Magic deatheye DDMF compressor

jolico

@david_2017 said:
We are already begging for a re upload

@snickast said:

@noob said:
Some presets i’ve been using lately, drop the folder in aum>audio unit presets.
[https://dropbox.com/s/8oe6y03wensho48/44444D46556A796D61756678.zip?dl=0]

Are these still available? The link is 404

He’s been MIA since the Hainbach incident.

PeteSasqwax

I missed the Hainbach incident. I don't think I would have enjoyed. I have a huge amount of time for Hb

onerez

@jolico said:

@david_2017 said:
We are already begging for a re upload

@snickast said:

@noob said:
Some presets i’ve been using lately, drop the folder in aum>audio unit presets.
[https://dropbox.com/s/8oe6y03wensho48/44444D46556A796D61756678.zip?dl=0]

Are these still available? The link is 404

He’s been MIA since the Hainbach incident.

Yes I have messaged him and nada. He might be taking a break......

mrufino1

@Gavinski said:

@McD said:

@Gavinski said:
I have both, but I think if you have neither and want to save some money, just go with the newer one. Really nice to have that built in eq. I added that to my mic when makinge videos and it beefs things up nicely, voice sounds richer and fuller.

Yes. It enhances your natural manhood. It enhanced manhood lasts longer than 3 hours you should power off your unit.

Hahaha. Yes, it is very manly, though kind of in a Blue Oyster club manly kind of way. Those knobs look like they're covered in leather 😂.

Haha! Mahoney and Tackleberry will investigate.

Gavinski

Anyone noticed that the l/r fine gain screws don’t do anything?

McD

From a review of the MDE hardware unit... it's used for added "vibe".

The Magic Death Eyes are just “Kick-Ass” Compressors!

It’s the only processing in my signal chain that has Tubes and transformers in it… Out of everything! So, if, I’m going to add any sort of coloration, or vibe to the sound, it’s going to come from these!

So the story behind these is that Ian Sefchick, who works at Capitol Mastering, has been building boutique gear for in-house use at Capitol Studios for a very long time… ( If you happen to be in their studios and you see a compressor with a big Capitol logo on them, it's one of his). The Magic Death Eyes are the next evolution of his compressor design, which is a classic tube vari-mu circuit. The key to these are the transformers, which are not only his own designs but are hand wound by himself. He actually uses the same winding machines that companies used to use back in the day when making the original transformers for magical pieces of gear like Pultec and Fairchild… (Extremely time-consuming) So, what you get is just a really unique transformer tone that you won't ever get out of any piece of gear you buy on the mainstream market today!

Just like any other tube processor, when you push the gain, you generate pleasing harmonic distortion/saturation (Which is a technique that I use a lot), but the difference with the MDE's, and what really sets them apart from other vari mu’s like a Fairchild 670 (What you would consider the king of all vari-mu processors) is that the Magic Death Eyes are very linear across the frequency spectrum. When you compare it with a lot of other tube compressors when you start cranking them up, (Where the low-end gets really woolly and there is a very unnatural boost occurring) with the MDE’s the low-end extension stays true to the source. These guys will handle any Bass super heavy material without a glitch… The difference also with a lot of the old classics is that the reaction time is a lot faster, which makes them able to handle very transient heavy stuff as well as fast percussive, extremely well!

Another thing worth mentioning is that these are less than 90 dB noise floor which makes them extremely quiet comparing to a lot of other vari-mu designs.

The Magic death Eye also doubles has a kick ass tube amp which I use it for all the time, Even when the threshold is all the way down, you still get a bit of squeezing to the material, especially when you start pushing the amp.

This box really keeps the essence and the integrity of the material intact. For example, if you compare it to a Fairchild which, naturally rolls off a good deal of High-end… With the MDE’s the Highs stay nice and clear, really fat with a really creamy midrange, and you can push it really hard. Farther than most compressors can go. Like other high-end vari-mu compressors in the same price range, you’re able to push it up to 3 or 4 Dbs which is typically absurd for mastering and it still sounds really good…

So, after I’ve done all my compression work with the Weiss DS1, and I’m still looking for some vibe, some analog magic, this is what I turn to! The Magic Death Eyes are really hi-fidelity and seem to always enhance the material in all the right places.

SNystrom

Excellent history lesson, Professor McD!

Thank you!

So you're using this in front of your amp at times or just using this as you "amp?"

McD

@SNystrom said:
So you're using this in front of your amp at times or just using this as you "amp?"

