Congratulations on this excellent video, @ caustik !
I use APU everyday in every project, since the very beginning and I'm very happy to see not only your continued and intelligent work towards improving it, but also too see the project growing!

This is indeed a fantastic tool that deserves much more attention.
I hope this video does it!

All the best to you my friend!

A certain sailor of the white seas, though not everybody's cup of tea, just put out a video checking out Loudness Compressor which ended with them buying the plugin on screen.

Hopefully that's a sign of wider trends because people have been sleeping on this far too long.

I actually had an email notification when White Sea purchased the compressor license. I thought to myself "that's interesting. maybe there will soon be a review video." -- so it was pretty funny seeing that purchase actually recorded in the video itself. If it's not clear already, the video wasn't sponsored and I don't have any sort of affiliation.

Exciting day, I've been busy all day chatting with people over HelpScout beacon as they mostly arrived from that video. I'm constantly blown away how kind everyone has been to me about this project. Really something else to hear from so many professionals and hobbyists finding a place for my tools in their work.

This is an exceptional concept. Wish you the best success, and I hope you keep at it.

It has many parameters. What many of us want is simplicity. It's nice that you can change everything but I think you also need to have it in "Easy Mode" with the most important parameters, and leave everything else for an "Advanced Mode"

yea, I think most likely I'd make a separate plug-in, or a few separate plug-ins, which are tailored for particular uses. That way it can have its own product page and won't be cluttered with the complexities of the compressor.

Not sure when I'll have the time to do that, but it's on my radar for sure.

following this thread ...

question? is there a VST-3 [Win] format ? The site only show VST.

Thanks

It's VST-3.

My understanding is Steinberg doesn't want the name "VST-3" to be used instead they want it written as "VST" instead. VST-2 format actually isn't even allowed anymore at least for commercial purposes (I'm sure there are exceptions).

ok ... thanks for the clarification.

I'll give this a demo then

Have Logic Pro users noticed any issues when using this innovative compressor?

I think this compressor would be awesome for natural sounding vocal riding using the LUFS momentary loudness type, but i still can't wrap my head around all those settings. Can someone help me by giving me a good starting point preset to use?

I've experimented with just that since this came out and I couldn't tell you. So many options. Dan's video is helpful understanding the attack/release which behave entirely differently using LUFS rather than peak. I haven't had the inclination to try since watching and I'll need to watch it again when I do, but as usual I can nod in clear understanding all the way through then promptly forget most of it.

My aim is to replace laborious clip gaining but so far the nearest I get, the end of every phrase increases in volume unnaturally. I'll crack it eventually and I believe it will prove to be worth the effort. Selfishly I hope someone with more brains answers you query more positively.

Had an epiphany yesterday relating to improving the accuracy of output LUFS. I think it might end up being a big improvement with how the compressor responds to sudden spikes and dips in loudness. It will be applicable to other loudness types as well, but especially long window types like LUFS.

Will write something up assuming it goes well and works as expected.

Fix is up for Wavelab, which was crashing when trying to load saved settings (v2.7.2).

There's a setting that accounts for beginnings and endings of words/phrases and avoids those spikes in volume when the analysis window is not fully "used".

You have to be in look-ahead mode and use "adaptive edges", and then play with the threshold until you find what works for your material. I've had better results unchecking "silence".

It really is!

It sits on my DX bus and makes it pretty easy to meet TV loudness standards, but I use the short-term window for that.

I'm checking a recent reality show I did. On the DX bus it stands as the following:

short-term LUFS
source - target mode,
attack 0ms and release times around 60ms,
300ms look-ahead
source -34 to -10 LUFS
target ranges according to the US TV preset, from -29 to -19 LUFS

Loudness settings with adaptive start and adaptive edges ON, set to Threshold @ -70dB

Worked pretty well for me in this specific case, at least.

