Because so many plugins are built to emulate the characteristics of these classic designs, it's useful to know a little bit about how they work, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how they differ from each other. VCA is an acronym for "voltage-controlled amplifier," which is the component at the heart of the circuitry in this type of compressor. A VCA compressor reacts to peaks that are above the user-set threshold. VCA compressors are known for having fast response and are therefore a good choice on peaky, rhythmic or transient-heavy material. Many VCA compressor designs include precise control of a wide range of compression parameters including threshold, ratio, attack and release time, makeup gain and sometimes knee. This abundance of control makes VCA compressors versatile jack-of-all-trades dynamics processors. Depending on how you set them, VCAs can be transparent or not to the original tone & harmonic characteristics. The Waves dbx 160 was created in collaboration with dbx and emulates that compressor's unique sound and characteristics, with some added "plugin-only" features.įor transparency, it's important not to set the attack too fast because it can squash the initial transients of a sound, which tends to make it seem more audibly compressed. If you set the threshold too low and the ratio too high, you'll end up compressing more than peaks, and it can seem "over-compressed." Not only that, VCAs can cause some serious distortion when pushed too hard. If its accurately modeled, a digital emulation of a VCA compressor will exhibit similar characteristics to the analog hardware version.Īmong the most renowned VCA compressors are the API 2500, which can be used as a buss compressor or on individual sources, the buss compressors built into SSL consoles, and the dbx 160.
In this video, Grammy-winning mixer Tony Maserati (Beyoncé, Jay Z) applies an SSL G-Master Buss compressor to a hi-hat loop, and explains some of the subtleties of working with compression and what he feels it adds to recorded music and audio: Virtually any compression task, because they're so versatile.Buss compression-both master and subgroup.Smoothing out peaks in a transparent way-for example, restricting the dynamic range of a vocal or instrument performance without squashing transients.Compressing drums, percussion and other transient-heavy sources.The latter has been a longtime go-to compressor, especially for drums, adding its own unique snappy character to the drum transients. Like the VCA, FET compressors are solid state but use a particular kind of component called a "field-effect transistor," which was designed to emulate the behavior of tube circuitry. FET compressors offer even faster reaction times than VCAs. Many FET compressors have no threshold control. The ALL button in the Ratio section allows access to a unique “hyper compression” mode that requires all 4 Ration buttons to be pressed in simultaneously on the original unit.This video covers the functions and practical application of the CLA-76.The amount of compression applied is governed by the combination of the amplitude of the input signal, and the setting of the input level control. It is particularly effective for pump and breathe compression effects.
The original pre-amp noise was modeled and included with the Analog buttons.Because of the flexibility of the Attack and Release controls, the CLA-76 is a powerful tool for many instruments including vocals and drums. The Blackface version is perhaps the most popular but they are both well suited for effective analog compression. The main differences between the two, aside from the faceplate design, are slightly different gain stages, time constants, and the THD and noise levels.
Two of the most notable versions have been captured perfectly in this plugin.The 2 revisions modeled were the Revision B – Silverface-Bluestripe and the Revision D-LN (Low Noise), also known as the Blackface. There were at least 13 revisions during their manufacturing run. It is a solid state compressor/limiters that uniquely uses Field Effect Transistors (FETs) as gain control devices.
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