Overloud Gem Comp76 FET Compressor and Limiter Plug-In - Manual (Page 36)

OVERLOUD GEMS COMP LA
Transistors, on the other hand, can switch to high powers faster, so the 3A units had shorter at-
tack times and sounded more neutral and modern, by adding less harmonic distortion.
COMP LA faithfully reproduces both models and additionally allows to control the amount of
added harmonics.
LIMIT / COMPRESS - Changes the character of the compressor unit switching between a soften ac-
tion with lower compression ratio, for the COMPRESS position, and a higher compression ratio
with damped attack transients when set to the LIMIT position.
This diagram describes the COMP LA internal sections and the way they are interconnected.
GAIN - The GAIN control does not a ff ect the amount and quality of the compression. Its action ap-
plies at the fi nal stage of the compressor unit, more like a level control. By the way, when the
COMP LA is set to MID-SIDE mode, and two di ff erent compression rates are applied to two parts of
the input signal, both levels can be adjusted independently with the relatives GAIN controls.
VU-METER - The VU-Meter can be used to see 4 di ff erent measures: Input Level, Gain-Reduction,
Output Level and the amount of Harmonics added by the processor.
PEAK REDUCTION - Adjusts the amount of compression to apply to the input signal by specifying
how much the peaks need to be reduced. A good way to operate is to fi rst fi nd a good setting
for this control and next to adjust the GAIN level.
TUBE (2A) / SOLID STATE (3A) - Selects the original compressor model. 2A is a tube based compressor
while 3A is conceptually the same unit but working with transistors. TUBE provides slower com-
pression attack, mid range prominent frequencies and more harmonics, while SOLID STATE
gives faster compression attack, a sort of “U” shaped frequency response and less harmonics.
IN LEVEL - Controls the input level. It ranges from –15 dB to +15 dB.
STEREO / MID-SIDE - Switches between the two working modes of the COMP LA . The normal mode is
STEREO, where the unit processes the two, left and right, stereo channels. When in MID/SIDE
mode, the stereo signal is split into MID and SIDE portions. MID portion is the center, mono part
of the stereo image – while the SIDE portion is the outside: the left and right sides of the stereo
image. When
COMP LA is in MID/SIDE mode, these two components of the input signal are pro-
cessed separately. The upper interface works on MID, while the lower one works on SIDE.
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