I was in the same boat as you yesterday evening, played with the demo, watched Dan’s video, tried it on a vocal to replace the gain riding and bought it after a few minutes. No regrets.
I’ll have to dig deeper into how everything works but it’s certainly the fastest way to compress-expand transparently
For example Gainrider by Tbproaudio which is also very good has a worse worlflow because with the apu i can get there faster and also expand without sudden gain boosts (i would only compress with gainrider for that reason) while adjusting the target range for makeup gain. Great workflow!!
I was wondering if there’s any way to change internal sidechain EQ? I want the detection to ignore high end sibilant transients

Not currently, but it's on my list of things to do.

Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a go. I'm at a stage with this where I feel I'm going to need some time time each time I try and use it so got to be in the right frame of mind. Will be great when I crack it for my own intended use as I feel similar settings will work for quite a few uses/instruments. I have no doubt at all that I'm the problem here not the software which is actually a nice place to be.

Just updated the compressor to v2.8.0

Built-in Limiter

It's a pretty common requirement to target both LUFS and True Peak for streaming and other purposes. There's now a Limiter tab which allows you to set a limiter ceiling and look-ahead time. The limiter itself is built-in with the existing compression algorithm so the ballistics dithering and inertia apply to it as well.

Target range presets now load the associated True Peak limiter setting as well.

Look and feel improvements

I've integrated melatonin_blur, an MIT licensed JUCE blur library, to improve the look of sliders and knobs a bit. Also took some advice and mock-ups from a friendly designer who was kind enough to offer some help over email.

I wonder what percentage of users of this compressor are aware you can hold ctrl or shift while dragging a range slider. It's probably the most important feature but I just realized there is absolutely no visual indication it exists. Not sure how to properly communicate to the user it exists.

I was just handed a project where the singer is very enthusiastic AND has terrible mic technique. This has saved me SO much time just getting everything consistently audible. cheers!

Question: How would this Comp work, as an overall Track leveler, on a full stereo mix?

In particular, the upwards expansion for a track that has quiet, or crescendo sections.
Currently, only hand automation was required.

2. if it is possible, can the output level be send to an Automation lane [for additional hand editing] ?

There are different "dynamics types" to make that sort of thing easier. You can use "upward expansion" dynamics type and then set the threshold/ratio/range parameters.

Usually works well on a full stereo mix because of the LUFS K-weighting.

This is on my list of things to do, just a bit tricky to get it right.

Thanks.

It would be great to have the 'Write Automation Option' available BEFORE having to commit to processing [especially in Mastering].

Thanks for consideration.

In my opinion the one missing thing is a sidechain eq because right now if used to level a vocal with the target setting it expands sibilance and consonants and accentuates their attack, taking it out of the detection range would solve that problem instantly
Otherwise lovely tool!

Any updates on this, or was this implemented in 2.8.0?

Thanks for your continued hard work, dedication, and community interaction!

I tried a few different approaches, but ended up finding some fundamental limitations which makes it impossible to implement for all cases. I'll be taking a look again once in a while.

Good updates in 2.8.5 since 2.8.0, thank you!

https://apu.software/release-notes/

Version 2.8.5
Input gain mapping for DAWs which support it
Group outlines for better visibility

Version 2.8.4
Fix file open for certain cases

Version 2.8.3
Enable ASIO support in standalone applications

Version 2.8.2
Fix panning startup glitch in certain cases (compressor/optimizer)

Version 2.8.1
Fix tab issues (meter)

Just updated to 2.9.0, changes since 2.8.5:

- Integrated loudness types (compressor/optimizer)
- Fix for True Peak limiter (compressor/optimizer)
- Fix for bypass not bypassing limiter (compressor/optimizer)
- Apply output gain post-limiter (compressor/optimizer)
- Apply output gain post-dry/wet (compressor/optimizer)
- Match limiter linked/unlinked to loudness type (compressor/optimizer)
- Parameter refresh optimization
- Improved peak mode visualizer auto range
- Improved target visualization accuracy in some cases
- Painting optimization
- Condense user interface layout
- Minor visual improvements
- Fix distribution range type min/max (optimizer)
- Support configurable momentary window duration
- Fix dithering for some cases (compressor/optimizer)
- Option to show/hide parameter change context text bubbles
- Tweak transfer function location (compressor)