Hi all,

I'm looking at the Sonnox Inflator.

I was wondering if anyone here has used it (especially for mixing/mastering trance).

Where would be the best place in the mastering chain to insert it ? (before the limiter or maybe even after it?)

I've been using the UAD Precision Limiter and I have to say it's not that great for bringing up the level of dance tracks.
I know a lot of people still swear by L2, does anyone have any other suggestions or options?
I was think TC Poco/MD3+Brickwall is probably the best available, but perhaps there are other alternatives ?

Cheers
John

I use the Inflator a lot, just no where near my 2 bus...

If you get a mix right it will sound great without squishing the life out of it.

Please, have a heart and care for dynamics. They're heading to being an endangered species..

quote:

Originally posted by Diginerd Please, have a heart and care for dynamics. They're heading to being an endangered species..

No joke.

yep, inflator and limiter are awesome. (i have the whole sony oxford bundle)

and yes, i use it more and single tracks to let something cut through the mix or just to change the color.

on the other side the sony limter has also something to alter the color. if i remember right it's labeled with "enhance". just check the demos out. imho there's nothing in the vst world which can replace especially those 2 plugins.

Thanks for the info.

They are definately fantastic tools, I've heard good things about the EQ too and will probably add it to my collection

So you guys wouldn't recommend using the limiter and inflator
together on the master buss? I tried using the limiter with reduced settings to allow so extra room to put the inflator after it and that seemed to work quite well.

Even just the sonnox limiter on it's own seems to produce a cleaner result than the uad prec. limiter.

I can see the inflator working well for bringing individual sounds out (nice alternative to a simple gain or limiter).

Put it this way, I'm very picky about my 2 bu, but if you were to put a limiter on there the Oxford isn't a poort choice.

I certainly wouldn't put the inflator there though..

Sony OXF-3 EQ = YUMMY! that's my standard "Go To" EQ these days.

What would be your number one choice of limiter?

I've been using the Waves and UAD stuff up till now. But I'm seriously thinking an investment into Poco + MD3/Brickwall might be as good as it gets.

Hmm, a real fairchild 670 would be yummy... Not going to happen though!

In computer-land the Sony stuff is all amazing, but if you're going to screw about on the 2 bus I really like the Brainworx, but it's Pro tools only..

Serious harware limiters and compressors though are something else..

quote:

Originally posted by johno27 What would be your number one choice of limiter? I've been using the Waves and UAD stuff up till now. But I'm seriously thinking an investment into Poco + MD3/Brickwall might be as good as it gets.

my go to master limiter is the sony limiter this days. i really like the L3 (not the multiband version) too. i tried the MD3 aswell, imho this tool is amazing. especially all the single processing stuff in there together make this thing really great. i wouldn't go for it if your only after the limiter. imho it is good but not outstanding.

Hey,

Yeah sofar of all of the software I've tried I have to say the Sony stuff has come out tops, definately above the UAD for me, although I wouldn't rule out the UAD plugins for different genres, perhaps pop or rock or classical mastering, but for trance it just doesn't really cut it. Tracks requiring less drive may work well with it though.

I wouldn't really use the MD3/poco combination just for the limiter, I't would be great for the MS mode dynamics processing too, so it would probably land up being used in it's entirety.

By 2-buss are you refering to mixdown stereo bus ? I wouldn't really be putting any of this stuff on their at all, I sometimes use a buss compressor on the mixdown buss, like a decent outboard analog tube compressor but definately no "mastering" plugins.

I'm referring purely to mastering sessions here , be it my tracks or others that I'm mastering for mates.

I'm just really trying to get a feel for what all the other trance guys out there are using to master with, as it seems these days more and more producers master themselves and don't send their tracks to mastering engineers, especially with our limited budgets and non-big time-record deals

Cheers
John