Playfair Audio Dynamic Grading v1.2.6 REPACK-R2R

It's good. One can work very technically with it. Unfortunately it is pretty clumsy. I wish there were all the usual knobs available because as it is right now, it is not practicable to me.

Quite the contrary...i prefer the graphical handles. Way more practical when using this kind of device

No plug-ins are installed with this repack. Tried the Full Installation option as well.

Only things installed are:
-Manual
-Uninstaller

Problem was solved by selecting ''Custom" option for installation.

Playfair Audio folder is showing now & populated by Dynamic Grading.vst3.

Been waiting to test this one out. Will be interesting to see if it's actually any better than the old Roger Nichols Dynam-izer/Elemental Audio Neodynium!

This short overview provides a quick understanding of the principle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRuv1SRSqLQ

took around 10-15 minutes to understand how it works. It does what it does, really good at it too. Wonderful results on vocals, shaping the overall dynamic, and it's clean with minimal amount of artifact even when you smashed it hard. Even better when you can control the low volume element that get louder with the gate. Nice.

IMO, it feels too much, it gives that Zynaptiq plugins feelings.... Sound Radix POWAIR too...

really cool plugin that I'm pretty sure never gonna use

Interesting approach. It's basically a three-band upward/downward compressor/expander level-wise.

Very satisfied with my initial demo so far. It doesn't seem to be a complete need but it does give you a fast way to control the last final touch of dynamic range you want to push toward your final goal.
I'm on a buying spree these days so I think I'll buy that one. I can see myself using it regularly on the mix bus, gently.

You can do what it does with any comp that allows custom dynamics curve, you need 3 segments (2 knees) to replicate playfair's functionality. Sonible SmartComp is the first that came to my mind and it has the histogram also, you can do the same mixing workflow as in the playfair video. Blue Cat comp allows even more curve segments and of course Reaper's general dynamics as someone else said above.

Can see Sonible's 3 segment curve and histogram here: https://thumbs.static-thomann.de/thumb/padthumb600x600/pics/bdb/_46/469008/17469420_800.jpg

After trying it for a while I must say that I loved it, for me it is easier to understand it as a kind of volume control in different segments, the upper segment controls the volume of the loudest levels, the middle one controls the intermediate levels and the lower one of the dim levels, you can turn the volume of each level up and down (compresion/expansion if you prefer) individually and as a whole, so you can work in a very intuitive and easy way once you get used to it, on the other hand it is almost invisible to the CPU, it uses very few resources so it can be placed on as many tracks as it takes to make your heart happy, and without any CPU issue, on this regard, we have to thank R2R, for making it even more computer friendly, although if you have the resources, by all means buy your license and support the guy who developed this little toy.

Ultimately, all compressors aim to equalize the intensity levels in the signal, and analyzing carefully, we can realize that this plugin has all the controls and functions of a common compressor, but giving us different innovative options for its control, so I would not say that this plugin is multiband or that in its case it has expansion capabilities that are different from those that a common compressor inherently has.

Although it is a fact that it features two knees, this plugin can easily go from two knees to one, simply by dragging a segment to the top or bottom end, and the most significant results can be obtained using a single knee, however, it allows us to use two knees very easily, which opens up possibilities such as using it as a transient designer, which is what is described in the presentation video when it is mentioned that of making things seem to be heard closer or further away, although from my particular point of view, the main reason for the lower segment would be that it is easier to handle this innovative worflow, with the added benefit of providing greater control at low signal levels.

The sound is very transparent, but since its very CPU friendly, I can now add my favorite coloring tools that usually use more CPU, with greater confidence.

As mentioned on the product's website, in that if compressors had only just been invented, we probably would have ended up with approaches similar to this one, more proper of the 21st century.

I think that due to its workflow approach, this plugin deserves a remarkable mention for its innovations that are undoubtedly very useful, and despite having barely tried it, I already have it among my favorite compressors.

This product came up as a facebook ad for me a few months ago, i watched the video and thought it seemed a little gimmicky. But hey, it looks intriguing enough to warrant diving down the rabbit hole on it just to see if it might be something interesting or game changing. I assumed the God Particle was a gimmick at first and that ended up being THE thing i mix into now, so i learned not to assume until you try it yourself. Thanks to R2R for the opportunity to try it out

This could be a very handy tool.
Might become a goto plugin for many tasks.
And it's price seems to be fair for a novelty plugin like this.
If it is as good as it seems, I'm going to buy that.

After playing with this toy for a few days, I would like to share my personal experiences, which even after repeatedly testing them, took me some time to assimilate.

In one such experience, I opened a finished mastering session, disabled two contiguous heavy cpu hungry compressors and put this toy on, just to mess around with it for a bit, after a while i decided it was enough and re-enabled those two heavy compressors, I was surprised since in terms of dynamics, I heard this toy better competing with two famous monsters together, of course there was no grit and warm of the monsters, but in terms of dynamics it seemed to surpass both monsters, how it didn't seem to make sense, I thought it was about ear fatigue or something similar, so without further ado, I closed my session and forgot about it.

On a later occasion when I had some time to spare, I reopened the session determined to analyze in detail what had happened with the monsters and the toy, however after using fresh ears and my analysis tools, everything seemed to remain the same, a little toy beating two holy monsters at the same time in terms of dynamics. What the.......!?. Too much to assimilate ha?.

Unconsciously I decided to forget this embarrassing incident for the reputation of the holy monsters. I guess my whole old school influenced mind thought something like: How dare this little toy even pretend to compare itself to holy monsters?. However the damage breached by this insolent newcomer was done.

It took a good night's sleep to realize some very significant things regarding the sacred monsters and the little toy that I would like to share with you.

We currently have very powerful work tools, which were unthinkable last century, however, we continue to revere sacred monsters from the past, which we have learned to emulate within our work tools, however this also represents a limit to the potential of our tools, as it limits them to the same analog limitations that they are intended to emulate, and many times this is achieved at the cost of high CPU usage.

Suppose we have a machine that does a great job, however to control it we only have levers, cranks and pedals, we have dials on its surface that tell us about its internal state and through much experimentation, we have learned to make the most of it. However, it is so specialized that many times we have to combine two or more similar machines to get the final result we are looking for, these are some of my unholy conclusions about traditional plugin compressors after being possessed by this evil toy, I must say that I began to realize that something different was happening when I realized that the concept of ratio as I learned and understand it was losing meaning.

The approach that this new plugin has for me is such that it is equivalent to removing the cover of that old compressor and realizing that actually inside it is my modern and powerful work tool, and that now without that old cover, I can modify to my whim the behavior of that compressor in unthinkable ways in the twentieth century, so now I can carry out complex tasks in a simple and intuitive way, getting all the benefits of a modern 21st century computer when I'm compressing to the 21st century style.

I can easily mimic the behavior of different compressors and not just that, I can mimic the joint behavior of two compressors!, and all this minimally taxing my CPU.

That's why for me this is not only the first true game changer, but possibly the plugin of the decade or century.

Am I exaggerating? You probably remember that I've been possessed by this evil little toy and now it prompts me to write this to create a new cult, however I consider trying it time well spent, who knows? maybe you also fall prey to it and in the midst of that delirium, you even agree with me on something, but keep some holy water nearby, just in case.