I love the features of TH-U for making a rig of Stomp, Amp, Cabinet, Reverb but I will
use MDES before TH-U to give my Telecaster more heft in AUM. It's easy to flip in ON/OFF
and I generally find I prefer ON. An EQ needs interesting waveforms to manipulate so adding color can make tone fishing more fun. I also often do serial combos of Amps in TH-U for similar reasons... to keep layering on colors. Sometimes, I end up with this massive amp sound in my headphones then I add it to a mix and I realize "less is more" in a mix.

I still have a lot to learn but every year the IOS tools get better and better. 2020 was a great year and it helped me cope with the seclusion along with the community I find here.

Tim6502

@onerez said:

@jolico said:

@david_2017 said:
We are already begging for a re upload

@snickast said:

@noob said:
Some presets i’ve been using lately, drop the folder in aum>audio unit presets.
[https://dropbox.com/s/8oe6y03wensho48/44444D46556A796D61756678.zip?dl=0]

Are these still available? The link is 404

He’s been MIA since the Hainbach incident.

Yes I have messaged him and nada. He might be taking a break......

If you want to access the hidden MDEStereo App settings and you have AUM and Mozaic, you can download, unzip, and run the attached AUM project.

It allows you to control four settings that are not exposed by the UI from the Mozaic console.
There is visual feedback when these have been engaged - but due to a MDES UI bug, this apparently is only updated when you force a refresh by tapping on (cycling through) the MDE diamond (i.e. the oversampling setting).

Ailerom

Is there a DDMF MDES manual?

SNystrom

Cool McD!

" also often do serial combos of Amps in TH-U for similar reasons... to keep layering on colors."

Yes! I've seen a number of rig rundown YouTube videos where various artist use a combination of numerous amps — sometimes using EQ to blend the bass of one amp with midi from another and treble from a third.

It much easier (and much lighter to do that with sims. I want to experiment the same way with IRs.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

reasOne

@Tim6502 said:

@onerez said:

@jolico said:

@david_2017 said:
We are already begging for a re upload

@snickast said:

@noob said:
Some presets i’ve been using lately, drop the folder in aum>audio unit presets.
[https://dropbox.com/s/8oe6y03wensho48/44444D46556A796D61756678.zip?dl=0]

Are these still available? The link is 404

He’s been MIA since the Hainbach incident.

Yes I have messaged him and nada. He might be taking a break......

If you want to access the hidden MDEStereo App settings and you have AUM and Mozaic, you can download, unzip, and run the attached AUM project.

It allows you to control four settings that are not exposed by the UI from the Mozaic console.
There is visual feedback when these have been engaged - but due to a MDES UI bug, this apparently is only updated when you force a refresh by tapping on (cycling through) the MDE diamond (i.e. the oversampling setting).

i’ve tried this file a few times but it keeps telling me i don’t have the compressor installed lol

Ailerom

@BCKeys said:

@Ailerom said:
Is there a DDMF MDES manual?

http://magicdeatheye.com/documentation/

Thanks. I did see that but thought there would be a DDMF version that shows some of the hidden features, how to link dials etc.

jolico

@Ailerom said:

@BCKeys said:

@Ailerom said:
Is there a DDMF MDES manual?

http://magicdeatheye.com/documentation/

Thanks. I did see that but thought there would be a DDMF version that shows some of the hidden features, how to link dials etc.

Tim6502

@reasOne said:

@Tim6502 said:
If you want to access the hidden MDEStereo App settings and you have AUM and Mozaic, you can download, unzip, and run the attached AUM project.

It allows you to control four settings that are not exposed by the UI from the Mozaic console.
There is visual feedback when these have been engaged - but due to a MDES UI bug, this apparently is only updated when you force a refresh by tapping on (cycling through) the MDE diamond (i.e. the oversampling setting).

i’ve tried this file a few times but it keeps telling me i don’t have the compressor installed lol

Sorry to hear about your troubles - that's unexpected!
I had saved this project on my iPad (iPadOS 13.6.1) and subsequently could open it just fine on my iPhone, so surmised it would work generally.

I am attaching just the Mozaic patch here as an alternative. Note that in AUM its output still needs to be connected to the Midi Ctrl plane using channel 1 and the following CCs are used by the script for controlling MDEStereo parameters: CC101 - punch, CC102 - highEQMidSide, CC103 - linkInAndOut, CC104 - cutLowFreqSide.
You would need to patch these CCs in manually to whatever location you placed the MDES instance that you want to control.

Once you have connected and then selected any MDES settings, you can save them as an AUM patch into the MDES app. It appears that @noob had generated a number of patches this way. Or you may be able to import the AUM project itself, including the Mozaic control.

