Advanced Transient Control

X-Comp features a dual symmetrical knee design that provides precise control over the way the compression is applied around the threshold point and the way it backs off again at a Max Gain Ratio value. This can be used to allow the transients to breathe and preserves the life of the signal whilst still offering a great deal of dynamic control.

In a traditional compressor, peak transients are reduced in gain by a larger amount than those of lower amplitude, according to the ratio and threshold controls. X-Comp however provides the facility to limit the maximum amount of gain reduction to a level set by the ‘Max GR’ control. This means that peaks that would normally be compressed by a large amount because they are well over the threshold can be set to be reduced in gain up to the maximum imposed limit, so are compressed less than you would expect. The rest of the dynamic range is left unaltered, and behaves as expected according to the other controls.

Older optical compressors often behave in this manner, not by design but as a side effect of the LED/Opto transducer technology available in those times. An LED is only capable of shining to a maximum luminosity, so however much gain reduction you attempt to apply, there is an upper limit imposed by this factor. This has the effect of compressing the middle of the dynamic range to offer general dynamic control, whilst at the same time preserving the original dynamic range to some extent by applying less gain reduction than is expected to the peaks.

Bleed Through

The Bleed Through feature of X-Comp offers a simple and effective way to control the range of frequencies that are being processed and pass the others through unaffected, delivering user friendly Frequency Dependant Parallel Compression. By default the whole frequency range of the signal is sent to both the side chain and the processing chain. If you engage one of the bleed through filters, the affected range of frequencies (below cutoff for LP, above cutoff for HP) are no longer routed through the compressor, but are passed through unaffected and summed with the compressed signal at the output of X-Comp. Unlike other designs that employ similar techniques, use of 1st order filters ensures that phase cancellation does not occur at the summing stage, preserving the integrity and clarity of the audio signal. A superbly simple graphic user interface offers the facility to grab and move frequency cutoff points and the crossover characteristics can be adjusted to achieve a range of different tonal responses from the system.

Informative Metering

X-Comp provides a comprehensive tool kit for measuring and visually displaying the dynamic properties of your audio. There are accurate stereo, peak hold input & output meters with separate display of the amount of gain reduction being applied. A Gain Reduction (GR) History display shows the current amount of gain reduction and the amount that has been applied over the previous second.

The Input/Output Difference Meter provides insight into the balance between louder and quieter activity in a stream of audio such as a complete music mix. It shows if an audio stream consists of a wide spectrum of very loud and very quiet elements, as is usual with an uncompressed mix… or whether it is restricted to signals that are more consistently similar in amplitude, as is common with a heavily compressed signal. It provides good visual insight into how much you are compressing a signal.

Also known as an Amplitude Histogram, the Input/Output Difference meter shows the relative occurrence of various amplitudes before and after processing. For either input or output, the distance the blue horizontal line protrudes from the middle shows how often a particular amplitude is occurring. The vertical scale is the full range of amplitudes from –oo to 0dB. It allows you to see the shift in dynamic range that occurs over time due to the compression.

In the image to the left you can see you can see that the input signal spends most of the time fluctuating between loud and soft. This indicates that the signal has a large dynamic range which is changing very quickly. You may wish to compress this so the peaks are not as high and the troughs not as low. This effect can be seen on the right as the blue lines are now bunched up in the middle of the dynamic range, with less at the top and bottom. The signal has been controlled so it occupies a smaller portion of the dynamic range.

Presets

X-Comp comes equipped with a collection of presets that provide great starting points for any correction or sound shaping job that you may encounter.