All Bettermaker Equipment - An Honest Audio Gear Review

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

✅ Audio Animals Mixing Service ► www.audioanimals.co.uk/shop/studio-services/mixing ✅ Audio Animals Mastering Service ► www.audioanimals.co.uk/shop/studio-services/mastering ✅ Buy Bettermaker UK ► sxpro.co.uk/search/?search=bettermaker ✅ Buy Bettermaker USA ► sweetwater.sjv.io/mOgv91

[@christianocean8998]

great video as always Paul, very useful for me and I'm assuming for others as well. keep making amazing tutorials and reviews. God job !

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@christianocean8998 this is why I wanted to do these honest gear reviews. I see too many reviews online where I own the gear and I think you've purposely missed out the negatives to make a sale. If there are negatives, people should know about them. I'd wish I'd seen an honest gear review on the BM limiter 2 compared to the Darthlimiter. In every review I watch there was no mention of what I talked about in this video.

[@lk0707]

Interesting to see comparison between Darth and v2. Thanks for the review.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@lk0707 yes this needs to be done.

[@djtuff514]

me too I own the 2,

[@Standard.Candle]

Love the honest review Paul. I had a BM limiter V1 and I also couldn't get on with the visual feedback. No matter the calibration, it was always off. The clipper, while nice, would be engaged audibly when there was ZERO indicated clipping on the meter. By the time the meter was reading 0.1dB of clipping, it was getting to be too much audibly. No idea why this is, enjoyed the unit other than that, but I'm afraid I'll just be sticking to software limiters until I can somehow afford a laal. Cheers.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@Standard.Candle I'm glad it's not just me as I've watched review after review on the V2 and at no point did anyone mention this. This why I think these honest reviews need to be done. Because everyone who reviewed the V2 knows something isn't right with the metering. I only knew 100% it wasn't an isolated issued to just my unit after getting a second V2. The thing is it's something they could fix with a firmware update. Hopefully they will after seeing how many people comment and agree.

[@ThisGuyDude]

Appreciate the perspective and legit review.

[@azoteapost8734]

You are spot on ! I have the vspe the meq and the v2 limiter. Your views are along mines.

[@iamrickyhype]

I own the Mastering Limiter V2 and I actually love it, my only complains are: not having a gain reduction meter for the clipper; in Logic I have to save with name the project before using it, if I do it after tweeking the V2 all the parameters are brought back to default as soon as I save with name. I am not a huge fan of stereo image enhancers, but I find the MS Width quite nice!

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@iamrickyhype for me no doubt the actual limiter is great. It does sound great. For me the metering is so inaccurate it makes working with it a little frustrating. The sound of the darthlimiter is as good as the V2 but without the headache of having the issues I mentioned in the video. I didn't feel it was an upgrade from the darthlimiter I already had and was a step backwards. V2 is definitely a big step up from V1.

[@iamrickyhype]

@@AudioAnimalsStudio I've never tried the Darth Limiter, but yeah...if the sound is the same it doesn't seem to be a huge upgrade. Btw I ended up sending back the Mastering Compressor too, I think it wasn't add much to my setup even though it's a great unit. I was thinking about getting the eq and something else for color, then the WES Audio NG Tube Eq came out and I went all in on that one (and I am super happy I did it!).

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@@iamrickyhype the Wes Audio Tube EQ is great. I choose that over the BM EQ every time. But I have the BM EQ as a very clean EQ for surgical EQ. Which is very useful.

[@iameddiestokes]

Glad I looked at this review before purchasing that limiter.. Outside of my Dangerous Music stuff I think I'm going the route of Analog gear with digital recall as well.. I had the Bettermaker black passive eq when it first came out.. Got rid of it in 2 months.. But yea, Thanks Paul. I always appreciate your videos..

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@iameddiestokes yeah I found the black face passive EQ to be quite underwhelming and what i call vanilla. The valve version sounds great though. Amazing what a valve can do. The limiter sound wise is good. It just has so many flaws in metering and functionality that went backwards compared to the previous models. Limiting and clipping is something you want accurate metering for.

[@LucasMichalski]

Thanks for such a informative video. Im in hunt for Mastering Compressor and my only two options are Bettermater Mastering comp and Dangerous Audio Mastering comp. Im totally puzzled which one to choose.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

The Bettermaker mastering comp does sound great. It is just a touch fiddly jumping between menus at times. I am more of a fan of having all function on the front panel assessable at a moments notice. I have used both and I prefer the Dangerous compressor. Without saying too much, if you wait until Namm you will see a compressor announced that will blow both of these away. Depends if you want to wait.

