It can deliver the speed of a VCA, the personality of an FET, the warmth of an optical, or the coloration of a tube compressor—depending on the settings you use. They deliver tremendous silky warmth, and will find themselves right at home on vocals, guitars, drums, or your mix bus. 6:1 for slap bass. You’ve undoubtedly heard the original unit used on the stereo bus of countless hits. Manley Lab’s flagship Variable Mu Stereo Compressor Limiter is a go-to mix bus compressor for many engineers. The preset uses the new Classic VCA compressor model which is a heavy nod to the dbx 160 hardware compressor (note the lack of attack and release controls). Discover which microphone is right for you. If you could choose one compressor to use for the rest of your life, your best bet would be a VCA style compressor. Coming from the digital audio world, this might seem a bit odd. When I pair my Shure SM7B with this channel strip, there’s very little processing I need to apply in-the-box to get that polished “radio-quality” sound. The way in which the LA-2A applies compression is highly program-dependent. Generally, VCA compressors provide a very precise level of control, and a sound that’s predictable and clean. Universal Audio’s 1176LN reissue is what you’re most likely to find in stores now, but you can hunt down previous revisions of the 1176 by searching websites like Vintage King. It can sound really cool for example to use a compressor to really stomp on a … VCA compressors are valuable in every aspect of … They respond quickly to the signal you run through them, and they’re also quite punchy, colorful, and bright. One of the iconic features of the 1176 is that when you push in all four ratio buttons in at once, the results are aggressive and musical. There’s some debate online about the distinction between VCA compressors and FET compressors, according to Messitte. ... DBX 160 VCA Compressor. This concept is simple enough, but the compression applied by one compressor isn’t necessarily going to produce the same results as compression applied by another compressor. Oops! They are usually cheaper than tube or optical compressors. Shop our pick of the best reverb pedals for your 'board; Play with time courtesy of the best delay pedals; A boutique hand-wired guitar amp retailing for two grand plus may have all the natural compression you need, but for the large majority of us guitarists, a pedal to squash and sustain your clean tone can be the difference between a decent guitar sound and a seriously great one. The Universal Audio Teletronix LA-2A is a wildly famous electro-optical compressor/limiter with tube circuitry that applies gain reduction with zero increase in harmonic distortion. However, he states that “In a VCA compressor, the transistor is housed within an integrated circuit (an IC) which responds to the voltage of your incoming signal. When toggled into Old mode, the API 2500+ uses a feedback type of compression, in which the detector is placed after the VCA. A stereo optical compressor followed by a discrete stereo VCA compressor so that you can truly tackle any task from recording any source … I explain how each compressor works and … A mini powerhouse with adapted studio-grade VCA internals to produce an ultra clean, noiseless compressor at an affordable price. Your feedback is always appreciated! The FET, however, works with the electrical field as a whole, and gain changes are the result of electrical charges in addition to voltage.”. Leave a comment below if you have any questions regarding this article. I then run the drum beat through 6 different types of compressors making sure to cover all the compressor types. This compressor is frequently used to compress pop, hip-hop, and R&B vocals. Based on the topology that a compressor belongs to, you can make a few assumptions about the character it will impart on the signal you compress. Messitte’s article is somewhat technical, so I’ve summarized and simplified the key takeaways for you. Adjust the threshold until you are applying around 10dB of compression (Audio Example 2). The result of this is that optical compressors tend to sound quite musical and “smooth.” To control sharp transients, an optical compressor is likely not the first choice for most audio engineers. Most audio compressors operate using either VCA (Voltage Controlled Amplitude), FET (Field-effect Transistor), OPTO (Optical), or VARI-MU (Variable-MU). Why would one compressor sound different than another? These audio examples accompany the review of Black Lion Audio’s Bluey FET compressor in SOS June 2020. By learning to differentiate these circuit types, you will gain far more control over your mixes. Learn about VCA compressors, optical compressors, FET compressors, and tube compressors. The result is a “punchy” sound that lacks the undesirable “pumping” effects that other compressors often provide. As Messitte states, “…the harder you hit an optical compressor, the quicker its initial release time can be—but the slope back to a normal, uncompressed sound will not fall in a linear fashion. Another unique feature you’ll find on the API 2500+ is the ability to toggle between two types of compression modes, which include Old and New. This filter imbues each octave with equal energy, instead of half the energy as the next lowest one. These are some of the most common types of compressors and often include all the controls you’re used to seeing on plugin compressors, like attack, release, threshold, ratio, and sometimes a knee. Learn which phone and computer apps will help you produce better music. Reviews Jul 2020; link. When you take a look at an LA-2A, you’ll notice that the primary controls consist of just a Gain knob, Peak Reduction knob, and Compress(3:1 ratio)/Limit(100:1 ratio) switch. VCA or “Voltage Controlled Amplifier” compressors use solid state or integrated circuits. Well, hardware compressors are broken down into different topologies (types) that make use of unique internal designs. A jack of all trades, the Distressor is the first hardware compressor that many audio engineers incorporate into their studio. Compared to the two aforementioned, it sounds smoother, perhaps more subtle and more full bodied in my opinion. While there is a wide range of examples and characters in the VCA world, the compressor that may best illustrate the benefits of a VCA design — with super-hero like acclaim — is the SSL G-Series Console Bus Compressor. Learn about vocal microphones like the AT2020, SM7B, C414 XLII, Clarion FC-357, TLM 103, and Sphere L22. Black Lion Audio Bluey | Audio Examples Hear For Yourself. Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor: The grand master of VCA compressors. VCA. Additionally, we’ll take a look at a few popular hardware compressors and the companies emulating them the best.‍. Aren’t they all just doing the same thing? You can also stereo link two Distressors together to process stereo signals. Join the Black Ghost Audio group on Facebook to connect with musicians and producers looking to network and pay for your freelance services. Perhaps the most popular FET compressor of all time is the 1176 Limiting Amplifier, which was originally introduced to the market in the late 1960s. The VT-737sp tends to be described as “glossy,” and since this is the most-used vocal compressor in my mixing arsenal, I can confirm that. Known for their fully controllable circuits allowing you to really fine tune each setting.