gain reduction values you feel like you gain control over the audio (pun intended).

It's flexible nature also makes it possible to liven up audio that feels a bit stale. You can get the groove going in things that don't groove.

I highly recommend going through the presets, on ANY and ALL audio material. Just to get a feel of how flexible this thing is. A general rule of thumb for my own presets is that you should be getting an average gain reduction amount equal or close to how much the makeup gain knob is set to. So if it's set to 2dB, then strive for about 2dB of compression to get the intended effect of the preset.

This was exactly my initial impression. 1-1.5dB GR can calm things and settle a mixdown in a very smooth and tidy way.

It's also providing unprecedented control over groove and movement when working harder, although this depth of tweaking means more of a learning curve and the potential for losing focus on micro adjustments.

That said just the SC HPF, emphasis, and band weightings allow for a pleasingly simple and effective tuning experience without digging into the deeper detector and timing modifiers.

Checking out and reverse-engineering presets is always a great way to learn a complex tool. Thanks Niklas (and Bob and the others) for giving us some solid insight and clever setups! Also I love the ability to load specific parts of a preset.

Overall really liked what I heard right away both on full mixes and drum groups. Almost want it to stay a secret weapon but do hope Rune gets some well-deserved praise and business with this...

Would there be any way to have more control over the HYGGE without overcomplicating things? Even two preset levels/variations or a strength control? It's subtle and tasteful but in some cases I wouldn't mind more.

Isn't that the standard procedure for all compressors with a make up gain knob?

After so long it feels weird to say it, but: Unisum is now available
Read more and check out the trial version on the website: http://www.toneprojects.com/unisum-m...ompressor.html

Cheers,
Rune

Hi Rune,

What are the demo limitations? Just checking, as if it's something like that it locks after 14 days, I'm going to hold off for a bit as I won't have time to mess around with it enough in the coming week. Thanks in advance!

Just saw the limitation:
http://www.toneprojects.com/support.html


The Unisum trial is time-unlimited but restricts session recall, loading and saving of user presets, and A/B comparison. Audio output will be muted very briefly every 2½ minutes. If you save a project with the trial version you will be able to restore the session with a licensed version.

The trial versions for our legacy plugins (Sonitex and Compadre) are fully functional for a 30 day period, except for the insertion of a gentle beep/noise burst at one minute intervals and a slightly higher CPU usage.

Ah, great, thanks! That is very reasonable

Would you say, it sounds "better" as Klanghelms and Tokyo Dawns Compressors you mentioned? Thank you.

looks very nice. Will test it for sure!

@ nichttuntun : in a nuttshell, yes. As much as I love Tony's work, I don't like DC8C3's saturation, and despite my efforts never stuck with it for more than some occasional attempts to make it work.

Kotelnikov GE is a compressor I know like the back of my hand, and have always loved. I still often use it when I want musical, transparent compression, and it has many tricks up its sleeve.

Unisum has a sonic elegance and efficiency that is astonishing. Until its release, when producing, I'd spontaneously go for either Vertigo Sound VSC-3 or MIA Laboratories 925 Compressor... to often load TrackComp2 in the end instead (I love how characterful yet clean TC2 sounds). When mastering, VSC-3, TrackComp2 and Kotelnikov GE are my go-to's.

If it means anything, Unisum has replaced them in my templates already (both in my tunes and mastering sessions) : I feel like Unisum can replace several FXs, both on the mixbus and on individual tracks as well. It sounds that good (to my ears of course), it really does.

On my own tunes, I'm experimenting with just Unisum and a tiny, tiny tad of Leapwing StageOne's Width and I'm loving what I hear. Don't feel the need for more processing to shape the tune nor to tame its peaks.

The way you can tailor the detection circuit is astonishingly useful already, and this + that simple "SC Emphasis" knob are worth the money (and then some) alone. I'll add that it's instantly rewarding to tweak it a bit.

Daaaaaaaaaamn, first congrats on this release @ tone project.

The company name was ringing in my ears and now that I saw you guys are the guys behind the amazing "compadre" and other classics, not surprised you guys have cleverly and meticulously build this monster Mastering Comp. Can't wait to give this a try soooooon.

Kudos

Nice one! Would buy if only intro was cheaper...impossible for me in this COVID situation.

Wow. Thank you for that much indepths insights of yours. Very kind, I do appreciate that. Oh boy, I am tempted much and have a similar arsenal.

Me too do not like Tonis saturation too much in SDDR and DC8C, but love it in the MJUC. I also use Trackcomp2 and this thing is honey to my ears, but I see it more as a mix-bus compressor, 2- and subgroups-bus compressor.

Kotelnikov is great but I haven´t worked myself into it deeply enough by now. U-He Presswerk is a fantastic sounding and versatile compressor also and highly underrated in my opinion.

Puh, I don´t know what to do. Does Unisum really replace all those very good tools, even in the mix itself and not only for the mastering stage? Can´t believe it...how is it on CPU, when using in a mix on many tracks or busses?

Thank you again for sharing your experience in such a detail

Very pleased to have been onboard the beta developing stage of this awesome comp, and provided some presets as well.

As always, no financials involved, just pure audio love.

It's a true tweakhead's dream, and it sounds great.

We've given it a proper testing and it's completely stable and flawless here.

Great job, Rune! In my book this primes Tone Projects for inclusion with other classic Danish audio brands like TC Electronic, Dynaudio, Tube-Tech, Gyraf, DPA, DAD, Elberg, NTP, etc. ;-)

PS. Even though using beta software on live projects is living on the edge, I have to admit I couldn't resist the temptation. So it's already been used on hundreds of releases, and I couldn't be happier.

Wow I didn’t even know these guys were still around. I used the Sonitex and Compadre a ton back around 2008. What a nice surprise.

Wow... unexpected is an understatement ! Congrats for the release ! Will you port STx-1260 to 64 bit ?

if I'm not mistaken it's a synthedit plug

Very impressive plugin!

As another tester, everything this bloke said. Including the 'beta versions are on hundreds of releases' bit.

Rune knows how much I love this thing, I think I've told him 400 times.

Love it, bought it.

It sounds large in MS mode, no infinite tweakings to find a sweetspot,
interface is clean without any superficial stuff. There's a serious and surprising gap bewteen releasing the STX and then this awesome piece of compressor.
Didn't see it coming...

Now I'll have to sell some other plugs that are gonna be collecting dust from now on.

Not sure if other sound designers use it this way. I specifically do it this way because then it is independent of your signals incoming level.

Sometimes I see compressor presets with way too little makeup gain and conclude that the preset designer must have been afraid of cranking up the gain to show the intended range.

For instance, there are presets of mine that do not really work as intended until you truly follow the makeup gain knobs range, mostly the ones that try to be a bit extreme on purpose.