In addition to the three hidden settings that are described in the PDF manual posted by @jolico in his Zip attachment directly above this message, there is also a 'punch' (aka Laura) mode that can be enabled. This also changes the 'L' to 'Laura' in the UI.

espiegel123

We could use a page about the Magic Death Eyes with all this lovely knowledge on the Audiobus wiki

Ailerom

@jolico said:

@Ailerom said:

@BCKeys said:

@Ailerom said:
Is there a DDMF MDES manual?

http://magicdeatheye.com/documentation/

Thanks. I did see that but thought there would be a DDMF version that shows some of the hidden features, how to link dials etc.

Sweet, thanks.

ExAsperis99

MagicDeathEye is the Edible of iOS apps: Is this thing even working? Maybe I should buy the stereo one too?

Gavinski

@Tim6502 said:

@reasOne said:

@Tim6502 said:
If you want to access the hidden MDEStereo App settings and you have AUM and Mozaic, you can download, unzip, and run the attached AUM project.

It allows you to control four settings that are not exposed by the UI from the Mozaic console.
There is visual feedback when these have been engaged - but due to a MDES UI bug, this apparently is only updated when you force a refresh by tapping on (cycling through) the MDE diamond (i.e. the oversampling setting).

i’ve tried this file a few times but it keeps telling me i don’t have the compressor installed lol

Sorry to hear about your troubles - that's unexpected!
I had saved this project on my iPad (iPadOS 13.6.1) and subsequently could open it just fine on my iPhone, so surmised it would work generally.

I am attaching just the Mozaic patch here as an alternative. Note that in AUM its output still needs to be connected to the Midi Ctrl plane using channel 1 and the following CCs are used by the script for controlling MDEStereo parameters: CC101 - punch, CC102 - highEQMidSide, CC103 - linkInAndOut, CC104 - cutLowFreqSide.
You would need to patch these CCs in manually to whatever location you placed the MDES instance that you want to control.

Once you have connected and then selected any MDES settings, you can save them as an AUM patch into the MDES app. It appears that @noob had generated a number of patches this way. Or you may be able to import the AUM project itself, including the Mozaic control.

In addition to the three hidden settings that are described in the in PDF manual above posted by @jolico, there is also a 'punch' (aka Laura) mode that can be enabled. This also changes the 'L' to 'Laura' in the UI.

Can u repost that pdf? Don't want to search through so many pages, sounds worth a look, I didn't know u could get the lovely Laura popping up in the stereo version too. It is quite annoying that ddmf don't make proper iOS manuals I must say. Ppl shouldn't have to scrabble around for basic info in this way

Tim6502

@Gavinski said:

Can u repost that pdf? Don't want to search through so many pages, sounds worth a look, I didn't know u could get the lovely Laura popping up in the stereo version too. It is quite annoying that ddmf don't make proper iOS manuals I must say. Ppl shouldn't have to scrabble around for basic info in this way.

It is in the Zip attachment in @jolico's post directly above my post. So the absolute opposite of going back by any amount.

And in MDES Laura makes an appearance in name only, not in her likeness (AFAIK) - so you need to get the original MDE to see her.

Gavinski

Got it, thanks!

seawind161

Sorry to raise this dead thread, but how on earth does MDESt work without a ration control? Is it a fixed value?

McD

@seawind161 said:
Sorry to raise this dead thread, but how on earth does MDESt work without a ration control? Is it a fixed value?

Let Dan Worrell tell you how they differ because they both do stereo processing as if you have 2 mono’s inside the mono app:

From the “Sound on Sound” Review there are usage clues to dialing a good result:

I'll start with the original (mono) MDE. As the ratio is not separately adjustable, there are only really four parameters which you can use to change the character of compression: the input level, the threshold, the six preset time parameters, and a choice of three additional attack settings (fast, medium and slow). Getting things right is a matter of listening and tweaking, but on an attended jazz stem mastering project, with a lumpy, bumpily recorded acoustic bass and a female vocalist with a nicely textured mezzo voice, I found that I could achieve the desired effects pretty quickly. It was interesting to get the immediate responses of the musicians: the bass player thought his tone benefitted from a slight push on the input levels, and for most of the songs a medium attack and setting 3 or 4 seemed to do the trick, producing an articulate snap when needed and controlling any boom. The vocalist also liked the medium attack, with setting 3 sounding the most natural for ballads, but Fast and setting 1 preferable for up-tempo and scat singing.

