Console4
Console 4 is the most recent version of basically my flagship Airwindows plugin. It works through a channel plugin on every sound source, feeding at unity gain into the buss plugin which overrides the digital summing with Airwindows summing (more internal space, more depth, and with Console 4 it now has glue making the top-end more listenable).
You can also watch the half-hour long introduction video that goes into a lot more detail about how it’s used, how it works, how you make ‘big kicks and snares’—Console doesn’t let you crank any given channel up to full volume, but it’s designed to layer stuff so if you need giant sounds the best way is to make them composite sounds, everything layered from separate channels in the mix. Rather than layer samples and put them on a single loud track, keep the layers accessible in mix. That does mean if you wanted things like sines to be superloud you’d have to get creative, but the principle’s clear.
Speaking of principles…
You may notice no demo link, and also there’s no Kagi shopping cart link. There’s a reason for that. Kagi went bust Sunday. I may still get my last two months of sales out of whoever’s divvying up the assets, but as of this Monday you cannot pay me for my work through Kagi, because there is no Kagi. They served me for close to ten years, always with perfect efficiency and scrupulous honesty, but the commission off my work wasn’t enough to keep ’em going.
I could go find the newest-trendiest shopping cart e-commerce people, but when I started shopping-cart shopping I found them all horrible, tacky hypemongers offering to do things like find people who’d left a cart un-checked-out, and spamming them with reminder emails like ‘Hi, I’m your shopping cart and I’m looonely! Do you miss me? I miss you! Surely you just forgot me?”
I ran away before I threw up all over their e-commerce portals. After all, I have never spammed or bugged people, never advertised, and what’s more I give people free updates for as long as I live, none of which ‘makes sense’ in this happy future of badgering people for every cent, preferably by hyping them into a rental arrangement and DRMing the stuff until it’s nearly ready to explode all by itself, never mind when the rent is due or the authorization servers are having a bad day. (but I digress)
There’s something completely different I can do—something I would never have done, except Kagi went out of business and I have no reason not to be completely rebellious and flip the marketplace table.
Ever heard of a thing called Patreon? It’s not for discovering new artists. Really, it’s more of a… payment processor. For people who are already well established, who are appreciated for what they do, and who are busy devoting their lives to giving the world something for ‘free’ (like comics, or perhaps music, or art). Much like I already do for existing customers: I’ve promised all Console owners that they will have all Console updates for free.
There you have it. I am going all in on Patreon, and that is the full release version of Console 4, with the new Mac and PC VST builds, for free. Please remember this when I have figured out the details and started my Patreon. From now on, I will be relying completely on that to survive. I’ve seen more than one person (for instance, Vechs, or Jim Sterling) who are doing great with Patreon, usually because they too are rebelling against some commercial thing and making a bid for total freedom from obligation.
From now on all Airwindows plugins will be ported to Windows and Mac VST as well as being Audio Unit, and they will all be free from now on, and if I get enough Patreon support I will release all source code under the MIT license and document it as I go so that everybody can use the tools and concepts I’ve built to create their own software. That will be my legacy, and if that ain’t a worthy Patreon goal I don’t know what is.
This includes old versions of plugins for when people preferred a certain version, so the total number of plugins to cover is over 250. That means if I do one a month it will take me more than 20 years. If I work like a maniac (well, more like a maniac) and put out one a week, that’s still around five years just to turn Airwindows into a sort of audio plugin library and DSP school. And it will all be AU/VST with VST covering Mac VST2 and Win VST2 (built on older OS versions so the plugins work on the very widest range of hosts). I feel this isn’t a bad strategy because if I set up the Patreon so I can actually survive on it, I can make the rate of these ports (and free releases of the existing AUs) conditional on whether I was able to eat that month, which seems fair. :)
That’s not counting new research and new plugins… but I have a lot of VST plugins to do, to catch up. Over 250 of them. I’d also ask pirates and haxxors (who don’t have any VST airwindows but what I make, and don’t have most of the AUs) to please leave this ‘making them all free’ process to me through Patreon and my own website. If all goes well, all the plugins will be free in the end (even with source code!) so if you could not mess this up I’d be grateful. ;) leave it to me, please.
