
I supposed the Noise control is supposed to dial up some of the residual noise characteristic of the original but I did not really detect any difference in the noise floor, even with the Noise control at maximum. A stereo Waves dbx was nice for a bit of compression on the stereo mix bus but when you try this be careful not to squash the life out of the mix.

I preferred to leave the HP SC off for drums but found it useful for avoiding pumping on male vocals and some guitars. When used on drum overheads, the Waves dbx made cymbals absolutely explode turning off the plug-in made the drums sound more boring than Puttie. The Waves dbx plug-in does exactly the same. The VU makes kicks and snares pop, and even the most inconsistent of bass tracks sit in a mix with consistency. If you have never heard the original dbxI feel sorry for you. One of them was a little flaky but the other was in good stead, enabling me to compare the hardware with the plug-in. He has two vintage dbx VUs the unbalanced version.

Three switches below the meter switch it between showing input or output level, or gain reduction. I left it set to the factory default of 18 dBFS. In the case of the plug-in, the meter can be set so that 0 VU is equal to anywhere from 0 to 24 dBFS. When using MS mode, you may monitor the mid or side signal.

In stereo mode, you have the option of monitoring the left or right channel or you can listen to them summed in mono. Waves has added several controls not present on the original which can remain in view or not by pressing the Collapse button. Ignore these markings and turn the knob until you like what you hear. Two LEDs indicate compression status: amber means signal level is below threshold and red means signal level is above threshold. Faithful to the original hardware dbxthe Waves dbx plug-in has controls for Threshold, Compression and Output Gain. And of course when you buy something from a Jawa trader you never know if it might be an empty box filled with worthless rocks from Ord Cestus. Fast-forward to current times and those same dbx VUs fetch to a thousand bucks Earth dollars in good condition.Īhhh if only I could find a few at a Jawa flea market, but even the Jawa are hip to the market price. They could crush overhead mics like no other compressor and cause pumping and breathing that would make Sith Alchemists jealous with rage.

Some of the semi-pro studios had the dbx It looked like the VU but had RCA jacks for the input and output and was at the time directed at the home hifi crowd, believe it or not.
