The plugin that annoying people can tweak

[kensuguro]

I've always wanted a dummy knob that you can give to producers and other stake holders so they can feel they're in control, rather than telling you what to do. I'm sure people have made physical devices for this purpose.

So I was thinking of making a dummy vst with various knobs and switches that at most just amplified the sound, or didn't do anything at all. But the GUI would be responsive, with flickering lights and meters. Maybe even a spectogram and an oscilloscope. They'd all have unit measurements, like "Frequency Alignment" can go from 0 to 25 b-units, or bogus units. (or if the person asks, it's Brendelhoffer units) I'd usually stay between 18-20, but listen as you're tweaking and you'll find a sweet spot. Oh ya, you got it dialed in just perfect there. How many b-units is that? 22? Good call, I did feel this one needed a bit more alignment than usual. The sound stage is much more open now and has a defined punch to it. So I think the main part of the work is done here, we'll just finish up and head out. Thanks for your help though. Boom, done. Send him out of the room, hit bypass on the plugin and get on with the real work.

I'm not even sure if the plugin needs actual circuitry if you can pull it off. It's all in the presentation.. kinda like a magic trick.

[Mr Arkadin]

reminds me of the time in the late '80s when we had this Egyptian client who was making commercials. The philosophy was, if your advert is louder and brighter than the the others it would get noticed. It was a father and son production team, the father always wanting everything louder and brighter. Now in broadcast television we have certain specs we have to adhere to to keep everything what we call 'legal', so there are limits on how much you can actually 'push' something.

Anyway about halfway through the edit, the father went to the toilet, which is when we explained to the son we couldn't push it any further on technical grounds. He said to just turn up the volume and turn up the colour (chroma) on the television monitors and his dad would think it was all going to tape at those levels! And his father was happy after that! A bit naughty but it got the job done.

The other classic was when a client would watch an edit and say "take off two frames". The editor would type lots of keys then hit 'clear' instead of 'enter' - show the edit again exactly as they had just seen it and the client would always say "that's it, much better".

I seem to remember a company that makes a rack unit with dummy controls - I can't seem to find it now.

[kensuguro]

Yeah! and the funny thing is, that stuff really works. Jedi mind tricks. A real time saver too.

[garyb]

or just bludgeon your customers....

[Bud Weiser]

I've always wanted a dummy knob that you can give to producers and other stake holders so they can feel they're in control, rather than telling you what to do.

http://bram.smartelectronix.com/plugins.php?id=5

check it out,-

Bud

[Mr Arkadin]

Maybe you could rig up a dbx 163X - who could resist a fader labelled "More"?

[garyb]

i know it worked for me. i had like, 4 or 5 of those at one point....

[Mr Arkadin]

I'm actually after one or two at the moment No more messing with thresholds, attack, release, make up gains etc., just More!

Here's the rack I was thinking of:

[garyb]

yes! Funk logic!

they made a few kinds of these "producer's panels".

[jksuperstar]

I can't quite make out the label on the graphic at lower left..is that BICEPTS ?

[garyb]

yep, i think it is biceps....

[Eanna]

No "Stop Pots" or or "Stunt Nuts" on the 3P-III then?

[siriusbliss]

No "Stop Pots" or or "Stunt Nuts" on the 3P-III then?

X

[Eanna]

Ken, your search may be over...

http://www.bozdigitallabs.com/product/rack-spacer/

[dante]

Their claims that it hasn't been done before are wrong. Reason has had 2 such rack extensions since 2013

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[ronnie]

I could probably go to jail for this but as any good criminal, I couldn't help myself. But first thanks to Eanna for the link to BOZ Digital Labs. And of course, kensuguro. I humbly present the Brendelhoffer MARK VII-B. Unfortunately (as I discovered after the fact) that there is no MIDI control so no knobs. What do you expect for free? This is a blatant and shameless rip-off of the free BOZ "Bark of Dog" VST - 32bit version (I'm not greedy) for which all due credit to BOZ can be seen by hitting the "about" button to reveal the truth (not recommended to the client). In any case feel free to use it at your own risk. Simply unzip to your favorite 32bit VST Plugin folder and load into your DAW of choice. You may actually route an output from it if you dare, although the results are rather subtle (and actually it's a nice transparent plugin which leaves a lot of room for hypnotic suggestion) you may want to hit the reset button before printing. Of course should anyone ask, you can't recall where you got this except it was free and it goes without saying that you use this plug-in strictly at your own risk.

Please be advised that this post may be deleted at any time (as probably Gary will do to my account) but, alas, the temptation was too great to bear.

You can download the original and free 32 or 64 bit versions of the BOZ Bark of Dog VST here: http://www.bozdigitallabs.com/product/bark-of-dog/

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[garyb]

is this a free or discontinued plugin? if it isn't, remove it.

[ronnie]

Free but current.

[garyb]

if it's free, it's all good, but a link is preferred.
the download eats John's webspace.

[ronnie]

Swapped out the animated gif for a png to save the real estate.