[slinger1182]

Have any of you guys tried out out the Vlevel plugin?

I think it is a nice tool to play around with. It makes the tracks recorded hot sound much better and much more listenable (but can also get fatiguing on some others). I don't know how the implementation has been done but it seems to be dynamic as in theres not a constant gain across the entire song but changes according to various passages in the song. I mean it amplifies the tape hiss during quiet passages but you can hear it drop off when other sounds pick up.

I think the default settings are way too much though. I keep the strength between 0.25 and 0.35.

PS: Don't be put off by the warning in the post. The crashing of Foobar has been fixed.

 

[sonick]

If it amplifies the quieter part of music, wouldn't it actually be decreasing dynamic range?

 

[slinger1182]

Aah! True. Like I said, I don't know how it is being implemented but compressed dynamic range is only a problem (to me atleast) when recordings start to clip. This plugin does tend to irritate me if the strength starts getting above 0.45.

The way I see it, if I want dynamic range I have to turn the volume up and I am very paranoid about doing that. So if I really want to hear the rawness of the fiddle on Mark Knopfler's Darling Pretty, I have to turn the volume up. This plugin enables me to hear it without doing that. It's kinda like what Headroom's Tyll said about the GS1000. He can enjoy it more at lower volumes than other headphones because of the intense equalisation.

That being said, this plugin sounds better on acoustic music than rock music. On Comfortably Numb, when Gilmour goes on the solo, the cymbals come to the foreground a bit but sound thinner. On the other hand, on Friday Night in San Francisco or Ravi Shankar, I love hearing the pluck of the strings.

So I just think it's a cute little plugin to play with. Some may enjoy it, others may not cos it changes the original signal.

 

[MacGyver]

I just downloaded the .dll and stuff for this plugin, but I have no clue on how to install it. Any help with this?

 

[slinger1182]

Just put it in c:\program files\foobar\components folder. Restart Foobar, go to Preferences > DSP Manager and add it to active DSP list.

 

[Rempert]

There is a technical description of how it works on the designer's webpage. In simple terms, think like this: You can do album-based replay gain and now all of your albums play at roughly the same average volume. Or you can do track-based replay gain and now all of your songs play at roughly the same average volume. Or you can use this leveler, and now every (small chunk of time) of every song plays at roughly the same average volume.

I don't see how this could possibly help a hot recording, but it does allow you to play music always at about the same level which can be a useful option to have. Although personally, if a musician goes to great trouble to perform a certain part of a song softly and another part loudly, I'd usually like to keep them that way. But if someone is just playing the music in the background, it may be annoying to have these changes in volume.