[@LucasMichalski]

@AudioAnimalsStudio thank you so much for your reply. I'm a type of guy who likes simplicity so fiddly jumping between menus put me off a bit. You mean Winter NAMM in January? Also when you would only have to compare the sound. Which one would you choose Bettermaker or Dangerous Mastering comp? Thank you once again for your reply and time.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@LucasMichalski yes winter Namm. The thing is, it'll be announced then but won't be released for a while later. So may be a little wait. April or May, I'd imagine. There's no real ones better than the other sound wise. They both just sound like good compressors. I couldn't definitely say get this one it sounds noticeably better.

[@mikedavis2426]

@@AudioAnimalsStudio is this going to be a VCA?

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@@mikedavis2426 no. I can't say anymore as I'll be in breach of my NDA.

[@jamesglewmusic]

Brian Lucey uses the v2 BML.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@jamesglewmusic guarantee he feels the same way about these features. Like I said in the video it's not an issue with the sound of the limiter. It's an issue with the way the limiter has to be use. Nothing a firmware update can't fix.

[@EarthboundMastering]

I've had four Bettermakers (232, ME, MLv1, and Darthlimiter) and sold them all. I'm OK with the workflow and they sound OK, but not great. As soon as I put one in my chain, the sound lost quality even when they didn't do anything. I've tried driving them from different units just in case it was an impedance issue, but nope. However, I found especially the Darthlimiter great for ITB mixes, sometimes only using one of the harmonic generators to breathe some life into the mix. Great stuff, but I'm waiting for a sound quality upgrade (and I know I'm not the only one). Maybe a v3 limiter with better components?

[@anaisvania]

very good, its help me a lot. Very Clear the Good and the not so good. Thanks

[@catcatty7168]

Thank you for your valuable review! I thought V2 was unintentionally bright Instead, it now retains transients better, so if I'm buying a new one, V2 might be the way to go. Anyway. I respect for your perspectives as a professional:)

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@catcatty7168 V2 has a good sound to it as a limiter. My main concern with it was the output only going to -10 and the metering being poor compared to the previous version. This could be updated, though I would imagine with a firmware update. The clipper has more features on the V2 which is nice but made painful to use by the metering. All of which could be fixed by Bettermaker.

[@risingphoenix1484]

Can you do an overview or tour of this room?

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@risingphoenix1484 yes. This is coming

[@TigroGumi]

OMG your WesAudio rack in insane!!! I see you've made it back into more analogue mixing with the amazing world of digital control and recall. As I build mine, I'm going to be going with the same focus as I built. McDSP APB I'm thinking as a first piece followed by a few master bus things. I'm having trouble picking purely digital recall units, but feel I'm probably being a victim of gear lust. What focus would you give to the importance of the Heritage Audio GrandChild over the WES Audio Rhea? Is there more value in easy recall over sound of the GrandChild? I will be using them for mixing but also will be doing my own productions in between and instant recall becomes a bit more necessary because I need to be able to jump back and forth through projects. With mixing I kinda dedicate my time purely to that mix so resetting a couple units manually isn't such a pain. Would you think the recall has better value in a new studio build over a slightly better sound from one unit? I find it interesting that the BetterMaker isn't so well integrated. I've never been inspired by them at all other than them being recallable... but it sounds like they have some glaringly bad design flaws on top of that. Hopefully your review wakes them up to change things for the future.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

The Wes Audio 500 series racks are insanely good. Getting those changed my approach to mixing. I recently became so fed up with plugins just not being able to achieve the sound of analogue. The only reason I was using plugins was because of recall purposes. So moving to 88 channels of McDSP analogue processing and multiple analogue processing chains all with digital recall has given me the superior sound of analogue with the convenience of plugins. The Grandchild is really good. The McDSP fairchild is so close much closer to the sound of the Fairchild and I know this because I have tested it against the Fairchild. You can't tell them apart. Dale at SX Pro just posted a video showing this using the same Fairchild I had in my studio. So in all honesty I would say buy a McDSP instead and you get 8 stereo instances of the Fairchild for £7k. And it sounds better and more accurate than the Grandchild. Recall for me is so important. I work with so many sessions per day. Recall is integral to me keep my rates as they are. The sound of the Bettermaker units is good. I just want that full hands on feel. Not an issue with the 4 units I have. But with the compressor it was a bit of a pain. I think their original thought process was that people would use the plugin and not use the hardware. Compressor is fine if you want to use it that way. Plugin however is very outdated. Looks like a 2010 plugin design. Needs an update. But I would assume a V2 compressor is coming next year.

