'true stereo' compressors?

so I heard somewhere a lot of compressors/compressor plugins don't have true stereo as in the stereo channels affect each other. Like if the left channel reaches the threshold first then yada yada... so it probably makes things more mono in the long run? I'm editing a JS (Reaper scripting language) compressor so the channels act completely independent aside from the attack release etc. the settings are the same but the detectors are independent is what I mean. Next I'm thinking of doing some sort of crossfeed so there's a /little/ bit of a stereo link, I think it might cause some interesting spacial effects?

Anyway any VSTs that already do this? It's simple enough to implement so I dun't see why not

ha I already coded in the crossfeed. It's kind of interesting-sounding but subtle. I also have a mid/side mode where you can crossfeed the mid/side as well

Do you mean "dual mono" cause a couple plug-ins have that I think.

  On 1/9/2014 at 8:51 PM, LimpyLoo said:

Do you mean "dual mono" cause a couple plug-ins have that I think.

that might be it

Edit: Mid/side crossfeed in feedback mode sounds p interesting

Limiter n°6 has some stereo options but it's a pretty heavy compressor plugin (lots of controls and compression stages!). Blockfish Compressor has a stereo option but I don't know how it actually deals with stereo (I just know that when you're working with a stereo signal you hear it mono unless you have the control activated). And Density MKIII has a L/R option (which makes what you're looking for I think).

Those three plugs are great ones.

haha, so now I have mid/side mode, feedback %, 2 different crossfeeds, one for feedforward and one for feedback, and wet/dry. Sounds pretty craazy

https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/saffriolet-custom-comp-test

example of my custom compressor - switches to compressed halfway through

  On 1/9/2014 at 9:48 PM, Ragnar said:

https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/saffriolet-custom-comp-test

 

example of my custom compressor - switches to compressed halfway through

maybe it would be easier to hear if you use a standard drum loop.

but i do think that when one uses a stereo compressor, its usually for buss reasons where you would like to keep the stereo image intact.

anything else would result in some sort of degradation, which would be more of a creative effect i think.

are you trying to make a dual mono compressor with perhaps channel/program-dependent attack and release times?

Crossfeed between the channels isn't dual mono. Dual mono is each channel being separated, with their own detectors. Anyway I don't know that crossfeed would somehow enhance the stereo image in any way either. I guess it might but I think it's going to depend on what is going through it. If one side has something on it that isn't really related to the other, like let's say you have some percussion elements hard panned on one side and others on the other side, and they have different patterns/rhythm, you're going to getting a weird gating effect with crossfeed. It's basically the Same thing as sidechaining, but between channels. If the stuff on both sides had the same rhythm/pattern/timing, like say it's a snare drum that autopans back and forth a bit, crossed might help maintain that separation, but so would just having one detector using a mix of both channels. Crossfeed doesn't seem too common on hardware comps. Only one I know of that has it is the api 2500, which is pretty feature rich.

Edit - I should say variable crossfeed amount control isn't common. I guess any comp that uses one detector on a mix of both channels is like having full crossfeed always.

  On 1/11/2014 at 1:13 AM, MisterE said:

Crossfeed between the channels isn't dual mono. Dual mono is each channel being separated, with their own detectors. Anyway I don't know that crossfeed would somehow enhance the stereo image in any way either. I guess it might but I think it's going to depend on what is going through it. If one side has something on it that isn't really related to the other, like let's say you have some percussion elements hard panned on one side and others on the other side, and they have different patterns/rhythm, you're going to getting a weird gating effect with crossfeed. It's basically the Same thing as sidechaining, but between channels. If the stuff on both sides had the same rhythm/pattern/timing, like say it's a snare drum that autopans back and forth a bit, crossed might help maintain that separation, but so would just having one detector using a mix of both channels. Crossfeed doesn't seem too common on hardware comps. Only one I know of that has it is the api 2500, which is pretty feature rich.

Good post, E.

This is interesting. I never really thought about the behavior of stereo compressors before this thread. Since I do alot of LCR mixing I should probably figure it all out, innit.

Also I imagine there are several vst/software comps that allow you to adjust for crossfeed. At the very least the api 2500 recreations would have to, I would imagine.

I thought "true stereo" traditionally meant the same as "dual mono", ie two totally separate channels for left and right signals.

Mastering, however, is often done in M/S stereo, so I guess some compressors even support that as well. Ie doing the stereo sum and the stereo difference in the box, and then going back to L/R stereo? Still, that would be two separate channels, no? Or does it make sense to have interaction between them?

Sorry for ranting.