Oh, and the VST versions do ‘double replacing’, which means they noise shape to the 64 bit floating point buss. Technically that makes them higher sound quality than Apple’s CoreAudio can offer, though I promise you really won’t notice (and the VST versions also do 32 bit ‘replacing’ so they’ll work on all hosts)
Consider Console 4 an advance on this new concept. If it works, and if I can live for five or twenty years doing it, every possible Airwindows plugin will be part of everyone’s toolbox and the code will be out there making people’s products better.
Private to Native Instruments: hey, maybe you guys might want to chip in just to meet whatever the threshold is for ‘release free ADClip with source code under MIT license’! I will be letting people pay to mess with the release schedule directly, so past a certain threshold people will be able to single out specific plugins and fast-track them and get the source opened. We didn’t come to an agreement for a one-time no-royalty payment, but now might be your chance! ;)
Oh, also: Patreon :D (I updated the link once the site was ready, and then I started making all the words links, and it got funnier and funnier. patreon patreon patreon! OK, I’m done ;)
Wooooo! I’m with u dood! – ballsy move
Such a ludicrously wtf idea that it might actually work!?!?
Good luck!
Thank you so much! I’ll use it in my further audio material
Крис,спасибо!!!,все прекрасно на Mac OS X, но не работает на Win 10(Digital Performer 9)
/Chris, thank you !!!, all perfectly on Mac OS X, but does not work on Win 10 (Digital Performer 9)/
I watched your two videos on this and noticed you route all your inputs to the stereo out. How would you configure Console-4 with sub groups? BTW I’ll be pledging $2/month.
Figured it out and have only tried it on drum tracks. QUADRUPLE WOW WOW WOW WOW!
Андрей: If I can find out why, I’ll fix it. This is very nearly Steinberg’s own template code and there’s very little to go wrong. What happens?
When is the AAX version for Pro Tools 12 available?
No AAX. I’m not even to the point of releasing the for-pay plugins and I’m working on VST now.
Chris, don’t forget to remind people that Blue Cat Patchwork can fit the bill for Pro Tools users wanting to use your plugins. There is also NYRV Agent which I believe can do the same thing.
Hello…please Console 4 hardware emulates? A-i Ne.e S.L??? Sorry my english. Thank you
How much Latency does it induce please?
Hi Chris.. Thanks you very much for your effort and this amazing plugins. I´m on Reaper5/64 in macos 10.9.5 and all your plugins run fine in au or vst format but Console4 its suffering something strange (denormalization maybe?).. when I insert the vst format of Console4 the cpu increase from 0.1% to 0.7% and with more tracks all instances increase till 1.7% .. There are a little bit more cpu use in vst than au format in almost you plugins. In Reaper5 through console commands i can use very quickly the vst formats, for this reason i wrote this. Can you check this situation? Thanks again, Blessings
I’ll have a look at it :) might be the cost of using long double values for the signal path. I expect the VSTs to need a little more CPU because the AUs are ‘N to N’ and can run just one channel, and the VSTs live in an ecosystem where stereo is normal for them, requiring two channels. The ‘mono’ AUs can also run on 5.1 tracks, where they’ll use even more CPU than the VSTs do :)
Hello Chris, thanks a lot for all this awesomeness! If i may, i have a burning question, and would love if you could confirm my thoughts on how to use Console4 in combination with group buses? I was thinking this.. Put the Console4Buss on the main out, and put console4channel on the group bus en not on the individual tracks that go into that bus right?
I would prefer to put Console4Channel on the individual tracks, but if this is too inconvenient for you then you can put it on the group bus. It’s better on the individual tracks, but the more finely grained you use it the more awkward it’ll be to set up. It can even be used on the samples in sampler instruments, placing the whole sampler (like EXS24) ‘inside’ Console, but this is even trickier.
cabri76: no, it’s Channel4 that emulates things about API, Neve and SSL. Console4 is more abstract than that.
