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New Darkglass Compressor: The Hyper Luminal Hybrid Compressor
- Thread starter trainyourhuman
- Start date
On the some of the demos, I thought I heard a bit of dirt with the "all buttons pressed in" setting of the FET mode. Guess it was just in my mind...
All buttons I'm mode will give you a bit of grit but it isn't really the same as what you will experience with the Accountant or Sex Drive.
Take a look at the Pulp 'N Peel v4 too.
Take a look at the Pulp 'N Peel v4 too.
The Hyper Luminal HPF is not an HPF in the conventional sense - it just changes the frequency range that's compressed, it doesn't actually reduce the amplitude of the lower frequencies like a conventional filter would. So no, not redundant!
IIRC, the HPF on the Hyper Luminal actually affects the sidechain, so it determines the frequencies that will trigger the compression. If you engage the HPF peaks in low frequency ranges will have less impact on triggering the compression, but it doesn’t affect the audio chain itself. I don’t actually have one, so can’t vouch for this personally.
Doug, this would be good information to add to the manual for the HL. The manual is pretty lean on details on the controls. Thankfully, this thread has been going a couple years now, and a lot of what I'm looking for is here.
I just got mine yesterday and looking forward to trying it out. I have just connected it via USB to the Suite and reset it to factory settings. I made sure the firmware was up to date (it was.) Also registered it and my recent VMT. All set! Now to try it..
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The All In mode gives me the kind of "quasi-dirt" I get with my Quilter BB800 amp head with the gain massively cranked. It's technically a clean-only path, but something about crushing the signal gives this bit of grind that I suspect a lot of us have heard and love.
Also yes: the HPF in the Darkglass Suite sets the frequency at which the pedal starts to listen, as opposed to being a total signal filter a la FDeck, Broughton, et al. It makes the compressor act more naturally on the sounds we really hear in the mix, as opposed to constantly squashing little sub-sonic rumbles at the expense of headroom. It's a sweet feature, and works just as well with keyboard bass & low synths.
Also yes: the HPF in the Darkglass Suite sets the frequency at which the pedal starts to listen, as opposed to being a total signal filter a la FDeck, Broughton, et al. It makes the compressor act more naturally on the sounds we really hear in the mix, as opposed to constantly squashing little sub-sonic rumbles at the expense of headroom. It's a sweet feature, and works just as well with keyboard bass & low synths.
Tonight I did a quick & dirty Instagram story using just my HL since someone challenged me to pick up the line for Roosevelt - Montreal. It's a 4-on-the-floor electro funk track, not too tough, though I need to shed on my off-the 1 16th lines to get it tight. The bass seems to be a loop of a live bassist, signal processed so heavily as to almost sound like a synth. Big attacks, squashed sustains, gated.
So I grabbed the pedal, MAXED OUT the Time, nearly maxed the Compression, set to FET (I was thinking going SS, but it seemed darker/warmer in tone than I needed for funk..but I'm gonna explore it more) at 12:1, and 3:00 on the blend.
Normally I'm dimed on blend, most often Bus and around 12:00 for comp and min to 10:00 on Time. So this is different.
I'll publish how it sounds in a more permanent fashion with a little more practice ;-) but the pedal, which lives on my board and gets used mostly in the prior mentioned settings, just blew me away yet again. While I wasn't shooting for the extremes of that studio track, it gave me a dance funk level of aggressive evenness that makes me think I'm gonna just start tracking comp with this thing when I get asked/hired to lay stuff for local house & electro djs. (I haven't opened DG Suite for it since initial settings, so it's possible I could match the extreme punch of that studio track with a bit of tweakage)
The Cali76 is impressive, and so is the Empress. Neither have come close to enticing me away from the HL in any demo, great as they sound. This sucker's a winner.
So I grabbed the pedal, MAXED OUT the Time, nearly maxed the Compression, set to FET (I was thinking going SS, but it seemed darker/warmer in tone than I needed for funk..but I'm gonna explore it more) at 12:1, and 3:00 on the blend.
Normally I'm dimed on blend, most often Bus and around 12:00 for comp and min to 10:00 on Time. So this is different.
