Why Is Every Mastering Engineer OBSESSED With This Compressor?

[@warpacademy]

Another brilliant and deep video mate. Well done. I can't believe you dished out all that technical jargon without skipping a beat. Thanks for making a solid case to open up that advanced panel and tweak away. Cheers!

[@john_mclucas]

Watching this video made me realize how little I know about compression but I’m glad I have you to help me on the ride 😂

[@bigstewdio]

I'm a big fan of this compressor so was looking forward to this video (there aren't that many) but I have to confess I come at this from a totally different place. The almost unlimited flexibility is both a blessing and a curse so what sets this apart, for me anyway, is the sound and the presets. I can't exactly put my finger on why but I think, as a mastering compressor, Unisum just sounds amazing right out the box. Every mix just sounds more polished and more finished going through this even before dialling in the controls. I think it's the way it manages to control the dynamics without any colouration of the sound (ignoring the Hygee buton). And I don't just mean saturation. Most compressors add "weight" to the overall mix, which is sometimes desirable, but Unisum managed to control the dynamics without adding or taking anything away. As I say, difficult to put my finger on it but everything just sounds better. To the point that I have sometimes used it on the vocal busses in the mix when I just need transparent control and my usual tools (e.g. the excellent Pro C2) just isn't quite doing it. And that brings me to the second point which is presets. I've had this now for well over a year and use it on every master I do but I still rely very heavily on presets. Partly because it's so complicated to learn and partly because the presets are excellent. For those that don't have it, you have presets just for the bottom section which are totally separate to the overall presets. There aren't loads (I think about 15 iirc) but they give you a different feel and sometimes I just flick through those if I'm not getting exactly what I want from the default. I obviously dial in the top panel controls but for the bottom panel I rely almost exclusively on the presets. So, from a totally different perspective (I'm not a dedicated mastering engineer) this is still an excellent product and one that I would heartily recommend even if you hardly understood a word of the video :). But for when I want to dive in deeper, thanks Nick. Appreciate it.

[@panorama_mastering]

Hey! It's super flexible; and I was similarly in preset world until I commited to making this video as a personal challenge; now I'm pretty confident navigating all the parameters and dialing in the sound I need on the fly;

[@bigstewdio]

@@panorama_mastering perhaps I need to force myself (at some point) to really getting into the parameters in that bottom panel. I have previously learnt what they all do but I haven't spent the time to understand what that translates to sonically.

[@nikbeat888]

Thanks for explaining this beast of a Compressor. I have used it without opening up the Advanced settings with great results. Now I have no excuse. It would be amazing to see a real world example of how you would use all these settings on a track.

[@fescolfaro]

Thanks for sharing this, I could understand some of Unisum's functions since the very beginning and every now and then I was able to affect the signal the way I wanted, but it was hit and miss and more often than not I just disabled it and went back to a few mastering comps that I "know" how to get around. Now going over all the controls with you and listening to a song I was working on in the studio, all I can say is BRAVO. The whole thing makes sense and I could get it to sound better than the others I was A/Bing it against about 8 minutes in XD More than that, I can hear there are issues with the mix I would otherwise sort with automation that the modulations over the envelope just took care of. Great plugin, excellent 15 minutes going through everything with no wasted time.

[@olivercaminos2537]

This info was amazing and worth a subscribe!

[@jakekavanagh2206]

Thank you very much for this video, youve shared some incredibly practical knowledge that reading the manual never really portrayed allowing me to understand how to use this great tool more effectively, Top Man!!!

[@panorama_mastering]

My pleasure! Enjoy!

[@HoneyB_kyoto]

Huge respect for this video - one of these moment of this channel is pure jewel 💎 lov this compressor sound so much and been watching this video regularly to step up my game with it;) thanks 😊

[@andreifilip]

Finally.... that video ( haven't watched it yet ), but I was really waiting for this one!!! Thanks!😀

[@panorama_mastering]

You're welcome 😊

[@officialArmach]

very insightful thanks mate

[@urniurl]

I bought this as I really like the imaging.

[@canastraroyal]

How do you reckon this compares to Pulsar Modular's Abyss?

[@LucasMichalski]

Hi is it still worth it investing in this plugin compressor for mastering duties while having analogue TK BC1 - THD and analogue Vari Mu units (which I often use for subtle compression while mastering)? Do you still find it useful to use UNISUM when you have many analogue compressors that you can use for mastering?? Thank you.

[@niklassilen4313]

YES! Unisum is completely unique and can be a great problem solver while remaining exceptionally transparent. It's by far the best tool for subtly altering a songs "feel" in a rhythmic way, with minimal harmonic distortion being added.. something you can't really do in the hardware domain (going hardware will always alter the sound, simply by doing the AD-DA loop which isn't always ideal).

[@frequency_sequencer]

this is the only compressor i have even on my stems

[@martijn_nl]

Looking at the plugin doctor graphics I wonder how it compares to the Massenburg Designworks MDWDRC2-Native.

[@simonvandenheever8571]

Great comrpessor, just wish there was a delta button.

[@thomas-beaver]

What plugin are you using to do the analysis of the other plugins?

[@panorama_mastering]

Plugin Doctor!

[@nurd_afrikhan]

hearing you talk about this compressor i can just imagine using it on vocals

[@zarlok5294]

Looks like a bad boy eh?

[@warpacademy]

That's not really what it's for. It's like taking an F1 car to go get groceries. This compressor is geared for mastering, or possibly bus compression. I wouldn't use it on VOX. You'd be better off using Pro-C2 with its vocal algorithm, or something similar on VOX. Although I'm sure the algorithm would sound amazing nonetheless.

[@nurd_afrikhan]

I realize that its promoted as a mastering compressor however a compressor with the ability to be this clean and precise at the same time would definitely be a vocal gem (I think) @@warpacademy

[@edwardcolon8614]

Thank you for the excellent tutorial. For us producer types, how would you say this plugin stacks up against hardware units like the Wes Audio Ng in terms of sound quality?

[@panorama_mastering]

My pleasure; this plugin is in it's own class. sound quality I define via the fidelity/way it changes the tone, harmonics, noise or phase of a signal; this is a very transparent and clean compressor in that sense; but you can set it up to manipulate the dynamics in almost an unlimited amount of ways;

[@saardean4481]

Great video as always! Ps: maybe you wanna find a different place for your shotgun mic (or whatever the shadow on your head is)? It is a tiny bit distracting :-)

[@zarlok5294]

Of course…. And the functionality characteristics of your plugin. Never heard of this one before. I’ve got the most universal ones except Fab Filter. USD LA 2 A and 1176 cover about anything I need. Ozone 9 Advanced is very good I think and I have several others that fill in here and there. SSL buss comp is great. What the heck…. I’ll take a look at this. Why not?

[@cecilia_mackie]

So chill. Connect wit me?

[@kagaro99]

Dude. Are you a mind reader??!?

[@John_DoeMusic]

The key is to understand compression not a plugin.

[@joechapman8208]

Nobody said that. The title is "How hard is *this* mastering compressor to learn?" Even if you understand compression in general, you won't understand all of this particular compressor's controls without putting time in to learn them.