[@TigroGumi]

​@@AudioAnimalsStudio That super helpful, thank you!!! The McDSP APB is the most simple hybrid integration. Them having the tape plugin now also is a massive plus... and of course more can come. Might have to look into getting 2 APB-16's instead and add the rest of it later on. What's the EQ like in the McDSP... it's of course not fully analogue but a hybrid... is it lacking at all? I will be get the HE2 also but I think for now that'll be it for now. The 20db input and 10db output plus the fact it doesn't freeze until it returns to 10db is a massive flaw in the compressor... but not the end of the world. I really hope McDSP continues this line of APB's down the road and we get all sorts down the line. Once the studio is profiting regularly I can begin the journey into separate units. The APB's are by far the most headache free hybrid options out there. And if they are sounding so good. I've not heard any feed back anywhere else on the their Fairchild but heard such good thing about everything else, it's clearly somewhat of a staple for mixing. How do you find it all for mastering out of interest? Guessing it's pretty much the same story.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@TigroGumi the mcdsp EQ sounds brilliant. Although it is digital the modules still runs through the chain for its mojo. And the digital aspects work with the analogue processing so it feels analogue. There's a channel strip coming early next year which is going to mean you'll have 32 channels of analogue EQ compression and saturation using two mcdsp apb 16s. I'm personally not a fan of using the mcdsp in mastering. But that's because i have so much other mastering gear. I use the mcdsps strictly in the mix. That being said there's no reason you couldn't use it in mastering. I just don't. The tape module is incredibly good. Very subtle and you'll think is it doing anything. But it really does have an impact on the mix.

[@TigroGumi]

@ okay good to know. I’m aware you’d obviously not use it for mastering considering you have all the things you have but if you can’t think of an any flaws then it’ll be fine. It actually saves me a lot of money in the build learning this. Beat to have a much financial headroom as possible when starting out. The channel strip coming very much seals the deal. Of course there’s still possibilities of more to come still with these units. Especially with Atmos quickly becoming a standard also. Might have to wait on a full Atmos setup, but I am wondering how far I can go with Atmos on headphones. There’s some that are quite able but they all said they first needed to mix for a bit of a full Atmos setup before they knew what they were doing on headphones. Atmos is definitely where I want to end up… hopefully ASAP. I’m most excited for that

[@BertVollmer-f5m]

Did you talk about the WesAudio ngBusComp before? I see one in your studio... I'm getting one as my first totally DAW integrated piece of outboard.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@BertVollmer-f5m is a great choice. It's a brilliant compressor. I'll review this soon. I will also be doing a review like this one on the Wes Audio products too.

[@Chaos-Dynamics]

The Darth Limiter sounds pretty good but not my favorite choice 👍🏼

[@mikedavis2426]

the limiter v2 is all about the MS color. It's worth the upgrade without a doubt.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@mikedavis2426 this is a good feature. But how can a limiter be all about MS colour and not it's key function of accurate limiting.

[@mrknoxonthebeat]

Agreed. I had the Bettermaker mastering limiter, which was so overrated, and I sold it fairly quickly. I was able to get more out of the Sir Audio Tools Standard Clip limiter plugin.

[@NOLASkaGuitarist]

I had one come up recently used for like 1400, it was a killer price but after reading about many users ultimately deciding to use their ITB limiter makes me glad I passed. I'm sticking with my Oxford for now.

[@itstyx2]

I’m torn between the bettermaker passive and the Pultec 500’s, anyone have any input? Better had tubes and the 500 pultecs are solid state

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@itstyx2 I personally prefer the Bettermaker VSPE. The 500 series pultecs are expensive for mono 500 series. One thing I would say is if you are going for the Bettermaker get the valve version.

[@itstyx2]

@ appreciate the response, Iv really been on getting gear that’s versatile. I like the idea of the valve. More options is always better

[@simon_dupp]

Was looking at the BM Compressor and I was afraid that menu diving would be an issue. Sad to hear that it actually is an issue. Thing is: I’m looking for a VCA compressor with digital recall to use in mixing and mastering. For this the WesAudio ngBus Comp seems like the perfect fit but there is one thing that is keeping me from pulling the trigger and that is the lack of longer attack times. I love using attack times of 100ms+ with a very low ratio in mastering for a very transparent compression and I fear that the ngBus Comp will always be a little to grabby for my taste with the short attack times available. Any thoughts on this?

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@simon_dupp it's a brilliant compressor and it sounds really good. The menu diving was a bit of a pain for me. Not a huge amount of menu diving but enough for it to slow me down. As a mastering compressor I want everything in front of me accessible off the front panel. With regards to the wes audio NG bus comp, pull the trigger it's amazing. They now have a feedback cable with it, which gives you a silky smooth compression sound. In feed forward mode it is very grabby and more a bus comp. With the feedback compression active it turns it into more of a mastering compressor. I bought the BM compressor because I wanted a digital recall mastering compressor. Then Wes Audio released this mod and it became my mastering compressor.

[@mikedavis2426]

i find the BM to be fine in use. You've got easy access to most of the key parameters on the panel. The plugin is an absolute breeze anyway. When you have all three BM units going it's quite ok to just use the plugins and make occasional adjustments by hand.