I'll publish how it sounds in a more permanent fashion with a little more practice ;-) but the pedal, which lives on my board and gets used mostly in the prior mentioned settings, just blew me away yet again. While I wasn't shooting for the extremes of that studio track, it gave me a dance funk level of aggressive evenness that makes me think I'm gonna just start tracking comp with this thing when I get asked/hired to lay stuff for local house & electro djs. (I haven't opened DG Suite for it since initial settings, so it's possible I could match the extreme punch of that studio track with a bit of tweakage)
The Cali76 is impressive, and so is the Empress. Neither have come close to enticing me away from the HL in any demo, great as they sound. This sucker's a winner.
I think @scubaduba has pretty much taken over as resident comp reviewer, basically since Bongo made his most recent Smoothies and stopped doing reviews
Yes, Cyrus said that he’s on hiatus but on his notes in Ovnilabs he says that he would come out of retirement if a company feels like they’ve done something special.
“If a brand really thinks they have done something special, that stands apart from the other dreck on the market, I invite them to please contact me so I can "come out of retirement" for them. I will happily do that. They will need to send me their pedal as a loaner; I will not buy any more pedals, and I will not beg manufacturers for favors. If you as a player want to see a pedal reviewed, I ask you to please reach out to the manufacturer directly and ask them to contact me and send me their pedal. Again though, please limit that to pedals that might offer some quality that other pedals don't already provide.”
“If a brand really thinks they have done something special, that stands apart from the other dreck on the market, I invite them to please contact me so I can "come out of retirement" for them. I will happily do that. They will need to send me their pedal as a loaner; I will not buy any more pedals, and I will not beg manufacturers for favors. If you as a player want to see a pedal reviewed, I ask you to please reach out to the manufacturer directly and ask them to contact me and send me their pedal. Again though, please limit that to pedals that might offer some quality that other pedals don't already provide.”
Received my HL two days ago. have been playing through it almost non stop since. I have settled on two favorites. First being the super sym mode. I love the vintage color that this provides. I just really dig that sound. the second is the FET mode all buttons in. i love this grit for punch and cutting through. I don't have to do that much since i am a jazzer playing mostly in small piano trios. Just started playing around with the suite, i really am liking the adaptability of this pedal and having a tremendous amount of satisfaction with all the tones i am able to generate with it.
I just got an HL as well and am also loving it! I have alot of experimentation to do with tweaking the Time configuration to taste in the Suite (I like slow attack on the FET mode, but adjusting the range of the Release adjustment to favor slower Release slightly seems to work best for me). Engaging the sidechain HPF at around 130hz is highly recommended. Having owned and loved a number of DG pedals, this might be the best one they've made all around- it certainly seems to have the widest appeal to players (and not just bassists).
additionally, i noticed today, that at least for a bedroom sized room... setting the side chain filter at a little bit of a lower number (88) makes the lows more articulate and less boomy or smudged together. Maybe this is just an observation but it makes sense i suppose. I would assume like most i haven't had the chance to try this in a big room yet because nobody is performing anywhere right now. time will tell.
Hey there HL owners! I’m happy to say I’ll be joining the club within the next 24 hours as I have a black HL inbound (second time owner!)
Lookig for some input from the gallery on which settings on the HL get close to a stereotypical optical comp sound? Any input would be appreciated so thanks in advance!
Lookig for some input from the gallery on which settings on the HL get close to a stereotypical optical comp sound? Any input would be appreciated so thanks in advance!
Hi, I recently got the Hyper Luminal and have a question about the High Pass Filter. I have a basic understanding of HPF but don't know how it works in compressors and specifically the H.L. If I were to set the HPF to 100hz, does this mean only less than 100hz gets compressed and the rest of the signal is unaffected? Is it the opposite, with the higher frequencies getting compressed? Does it affect the Blend function at all or does that just bring in the dry signal? DG has the default set to 5hz.
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In my understanding it's the opposite. Everything under 100 is NOT compressed while everything above it is. As far as I know the HPF does not affect the blend knob. The blend knob only affects the amount of dry signal.
