PLUGIN OR HARDWARE - SOUND TEST | Maselec ML3 vs. Acustica Ivory Multiband Compressors

VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION

I'm Streaky. Today, I'm going to show you the diff well. I'm going to play you the difference between this Maselec multiband MLA-3 against the Acustica audio version of it. So I'll play, you can listen to the difference between the hardware and the software in my computer. But before I do that, I want to show you this. Now this is the entrance to my studio. It used to be a stable, as you can see, because stable door. Come through. This is the entrance. Now we used to have this as an office when we first came here about six months ago, because it was cooler downstairs rather than upstairs hot in the summer. But we ended up just throwing stuff all down here. It's become a bit of a junkyard. You might remember those speakers from when we did the dip of them. So you check that out, if you want to see that.

There's all kinds of stuff. There's a toilet down here, which is all very exciting. So I'm thinking with this area, it's going to be a vinyl area. I haven't done vinyl cutting for a while, but I'm getting drawn in to the lathe and getting a vinyl lathe again. (Just when I thought I was out and they pulled me back in). And maybe some like CDJs and stuff. So we can do some DJ-ing down here. That'd be quite smart. Maybe do a DJ course for the Academy. That could be good. But first of all, I've got, say in the back of the car that I can drag in. So Matt put the camera down, let's go. (Music Playing)

So that was me playing with the Maselec MLA-3 that I have in the studio, the hardware version here. Now what we're going to do is I know that acoustical audio have got their Ivory multiband, which is, I think, based on this, but they can't say that for obvious reasons. And I use that sometimes, but I use other multiband compressors in the box a lot more these days. Don't tend to use the Maselec as much as I used to, but it's still amazing. And you can use it as an EQ. You can use it as a de-esser. You can use it as a stereo compressor. So he's really versatile considering it as a hardware box. And I do think it's actually the best hardware multi-band compressor that you can get. Super clean, but it's got really good, tight low end, and I'm selling myself into it more and more as I talk about it.

But what I'm going to do is, I'm going to play this against the acoustical audio one. And on my system, let me go through that because I know people when you do this, say yeah but that was going through converters. Now, when they've emulated this hardware to make their plugin, they would have had to have gone through an A/D converter to be able to convert the signal, to be able to emulate that sound. So they've actually done that with all emulations. It's a snapshot of a certain box with a certain A/D converter and certain cables. There's no getting around that. So it's similar thing I'm doing here. Now my chain is, I'm going to be doing is going in and out of the Maselec, going via a Lavry A/D converter and a Lavry D/A converter.

So, I've got the Quintessence and I've got the Lavry Gold. Super, super high end conversion. I've got a LAT cables that are going through it all. Great mains. So, it's a super clean, clean signal path that we've got here to do the analog test. I'm hoping that's as good as they've had when they emulated it, we'll soon find out. I'll run the same track through with the same settings, hardware, software. Before, hardware, software, hardware, software, I'll do the whole track. Let me know in the comments, what you think of it. And, I'm really interested to know which one you think sounds better. It depends whether you like turning knobs on the screen or whether you'd like doing them in real life.

But before we get there, let me just update you on the 50K subs Masalec giveaway. Now people said it was going up to Christmas, and I didn't give away the Masalec EQ. And since then, I've got used to using two Masalec EQ. One for M/S mode and one in normal mode. So, I've been thinking the MLA-3, which I'm showing you today. I don't actually use it as much as I used to. And, because I said at 50K, I'll give something away. Why don't we give away the MLA-3?

If you're wanting a… I don’t know. They're about 4,000 pounds, 5,000 pound Masalec MLA-3. Make sure that you subscribe below because I'll be picking a subscriber from my subscribers randomly to get the MLA-3 when I hit 50K, which I think I'm only about 6,000 off at the moment. So, it's not a lot far. Make sure you click it. I know that about 50% of you that watch me, aren't subscribed. So have a quick look down and make sure you subscribe. But I'll stop talking now and I'll get on with the hardware software. Let's do it. Okay. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to like this video. I'll see you on the next one. Bye

(Acustica Ivory 4 - Music Playing)

(Maselec MLA-3 - Music Playing)