Pulsar Modular P11 Abyss Compressor
by p900   23rd July 2022

"I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
― Nikola Tesla

Oops. That’s AA. I have purged it from my system. It was too demanding.

https://youtu.be/PmFJtt67C1Y?si=tX3HWQbOgelY0f31

This is what P11 said to the silly tiger.

/s

Are you sure this is exactly the case?
I don’t like to get into Politics and debates about technology - but I’m wondering, did AA really steal your idea/development? Are your compressor plugins similar?

Demanding on the processor? I don't have any problems with this. What kind of work computer do you have?

Regarding your second quote - I hope we are all talking here ONLY about work and Music/Creativity, and not about “Hate” towards certain companies? Right?
It doesn’t matter to me at all who I buy devices/plugins/tools from - I only care about the RESULT from them. If the result is good, then this is what I need.
Perhaps you only tried their first Tiger. The new Tiger Mix Ultra Flat is a completely different technology and a different CPU consumption.

Personally, I am NOT a fanatic of the AA company, and not a fanatic of any other companies. I have seen in many threads how some with Foam at the mouth Preach that some are Better than Others. This is a Disease (I think so). Or these are Trolls paid by these companies.

Let’s not touch on interracial issues/racism/politics or any “hatred” towards companies here. Let’s just talk about Work and Sound!

Peace to all!

Yeah man. Im on an M1 Mac. I could never seem to get AA plugs to play nice on it and I eventually just gave up. It wasn't productive for me to constantly have Studio One jam up. I can accept certain plugins to have high CPU usage like RX, Soothe or Gulfoss because of what they're doing but to have my eq's and compressors pulling so much CPU as well?? It was just not working for me. Just recently, I upped and uninstalled everything AA, just so I wouldn't be frustrated anymore. I uninstalled quite a few plugins actually, just so I could focus on a select few which I found to be most productive for me.

No hate for AA although I find GC to be quite the tongue twister, so I stopped frequenting their threads. No love lost either way.

I did try the Tiger Mix Ultra Flat and was impressed with it when I was messing around with it. It has a nice sound. This is why I made that joke above. Sorry if it was offensive but I do reckon that P11 can do everything that Tiger can and much more. I didn't realize it at first either, but the more you mess with the Abyss, the deeper you fall into it.

Here's my honest personal thoughts. You can buy a bunch of compressors from AA or any other developer to get that analog sound that you're chasing for. AA even has them all separated into different plugins for that different analog feel for each of them. It's amazing but it's also very pricey to collect everything, and also to have the CPU power to manage all that. With the P11, because of its versatility, I can achieve a plethora of tone shaping and coloration, all in one plugin. It's much more cost effective. And if I want to add more color or saturation, I can add the P42, Siren or VLC on that chain.

I am mostly here on the PM threads, because I enjoy the company here. People are actually using these plugins and making good music and even sharing it. It is like a community. A good one.

And I appreciate that Ziad's focus is on the tools that he creates and he constantly works towards making it better. He strives to create new ideas or new workflows. His focus is not on creating a library of plugins, but instead a toolbox of essentials.

So no hate here at all. I'm just prioritizing what's better to surround myself with, so that I can feel the peace to make better music and be happy about it.

Sorry for the long post. Peace!

Very true. Definitely the PM product with the longest learning curve. I'm still learning, and I love it.

Only missing feature for me is some sort of peak mode compression, but given that I haven't exhausted the existing options, it seems almost silly to even mention it.

Yeah man. I’m really hoping that there would be a toggable tooltip option on the Abyss someday. I keep having to refer back to the manual every time I forget what something can do.

I’m not sure how amazing DRC is in leveling vocals but I tried P11 on a few vocal tracks earlier and I found it to be smooth and natural, even for dynamic vocals. IMO at least or what I’m happy with.

Btw, is there a way create saturation with the clipper? Or is the clipper always transparent and the saturation only comes from the transformers, OS or Mod?

Well, that's understood.

Researchers found that crocodiles can sleep with one half of their brain at a time, keeping the other half awake. This means they can keep a lookout of their surroundings with one eye while still getting enough sleep. When one half of their brain is rested enough, they will switch over to sleep with the other half.

