Multiband compression (Soundgoodizer A copycat for SuperCollider)

Resources
1

I shared this on the Discord server a while ago and thought I should also share here.

This SynthDef is highly inspired by Image-Line's Soundgoodizer, specifically the preset A. It's not a 1:1 replica at all. That would involve some soft saturation which SuperCollider doesn't provide. And I wanted to keep this as vanilla as possible. But it works quite well on a master bus.

It can be useful to have this kind of processes applied to SuperDirt's final output. For some genres it will work well, yet it will totally destroy dynamics the higher the wetness. This is why I'd only recommend using it when streaming or at a venue.

Nowadays music is so tight in dynamics (compressed) that livecoding can sound weak and thin in some contexts. Plus, livemixing while livecoding would be quite annoying / too much of a hassle.

(
~midside = {|in, msBalance=0|
 var sig = Balance2.ar(in[0] + in[1], in[0] - in[1], msBalance);
 [sig[0] + sig[1], sig[0] - sig[1]] * sqrt ( (msBalance.max(0)+1)/2 )
};
SynthDef.new(\soundgood, {
 | out=0, in=0, wet=0.35, makeup=0.98 |
 var lfreq = 250, hfreq = 3000, q = 1.1;
 var dry, low, mid, high, master;
 var att = 2/1000;
 var lrel = 137/1000, lpre = dbamp(5*wet), lpos = dbamp(5.9*wet), lexp = 0.07*wet, lstereo = -1*wet;
 var mrel = 85/1000, mpre = dbamp(6*wet), mpos = 1, mstereo = 0.38*wet;
 var hrel = 75/1000, hpre = dbamp(6.8*wet), hpos = dbamp(2.9*wet), hexp = 0.14*wet, hstereo = 0.2, hsat = 1/16*wet;
 var output;
 
 dry = In.ar(in,2);
 dry = BHiPass4.ar(dry,20);
 
 low = BLowPass4.ar(dry,lfreq,q);
 mid = BHiPass4.ar(dry,lfreq,q); mid = BLowPass4.ar(mid,hfreq,q);
 high = BHiPass4.ar(dry,hfreq,q);
 
 low = CompanderD.ar(low*lpre,1,1+lexp,10,att,lrel,lpos);
 low = ~midside.(low, lstereo);
 low = SineShaper.ar(low);
 
 mid = CompanderD.ar(mid*mpre,1,1,10,att,lrel,mpos);
 mid = ~midside.(mid, mstereo);
 
 high = CompanderD.ar(high*hpre,1,1+hexp,10,att,hrel,hpos);
 high = ~midside.(high, hstereo);
 high = SineShaper.ar(high,hpos-(hpos*hsat));
 
 master = Limiter.ar(Mix.new([low,mid,high]),0.99,0.01)*makeup;
 
 Out.ar(out, master);
}).add;
)

Routing it:

~mainbus = Bus.audio(s,2);
~compre = Synth(\soundgood,[\in,~mainbus]);
s.sync;
~dirt.start(57120, ~mainbus!12);

Note that if you do Ctrl+. or s.freeAll this will also kill the compression synth. So you'll have to create the Synth again re-evaluating the line ~compre = Synth(\soundgood,[\in,~mainbus]);. If anyone knows a simple way to have it always running fee free to share it!

You can change the wetness in SuperCollider doing ~compre.set(\wet, 0.5)

i made this to play live... i can already see myself turning up wet as the set goes like a guitarist that doesn't stop turning up its amp lol

4 Likes