Thanks for the reply Chris, cool stuff very nice!
I was not sure if it was wrong for the plugin routing, because the tracks go to a group (with some compression) before hitting the master with Console4Buss on it .
So i was thinking, maybe i have to put Console4Buss on the group buses and Conole4Channel on the individual tracks that go into those group buses and then nothing on the master buss..
But that would a bit much maybe and im not sure that is what the plugin was designed for.
So i will just put Console4Channel on the tracks just compression on the groups and Console4Buss on the master buss.
Hope that makes sense haha thanks Chris.
How do you reccommend using cosole if I’m working with submixes? Should I put the channel or bus plugin on the group masters?
I am aslo wondering if I’m using console with virtual instruments in reaper. Should I put the plugin before or afrer the instrument?
After. If you put it before, nothing will happen :)
Under Console3, I posted about not being able to hear what the plugin does. Guess what? Pilot error. I’m 99.9% certain I’ve got it right now, though. Turns out it really helps liven up a sample-based orchestral production. Thanks. :)
Chris,
Just so everyone is clear this IS or is IS NOT the way to use Console:
1. put Console4Channel on individual tracks as the very first insert BEFORE all other effects
2. put Console4Buss on 2-BUS or Master fader as the very first insert BEFORE all other plugins
Is this correct?
Depends. You might put Console4Channel after the channel plugins, it and Buss are supposed to replace the digital mix buss. Some plugins can work ‘inside’ Console, experiment :)
Hi Chris,
i have all faders at unity, console4channel last in channel chain routed to groups and console4bus first on mix bus which hits peaks of slightly over 0 dbfs. When i level match and compare console to non console mixes, the perceived volume is much lower on console mixes and the low end seems to lose volume like when summing slightly out of phase tracks together.( Fathom five as an auxiliary help a lot with the low end :) but the output volume difference persists ). However, if i mix at lower levels ( -18 dbfs ), this does not occur but then consoles effect is very small / unnoticeable. Is this normal behaviour when driving console to higher levels or am i doing something wrong please ?
I think it’s because at 0 dbfs console starts to produce more peaks and i was volume matching with a peak meter rather than VU. I also should have used clipOnly at that level too for a more meaningful comparison.
cheers
Hello, please what would be the similarities and differences between channel4 and console4? For example, channel4 has the summing features of console4 adding saturation ?, Channel4 is added to the beginning or the end of the tracks? Thank you
It’s incredible this pack is free, both Console 4 Channel and Buss are awesome. I always use them at the end of the plugin chain, though mostly just Buss, Channel just for a few annoying and crispy tracks.
Do I need to set my fader at unitiy gain for console4 to work correctly?
I like to ‘ride the faders’ to balance my mix. Can I do this: example: my synth is channel 1. I use the fader of this channel to set the volume and send channel 1 to a new bus channel. I put the console channel on this bus. I will need a lot of bus channels (one per instrument) but will still be able to ‘ride the faders’.
Will this work?
So the basic non-experimental approach should be:
Console 4 Channel at the end of all channels and busses (except master buss)?
Console 4 Buss at the end of the master buss?
Yeah?
Every sound in your mix should go through Console4 Channel ONLY ONCE.
Example:
You’ve got a drum kit that’s routed through a bus/folder, which then goes to an INSTRUMENTS bus, which goes to the 2buss.
Use Console4 Channel either on the kick/snare/toms/etc, OR on the DRUMS buss/folder, OR on the INSTRUMENTS buss. If you use it more than once, you’re introducing extra unnecessary distortion.
Your works great but very confused presentation.
Thanks Chris. The plugins are working wonderfully with Acustica, presenting an ever so casual and warm acquaintance together…………a match made in Heaven. I wish you all the best on your new approach and hope it brings nothing but success.
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