DC8C is one of the most flexible compressors. When creating many different compression styles, its result can be described as: transparent, smooth, open, clear.
The main challenge in developing the DC8C was to get a very clean compressor action without unwanted and often almost inevitable artifacts / distortions. Thus, you can achieve almost imperceptible compression for the most demanding mastering sessions, when you want to avoid excessive coloring.
• detector network and gain reduction smoothing for extra smooth operation
• choose between two different attack and two release curves
• four different operational modes: NORMAL, CLEAN (100% clean compression with no intermodulation, no distortion, no aliasing), SMASH (ultrafast compression characteristics, almost clipper territory), LIMIT (use DC8C as a zero latency limiter)
• optional soft-clipper at the output
• up to 8x oversampling
• side-chain filter with high pass & low pass filter plus tilt control, which let’s you shift the frequency response of the detector
• the saturation stage can be put freely into the signal chain: pre compression, post compression and side-chain only
• three different compression curves selectable
• customize the program dependency of the compressor separately for Attack and Release
• GR-smoothing control to determine, how sensitive the compressor reacts to changes in the computed gain reduction, great to emulate opto-style compression
• hold control, great for heavy pumping compression effects
• pre-attack control to delay the start of the attack to leave transients completely alone or radically shape the attack
• VU and peak metering
• calibration control not only to set the reference level for the VU-meter and the saturation
• unique Feedback- Mix-Control, which lets you determine, how much of the compressor’s output is fed back into the detector. This way it is possible to morph between Feedback and Feedforward Compression topologies
• true zero attack (0.0 ms)
• negative ratios possible
• parallel compression, peak-compression, RMS-compression
• external side-chain
• side-chain listen
• Easy Mode which features 4 distinct compression styles
• AGC (automatic gain compensation)
• GUI resizing
• comprehensive preset-browser with lots of presets to keep you started
• and more …