[@infojunkie4989]

Not been around the channel for a while. Are those new racks?

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@infojunkie4989 yes moved everything that was in this studio into our 3rd studio and turned this studio into a 100% digitally recallable setup. 140 channels of analogue processing. It's the dream setup now.

[@katzone3181]

I have realised that many of your gears in studio B have been replaced with WES Audio, and I believe that it is because of your workflow more than actual sound quality? or are they even better sounding than other gears you have replaced? Thank you Paul for your video as always...

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@katzone3181 it has nothing to do with sacrificing quality. More to do with increasing quality in mixing as I know have 140 channels of analogue processing whilst mixing. Which makes a huge difference when compared to plugin. I have recently become so fed up with the sound quality of plugins and the fact that no matter how much we try plugins are inferior to analogue processing. Before the gear you saw in the racks was used for mastering only. By using digitally recallable equipment i can use the units i use in mastering in the mixing stage as well. Overall the upgrade to digitally recallable gear has been a huge upgrade to sound quality and workflow. Also I always want to be on the front foot building studios that are ahead of the curve. In 5 years time most studios worldwide will look like mine. That's my prediction.

[@katzone3181]

@@AudioAnimalsStudio thank you so much for your detailed reply. Yes, digital plugins are not any closer to analogs. I would also think many studio will look like yours soon unless they say things like they have the “original” model etc. Thanks again.

[@dougleydorite]

BM needs to fix these issues with metering and linking with firmware updates, if they want charge me premium prices, at least give me standard operating conditions

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@dougleydorite the thing is there's zero issues with the limiter it sounds great. The issue lies just with the metering being off. This could be fixed. I've been told there's no plans to change anything I've highlighted in this video at the moment.

[@dougleydorite]

@ that’s what sets Wes audio apart. They have personalized customer support to a nobody like me for one-off issues just for the purpose of making their equipment better and learning more about use cases etc

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@dougleydorite 100% they have some of the best customer service I've experienced. One of the many reasons I've installed so much of their equipment. They also listened to suggestions I made and within a day implanted them into a firmware update and software update.

[@gwsound]

As a full Bettermaker customer I also send the limiter version 2 back..so you're not on your own.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@gwsound did you also find what im saying to be true? I just wasn't a fan. It went backwards, not forwards. The darthlimiter is brilliant though and big improvement on the silver face version.

[@gwsound]

@@AudioAnimalsStudioyes I agree. Software part was bothering me as well. Sound was not improving either. Darth is the best although, I still own the silver version (for a long...time). The LaaL became my main limiter. Bus comp is just a great affordable VCA compressor.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@gwsound have you tried the VSPE. I found that had a very impressive sound to it.

[@gwsound]

@@AudioAnimalsStudio yes I did but not in my own studio. Sounds great but I don't like the controls because you can only recall it with the plugin. The front control is not accurate enough for me.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@gwsound yes you would 100% need plugin recall to recall the VSPE. There's about 5 detents on the parameter before the next light activates. It would massively be guesswork.

[@ozrecords2768]

What do you think about Audioscape , do you own any of it ?

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@ozrecords2768 no don't own any of it. To be honest I've always thought of them as clones of the real thing. And I always want to buy the real thing. Clones are great. I'd just prefer instead of clones we had a unit in its own right that has zero association with another product. That's the reason I don't have any in any of my studios.

[@bonafontciel]

I've got the v2 limiter and owned the v1 as well. I can tell that the clipper metering does not work as in V1 which was more readable. Also the V2 owners manual still does not exist today which is disappointing

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@bonafontciel I can't understand why the metering on the V2 wasn't made the same or better than V1 or the darthlimiter. If anything hopefully this video pushes them to do a firmware update that sorts this.

[@aleksamrkela831]

Sadly, the Darthlimiter is discontinued, so you can only get it used.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@aleksamrkela831 Yes, that's correct. Limited run of 1000.

[@joeyf808]

I wish WesAudio made a limiter.

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@@joeyf808 me too. I've put this request in myself. Logical progression for wes Audio in 19" is they gave us a bus comp, then EQ, next would suggest a compressor then maybe limiter. Maybe they are taking that approach. I'd really love to see their take on a saturation box.

[@tytansoundlab]

@@AudioAnimalsStudiotell them we need that multiband in 19 inch rack versions also😎

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@@tytansoundlab can you imagine how good that would be. THD on each band with an amount parameter. Linkable bands. So you can turn it into a single band compressor or multiband. So many possibilities.

[@dougleydorite]

I was going to try my bus comp at INF ratio to see how it performs as a limiter

[@AudioAnimalsStudio]

@@dougleydorite do you have feedback compression cable. You could see a better result from using feedback compression instead of feedforward.