The living fossils of the modern age.

A compressor could be made with adaptive pressure control, mimicking a crocodile. It would have minimal energy consumption and also operate very quietly. We could also add an adaptive threshold and a variable attack and release. With a noise gate function incorporated together with a dynamic range expansion, this would be the best selling crocodile compressor on the market.

Download from here

• Added release for the Clipper and the Brickwall Limiter.
• Moved the code to the latest JUCE 8 framework.
• Updated the GUI and value display.
• New presets.

ONLY Mac users need to delete their P11 plugin (AU, VST3, AAX) from the appropriate folders because the installer will have the P11 plugin in a "Pulsar Modular" designated folder in their default plugin folder.

Default release (limiter & clipper) is 10 ms (to stay compatible with previous versions). For tighter, snapier limiting, go for lower values.

Let us know if there are any issues or bugs with this update.

When setting threshold -13.2 to -13.4, a horizontal line appears on the knob

Postscript. Horizontal lines appear on all knobs. Try to adjust the angle of the knob to the same position.

Ahh those release times might be handy. I have been trying to recreate audiopunks spectralimiter 610 with abyss. Got pretty close, workflow is a bit different but I can grt there. Only I can not add highpass in audio path. For that I have to add another dq before. My 610 trial runs out in 20 hours so I have to be hasty.
The 610 has this explosive attack sound that just kicks ass on drums.
Ziad if you ever want a challenge try out 610 and post the preset. I will do one when Im happy with it. Im 80% there.

I will have a video tomorrow showcasing how to get that sound on P11 and then take it to the next step, then share the preset.

As for the HPF, you can use P11 IN EQ
Use the Cut Band selection around 15Hz

I was able to get the sound within 2 minutes. Waiting for the lazy employee (my son) to wake up and edit the video to post.

This will be interesting to watch.

https://youtu.be/BecWVjpAmbk?si=Mdn3M-qxdII1IK_Q

This was a very informative video to watch. Thanks Ziad. I think I just learned a few more things about the Abyss.

Love these videos.

One thing I noticed when reading about the 610 complimiter is that the limiter comes before the compressor- I know that Abyss can swap around where the clipper is in the path but there's no way to swap the limiter before the compressor, right?

[QUOTE=igelhaft;17251424]... I know that Abyss can swap around where the clipper is in the path but there's no way to swap the limiter before the compressor, right?/QUOTE]

At the time of the P11 design, I actually did not "technically" do a clipper (P44 has a clipper). CLP is a brickwall limiter with the latest version of taking the release time all the way down to 1 ms and can deliver clipper-like behavior.
So yeah, assign RAW->CLP, and this will give you brickwall limiter (with 10 to 1 ms release) on the raw signal before entering compression, and you still have a 2nd limiter to use at the end of the signal chain.

That's a great trick. Definitely liking the fast clipper before compression, though now I'm mildly curious if there's anything of value in combining a microseconds clipper release with a microseconds compressor attack.

Something that came up when playing around compressing some drums is that OS seems to really soften the transients and take the thwack out of things (INT and HD are worse about it than VIN). It also messes with levels, but I tried to compensate for that. Is that expected behavior?

Just tested v 2.1.0.
Compressor GR meter doesn't work.

Mac OS 15.1.1
AAX,VST3

You're lucky anything works in 15.1.1 mate.

Fix will be ready in 10min.

Thank you!
GR meter is working now!

There are no problems at all !
Everything works as expected.

Download v2.1.1 with CLIPPER going down to 0.1 ms release time. I did not want to go down further with the Limiter side for musicality reasons and to stay with the character of that limiter.
The OS is cleaning up the bounced-back frequencies so it will feel softer and lower volume. Hopefully, with the 0.1ms it will help you achieve that hard sound.

I'm loving that fast clipper! Been comparing it with DMG Compassion which has the Clip Limiter which I think works in the same position when you stick it in Pre mode.

They have their differences (Compassion is a complicated beast, but doesn't do a lot of Abyss's saturation things to the best of my knowledge), but fast clip + fast compression attack seems to get into the same ballpark and it's an interesting one. Having the option to go fast with P11 is great.

Which DAW are you using?