They’re thought to be reliable, and the style of compression they offer is repeatable based on the precision of their parameters.

VCAs are one of the most common types of compressors and usually contain all the parameters you find on plugins-attack, release, threshold, ratio, knee, etc.Įngineers love VCA compressors for their precise control and predictable sound. These types of compressors use a control signal to determine whether gain reduction is applied to the signal. VCA stands for voltage controlled amplifier. Getting familiar with compression can help you decide what to use, when to use it, and how to use it! VCA Compressors Plugin companies faithfully replicate hardware devices, but also recreate the different ‘style’ and ‘character’ of classic outboard gear. Based on the DNA of analogue compressors, you can quickly determine the sort of sonic character they have, and how they will respond to the signal you’re sending them. The 5 types of audio compressors are VCA, FET, optical, tube, and PWM. If you’ve only ever used plugins, you’d be totally forgiven for not knowing about the types of compressors! Different hardware makes use of certain internal components and designs for various styles of compression. I picked a 1kHz since wave, since that's what most hardware compressors are calibrated to, also is it roughly in „the middle“ of the spectrum of many instruments the 1176 is typically used for.There are 5 primary types of audio compressors from the analogue world that software emulates. So in order to adjust the compressors to the same amount of GR, I had to use a steady signal of very limited frequency range – A sine wave. There is no perfect way of doing that since comppressors react differently to different frequencies, needles and meters don't react equally fast etc, so using actual audio material or white noise or similar to adjust the compressors to apply the same amount of gain reduction wouldn't work. I took every plug-in version of the 1176 I had and compared it to my three hardware versions, in order to do so I had to first make sure the hardware and my converters were perfectly calibrated, then I had to choose an overal calibration method to set up the compressors.

Sooooo, I'm a curious fella and a gear nut.This sent me on a quest to finding the ultimate 1176 plugin.

1176 compressor plugin comparison