TBProAudio updates CS-5501 to V2.7, a channel strip for Windows and Mac OS X
by TBProAudio   22nd January 2023

I wish every vendor was as dependable and conscientious as TBProAudio. Great products and excellent customer service. Always.

Thank you

Really impressive CS.
I have been very close to buying it several times.
It sounds good, has all the features you need, but I like to mix fast and don't want too many distractions. Could be awesome if you could switch between simple and all function modes.

But, but, but it is a killer plugin ?

Same here, demoed it several times, looks great on paper, but for me it is a bit too much in one interface. A simplified mode with just EQ (maybe not even full range bands but carefully selected frequencies for general tone shaping), compressor and a one knob saturation would be enough for me on most channels, the full feature set maybe only on a few tracks that need special attention….
But for people who like detailed processing with lots of features this is probably the channel strip to go for.

I love those additions.

I would also love to have a dual mono option (I am the one that usually ask for it), lower HP filter (I usually find myself cutting around 16Hz) and higher LP filter (in a lot of sampled music it's useful to cut between 21 and 24 Khz).

You guys are developing quickly the perfect Channel Strip!!!

Im noticing, since updating, the default knobs are a bit off between EQ1 and EQ2 on the Q knob for the HF Shelf. On EQ1 at default setting (0.7) the white stripe is pointing to 9'0 clock. On EQ2 at default setting (0.7) the white stripe is pointing to 7'0 clock. This doesn't appear to be intentional.

On another note, I don't find it distracting at all. You have an EQ section and Processor section. The EQ will remain constant and you change the Processor section by simply clicking on the name of it. No other plugin channel strip has the functionality this does. It goes on every vocal track for me.

Also, it would be nice to have a more detailed manual or a Youtube video. Still don't have a complete grasp of how the deesser works.

Thank you. It is an GUI issue only. Fix will come with next version.

Wow! CS-5501 caught my interest a long time ago because it's one of the most powerful channel strips available.

Scheps Omni Channel is my normal go-to, which has the once-unique feature of dual de-essers. But CS-5501 has that, too, and a bunch of other notable features...

Optional oversampling is appreciated, and it has options for multiple stages of dual compressors, dual limiters, dual eqs, dual gates. Oh, and the limiter offers look ahead.

And what now? V2 is a free update for V1 owners. So not only is the plugin fully supported, the author was generous to existing customers. Excellent!

Then we look at the new additions... Oscilloscope! And spectrum analyzer! That takes an already-powerful channel strip and adds a whole other layer of utility. I think I'm sold.

Congratulations on this update, TBProAudio. It is appreciated when developers stick with their products for continual updates (especially an update this big), and the free upgrade is generous!

Thank you

Absolutely lovely, especially the left one!

Agree!

The only thing missing is a slight loyalty discount to CS-3301 owners...

Great concept.

I'm not so happy with the Oscilloscope or I'm not understanding it. I had hoped it can also work as a wave meter to see the wave form synced to the beat. So for 1 bar you would always see exactly one bar audio. And the waveform should not move, but be rendered from the left to right and then start from the left again. It's better to see this way compared to a moving wave.

The plugin is not overwhelming or complicated for me.

Thank you. You can sync the waveform with the DAW locators, if the range is less than 1sec. This makes the waveform steady.

Question for TB ProAudio and/or users of this plugin. Currently demoing in Logic, and one thing that annoys me is upon opening the plugin there's about a 1.5 second lag while the GUI loads. Just long enough to irk me. Is this simply a result of the demo being unauthorized, or is the plugin also this way when authorized after purchase?

I'm on Win 10 with Cubase Pro 11 using the VST3.

The GUI does not open instantaneously here, but the momentary lag has never been an issue for me. I've never timed it, but it's never been so long that I wonder if the plugin is going to open. So for me, it's not immediate, but is quite quick.

It seems to be a GFX card/driver topic. Depending on this GUI opening is slower or faster. Maybe an update of the GFX driver helps?

- NEW: Analogue Noise Level -87/-115dB/16Bit/24Bit
- NEW: new background "gold"
- NEW: extended EQ frequency range from 10 to 40k
- NEW: Peak level display
- NEW: Copy EQ1 to EQ2 and EQ2 to EQ1
- UPDATE: allow input values in the format 0.5k => 500

I checked the plugin out again after seeing the update.

I think the same about the wave meter. Fantastic addition but still not that great to use.

In a good wave meter you can just set like 1/8 1/4 , 1/2, 1/1 bar and the waveform stand still visually just showing the difference/overlay from the original and affected signal of that range regardless where you are in the arrangement.

Similar how it's working with a very short loop less than 1 sec loop in the DAW with the "get loop length from host" button. But 1 sec is too short and the update of the scope is choppy.

Duck from devious machines is a very good example of a great to use synced wave meter.

One point about ab-lm light. It would be great being able to fix the current compensation level after tweaking. Otherwise you have a second volume modulation after the compressions. When you just turn ab-lm lite off after tweaking you lose the compensation completely.

Thank you. We will have a look

You could do this:
The "target" icon right to text "output" in the fader section freezes the last ABLM settings.

Perfect. That's more or less exactly what I mean.

As soon as you see the target icon everything is understandable. Resetting the compensation that is indicated by the small led at the icon via click was easy to understand too. Even the compensation amount is shown in db, fantastic. This way you can easily use that value for manual compensation at the final setting and turn ab-lm off completely.

Without your hint I had never found it. But I have to be honest, I did not read the manual.

The compensation seems limited to 12db. In extreme settings you can run into this limit. I'm wondering if there is any reason to limit the compensation at 12db?

The positive limit should save from clip-muting...

I understand. Imho a bit more compensation range like 18db or 20db would be helpful for strong compression of drums.

We will adjust this with next release to 24dB.

Just bought it! Awesome plugin. I would also love to sync the release time of the compressor to the bpm of the daw (like h-comp ...1/16, 1/8, 1/4. ...)

Thank you for this. We will consider this for a future update

I don't really get this, but happy to be schooled on why this is a good idea - this would only be useful for drums, right? Seems good in theory, but in practice, your Release time should probably always be a bit shorter than the desired sync option when you factor the Attack and Theshold into the equation. Compression doesn't even begin until the Threshold is breached and by that point you might be already off-grid. So for this to really work you'd need to sync the Attack time too, and have the material drop below the threshold also on tempo. I guess I can see this working for something like an electronic kick or snare drum that very consistently and predictably breaches the Threshold - then, depending on the length of the transient and where your Threshold is set, you could factor in Attack and Release times to tempo. OK, the more I think about it, the more I kind of get it , but only for drums I can see it being useful, honestly.