A lance for Melda

[aquataur]

This time I want to pick up a lance for Meldaproduction.

Trying to find a (preferably free) compressor that allows you to play with advanced compressor relevant parameters easily, such as RMS window, knee size and (look-ahead), I found Melda´s MCompressor. For a free unit, it is incredibly versatile. I have spoken about that here already.

In the following I looked at their product range closer, and there is a red line going through all their products. I like to dwell on this some more, because it is absolutely worth the mention.

Working as a technician for more than 40 years (and recently as a teacher in a technical college) I have come across many technical instruments such as oscilloscopes and frequency generators.

‘Scopes have usually two or more input sections, denoting the Y direction on the display, and a time base section, denoting the X direction. On earlier devices (speak: 80ies) those functions had dedicated controls, unlike modern units, where a button or rotary encoder changes its meaning dependent on the branch (or menu) you are currently in.

The advantage of the latter generation is obvious: smaller size, cheaper, more functions.
The advantage of the earlier generation was: your mind was able to create a mind-map of the functions, so that you could reach for a certain control and make a tweak lightning fast and without looking. The controls were always in the same place. On modern devices however this link is broken. You always have to look at the screen to know where you are and what switches are in what mode. This is tiring and hugely distracting.

One of my courses for my students trains them to get accustomed to a wide variety of devices, and they usually declare in unison that the older units (predominantly with a CRT) are much easier to use besides providing a better vision.

Melda have gone the way of providing a front interface (I am speaking of their compressors), which they call “Easy Screen”. Knobs with comparable function appear mostly on the same position across their emulation models, which aids to create a mind-map like I mentioned before. One particularly noteworthy knob is the compression knob, which practically does what all fixed threshold devices do: it increases compression by increasing the input voltage. Naturally, such a move would invariably involve a correction of the output voltage into the other direction, and they have brilliantly chosen their “temporary gain” that does that in one stroke.

While this cannot possibly work perfect on any compressor setting, since a more compressed signal will appear louder at average, meaning an increase in input dB’s will not necessarily be counteracted by an equal decrease in output dB’s, it speeds your work-flow up dramatically, particularly if you lock some parameters for A/B comparisons after you have all other parameters honed.

Of course the actual models behind the “front plate” and with them the flavour of compression will vary considerably, which is why I suggest knowing the compressor well, but a firm mind map of its controls will no doubt do you a better service than fancy knob design that varies wildly from model to model and is crippled by fantasy names. This approach may have worked in times, when there was only two breeds of units on earth, but not in our times where devices abound.

For a while, I too used to fall for the trap of beautiful knobs and retro designs everybody seems to adhere to nowadays. I feel there is a real race going on, who makes a better looking vintage design. Note: I say better looking. I do no longer care about looks. I care about usability and function. Flashy back-lit VU meters remind me of the old times, but even in the old times I did not know what they were telling me and I had a feeling they were lying.

So when I detach the Easy Screen front plate, I can look behind the curtain. I see what the compressor does. I see how it compresses, what the transfer curve is, I see attack and release at work on contemporary metering systems.

I can even see how things interact by looking at the multi parameters. And: I can change those. I can put my own devices together.

Melda´s slogan is: keep the good, and drop the rest, or something along those lines. VU meters belong to the latter…

I do not have the knowledge if their emulations are anywhere closer to the real thing (if such a thing exists) than somebody else’s, however, they will get you into the ballpark no less than others.

To me (as a technically inclined human) I need to know how tools work, or I won´t be able to harness them. They would always do their thing unpredictably.

I finally ended up buying their MTurbocompressor. It is not quite a bargain, and there are some competitor´s units that are in the same price range. I looked at some of the big names too, but they turned me off by their habit of shrouding the function of their units into mystery: they conjure up the all-knowing “artificial intelligence algorithms” that fix your compression problems magically. I remain just to be convinced that I like what they do… (Note: I am not saying they are worse.)

MTurbocompressor does not leave you in uncertainty what it does. I like the feeling of power it gives you for your compression tasks.

With their factory model’s “front plates” they made a concession to fancy vintage optics which is fair enough, as long as you can always revert to the native device design provided by their multiparameter language.

But back to their basic MCompressor. This is a typical as-is unit that has all controls on the front.
As mentioned above, apart from the conventional basic controls it has RMS and knee size.
MTurbocomp resides on the other end of the spectrum. I has a lot of arcane controls available, which are clearly not intended for performance control due to their small size. This design obviously relies on its Easy Screen “front ends”, although nothing would stop you to use them as you wish. You receive its sibling, MTurbocompMB (the multi band version which has some powerful extra features like series compression), for free if you buy the single version.
MDynamics is somewhere in between, with a reduced set of core units, while MModerncompressor is something entirely different although similar in the degree of complexity.

I do not get the swing of its display, although some say its great. This is one of the specimen that belongs to the league of “mystery” units to me, but, to be fair, it may be just that I am not familiar with that kind of display.

They have quite an impressive product range, which does overlap a fair bit. They are all constructed the same, be it equalizers, modulators, dynamic processing cells and envelope followers. The climax probably is MXXX which lets you cobble all sorts of things together. Things that exceed my imagination by far.

There are some issues with their multiparameter device description language, which I hope will be resolved. Getting this working flawlessly would make the difference between a good product and a superb product.