Getting things right is a matter of listening and tweaking, but... I could achieve the desired effects pretty quickly.
When I started mastering stereo mixes, it was quite easy to 'over-control' things, even when using the classic combination of a slow attack and a relatively fast release (eg. setting 2). It seemed to grab just a bit too much, pushing middle images to the back a bit and dulling things down. Dialling back on the threshold to the extent that the gain reduction needles never even moved was a revelation. With such a minimal setting (and the compressor likely doing a bit more than the GR needles indicated) the MDE seemed to dance along with certain kinds of music, adding a seductive movement. I wasn't always entirely happy with the effect on the kick when mastering certain styles of music, even with the 150Hz side-chain high-pass filter engaged. But then I discovered a 'hidden' feature, not even mentioned in the early versions of the manual: clicking on the Magic Death Eye logo changes the background of the meter and does something quite startling to the compression characteristic. It's called the Punch mode, and it is very nice. It allows much more kick to come through and overall gives the sound an additional punch and push. (I used this on a track for a forthcoming Faithless album I was just finishing off at the time.)

Clicking the logo engages Punch mode, which transforms the compressor behaviour in a wonderful way.

MDEST is clearly of the same bloodline, but it has been optimised for mastering. The compression is much more gentle, the high-pass filter has an extra 50Hz setting, and then there's the EQ. Putting this plug‑in in the processing chain for the first time brought a very familiar change to the music running through it. There wasn't much of a feeling of restraint, but there was a very nice additional density. Glue can become gloop very quickly with some analogue vari‑mu compressors I've used in the past, though. So when pushing things a little too hard and still liking the density but not the darkness, the hidden feature that allowed me to dial down some of the tube characteristics worked very well. The compressor action with the harmonic distortion reduced to about 30 percent is very seductive, and I've now used it on a lot of mastering projects.

The EQ section can add some lovely touches but needs a lot of careful listening. Although the manual reports them as a relatively steep 24dB/octave, the 20 and 30 Hz HP filters seemed to reach an unexpectedly long way into the lows, so sometimes I used the 20Hz one but I didn't use the 30Hz one much at all. I didn't use the low-boost, narrow bells at 20 and 40 much either, but that's simply because I had them just prior to an analogue chain, which was often the wrong place to use them. In a different setup, the 100Hz shelf at 1dB can add some nice juiciness to hard-sounding bass. The medium-wide HF bell boost got rather more use (in mastering, almost all at 1dB), as 12kHz was occasionally really nice for adding a touch of percussive clarity, especially when used on the Sides signal only. This added width without sounding like an artificial enhancement, and the 18kHz added enough gentle air that I sometimes used it despite having a nice analogue EQ, since it freed up an upper band on the latter.

At high input levels, it's possible to induce some controlled clipping, as indicated by the GR meters starting to flash red. Judging the amount is made easier by the ability to link the input and output controls (by ctrl-clicking one of them) so that you get a relatively unchanging monitoring level, though a higher input will also need a more moderate threshold. All of this allows some additional perceived level, and it works pretty well for that.

The Eyes Have It!
Hopefully, this review makes it obvious that I'm very taken with both versions of DDMF's Magic Death Eye. As a mastering engineer, if I could really only have one I'd choose the MDEST, whereas if wanting something for use on the stereo bus while mixing, I'd more likely choose the MDE. That said, there are some things in mastering that still seem to be to be done better with the MDE, and here's just one example. In the latest update to the MDEST, a Punch mode has been added. I didn't miss it previously, because I could and always did use the MDE for that. But even now, the two modes are not directly comparable, and a lot of the time I prefer the 'bigger' punch of the MDE. It's just as well, then, that there's a discount available that makes the prospect of buying both plug‑ins look rather more attractive!

seawind161

@McD said:

From the “Sound on Sound” Review there are usage clues.

Thanks for this. It’s helpful.

McD

@seawind161 said:

@McD said:

From the “Sound on Sound” Review there are usage clues.

Thanks for this. It’s helpful.

Yes. It does provide some good clues from someone that has experience with studio hardware and how it can be used in various use cases. It also helps explain which one to buy first for many of us.

I just bought them in the order they were made available. There was this time when all the DDMF FX apps were in a bundle for $18 and there were 6 at the time. Then he decided he’d just go with about 1/3 of the desktop price and sell fewer copies.

Nathi94

Does anyone know how these compressors stack up against the tube compressors in ik mixbox?

McD

@Nathi94 said:
Does anyone know how these compressors stack up against the tube compressors in ik mixbox?

IK modeled specific hardware devices like the channel strip in a neve console I think. On their site they list descriptions of the hardware they modeled within the bounds of what they can say without being sued.

There are 8 Dynamics Processors in the MixBox app:

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/mixbox/?p=fx#dynamics

Nathi94

@McD said:

@Nathi94 said:
Does anyone know how these compressors stack up against the tube compressors in ik mixbox?

IK modeled specific hardware devices like the channel strip in a neve console I think. On their site they list descriptions of the hardware they modeled within the bounds of what they can say without being sued.

There are 8 Dynamics Processors in the MixBox app:

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/mixbox/?p=fx#dynamics

Thanks
I bought the stereo one.