BGTech Dynamics Pack VST (PC)
BGTech Dynamics Pack VST (PC) | 4,8 MB
The BGTech Dynamics Pack is a bundle of five VST plug-ins for the PC comprising noise gate, compressor, limiter, compressor/gate combo and a multi-mode variant of the latter, with the facility to patch in side-chains from one of up to 32 separate key triggers. Noise Gate and Compressor are quite straightforward in operation, with all the usual controls working as one would expect. Metering is the area where BGTech have tried to add something new, with a scrolling wave display that updates in real time to show the impact of the processing on original input signal. The wave display is indeed quite useful in setting the threshold level, and although a little small to be really precise, it is certainly a worthwhile addition. The ear tends to become accustomed to the sound of compression after a while, so some visual cue is helpful as a reminder should you be inadvertently squashing all the dynamics out of the material. Noise Gate is really quite simple and lacks some of the configurability of, say, the Auto Gate in Steinberg's VST Dynamics plug-in. It does, however, provide an Inverse setting, attenuating everything above the threshold as opposed to below it, which can produce some wonderfully weird and unpredictable results with drum loops and other transient material.
Maxi Limiter is designed to subtly reduce dynamic range, by keeping in check the very loudest peaks or, alternatively, to hammer everything against a brick wall in the manner so popular in today's music. It works pretty well — that is to say you can't really hear it working except at high settings, and again, the wave display is helpful in setting the threshold appropriately. The main drawback — and it's quite a big one — is that there doesn't appear to be any look-ahead capability, and therefore no guarantee that digital clipping won't occur on some material. BGTech recommend that the gain should always be set at least 1dB below the threshold setting in order that clipping be avoided, but I found this was not sufficient to prevent the odd rogue transient creeping through and setting off the red light.
The Sidechain Dynamics processor has four distinct modes. Simple mode is functionally identical to the compressor/gate and doesn't require any external input. Level sets SCD to act as a side-chain key for another instance of the plug-in, with threshold, attack, and release settings to define the transient characteristics of the trigger signal. The final two modes are the side-chain-controlled compressor and gate, with the key input selected from a matrix of 32 channel buttons. Only one mode can be used at a time, so it's not possible to, say, compress a drum part whilst using it to trigger gating on another track, and it can get a little confusing trying to remember which instance of the plug-in is on which side-chain channel, particularly as one key signal can work with multiple slaves, but not the other way round.
In terms of sound quality I thought the BGTech compressor and limiter stood up rather well in comparison to their TC Native Bundle 3.0 equivalents, although they weren't as efficient where CPU usage was concerned. They both sounded fairly transparent to me, and I'd be more than happy to use them in my mixes. I won't venture into all the wide and varied uses for side-chaining, but suffice to say that they range from de-essing vocal tracks to sorting out dodgy timing on bass lines by slaving them to the drums. On top of practical applications there's a menagerie of interesting creative possibilities; great fun can had from the tight rhythmic gating and ducking effects on offer, with the right choice of key signal.
There is a little room for improvement with a few aspects of the BGTech plug-ins. They felt less than perfectly polished in use; switching modes in SCD caused the odd audio dropout, and I experienced some flickery graphical strangeness on occasion. Aside from these rather trivial observations, I think Compressor and Maxi Limiter would both benefit from the addition of an automatic make-up gain function, as they will probably be most often used to boost overall loudness, and it's a bit of a pain having to adjust the output gain every time you alter the threshold. I would also have found a conventional gain reduction meter useful in addition to the compression/expansion graph, and an integral bypass switch on the plug-ins themselves would have aided automation in some instances.
Overall, I think the Dynamics Pack represents pretty good value at $169, and Side-chain Dynamics is particularly well priced individually at $99, considering the creative potential and flexibility it offers. Although quite a few plug-ins equipped with side-chain facilities are available nowadays, none, to my knowledge, present the opportunity to use so many separate key triggers simultaneously. If you haven't yet delved into the assortment of possibilities on offer with side-chain gating and compression, demo versions of the BGTech dynamics plug-ins can be downloaded from their web site for a 15-day trial. Mike Bryant