Lookahead

Has anyone experimented with using the DAW to hijack analog compressors and give them
lookahead by delaying the track and then running the undelayed one into the key in?

Yup,



  that's what the "french" house sound is, - makes me feel quite sick, actually.

If you can't delay, you can slightly nudge forward the key (f.e. kick, on a separate track) to get similar way of "slurpy" compression effect.

sounds like something fun to experiment with

If you want to pump the complete mix, create a separate kick track as key and nudge forward the midi (so the trigger note isnt on 1st but on the last ... 128th in the prev. bar, i.e slightly before the 1st)......I don't think this is only limited to "french" house

Most compressor plug-ins for DAWs have a lookahead mode. I've never really played around with it, so I don't know how it sounds, per se. I do know they only work for already-recorded tracks, so basically, only during mixdown.

I was told the Pye broadcast limiters did this with some serious allpass filter stuff, delaying the signal
by the attack time and getting a broadcast limiter that doesn't breathe and overshoot - when today
we have this clipping stuff everywhere you look. So I started getting curious about my SSL...

Try it in a DAW first.. use two copies of the same audio track, one as a key and the other as the actual audio file. Nudge the key track slightly forward and observe how the compressions sounds ... a hardware comp will likely react slightly different than a plugin, but not -that- much different. (you can nudge "left" both audio and midi key tracks..)

Alternatively, if you want more control, use a -delay- plugin on the -audio- track. http://www.voxengo.com/product/sounddelay/ (This will f++k-up all your PDC schemes, the "nudge left" approach won't)

Now, this is getting more serious and modular-like...

EMT did this lookahead thing in the 266 transient limiter with an allpass filter of some hundred microsecond delay

Hi lucas,


  I think you are thinking of the BBC6/7 and 6/17's. They have a delay built in - huge inductors and caps. They sound great on a drumbus, but are unusable because of the delay!

      My Pyes have no latency at all


    Kindest regards,


      ANdyP