Virtual Buss Compressors is a collection of three unique sound processors modeled after some of the most classic mix bus compressors in the audio industry. Special attention was paid to recreating the unique non-linearities of the circuit paths that give each compressor its distinctive tone, including their transformers, tubes, VCAs, amplifiers, phase distortion, harmonic distortion, and timing. VBC is perfect for adding a professional finishing touch to your mixes.

FG-RED

This compressor is based on the classic red-faced compressor that has been the favorite of mixing legend Chris Lord Alge, who first showed it to me when I visited his studio years ago. In fact, I thought it was strange: here was this compressor that no one else seemed to really use, and it was set to a 1.5:1 ratio, and the attack seemed very fast for a mix bus compressor. This was baffling because I generally associated a faster attack with a loss of transient punch, but if you have heard Chris's mixes, you know they are exactly the opposite of that! The first thing I did was put it on my mix in the settings Chris showed me... 1.5:1, attack around 10/11 o'clock, auto release, compressing only 2-3db at most. And... WOW! One of the rock mixes with the clearest and punchiest sound I have ever heard come out of my own speakers. This unit was incredible!

When Fabrice and I analyzed the RED, we discovered that it was, in fact, a very unique beast. The attack and auto release work in an interesting way and are very musical, but the real magic we found was in the output section! We discovered that just pushing the makeup gain by a few dBs did some crazy things to the sound! A little push and things got much punchier, fatter, and more aggressive. After a more detailed examination, we realized that this was due to a series of non-linear reactions caused by the output transformer. Howie Weinberg, the famous mastering engineer who has a studio on our campus, tells us a little secret: Use his RED not to compress, but just to use the output gain to get that incredible effect! So I decided to do something the original unit cannot do... I put that output transformer effect on a knob called DRIVE. When you push the DRIVE knob, you get beautiful punch and articulation of the transients, and you can control how much you want, regardless of whether you use the makeup gain or not. The famous rock mixer Justin Netbank tested the beta version of the FG-RED and loves the unit, suggesting '6.6' as the magic number. But you can try turning it all the way up to get an interesting effect!

FG-GREY

The FG-GREY starts with a very accurate model of the classic British “4000 series console compressor.” I have used the hardware model for many years, but I never fully appreciated how magnificent the piece is until I studied it during the modeling process. It has a way of squeezing and 'gelifying' the components of a mix in ways that can range from quite transparent in auto release mode to very aggressive in manual mode.

We made a small modification to the circuit in our virtual model that I think you will really enjoy. We took the classic discrete British transformer and added some of its characteristics to the signal path. This does something amazing with the clarity of the low and midrange, where the hardware unit tends to start sucking too much of the background as you start to compress more. The hardware unit can also get slightly "choked" in the mids, but our virtual transformer stage keeps the low end big and round and the midrange more open, while preserving the classic sound of the original unit. You will notice that there is a little less drop in the low end and the rich mids will remain pleasant and present when you compress hard with the FG-GREY. I love it in both manual and automatic mode, and it is incredible on Drums and guitars too!

FG-MU

I’ve been lucky enough to hear and use some of the most classic and hard-to-find tube buss compressors on the planet (like the Fairchild 670 and Manley Vari Mu), and let me tell you, there is some real magic that happens when your mix goes through a brilliantly-designed piece of tube gear. The midrange thickens, the lows get tighter and rounder, and the top end opens up with a beautiful sparkle… even better, those harsh upper mid overtones seem to get tamed too. For the FG-MU, we put all of these wonderful qualities into the algorithm. To experience FG-MU for the first time you don’t even have to do any compression, as just going through the processor without any gain reduction will reveal a beautiful open sound due to the modelling of the tube circuit path. Even when I’m using the FG-GREY or FG-RED, I love using the VBC Rack just so I can have the audio pass through the FG-MU!

But the FG-MU is a compressor with an incredible sound all its own. If you explore the presets, you will get a great idea of what it is capable of doing. Smooth and rich compression, thick and warm compression, and even slightly aggressive compression. Overall, this is a processor that has tons of mojo and analog vibe for days. A sure winner in your ITB mixes!

THE NON-LINEAR DIFFERENCE

During the development of Virtual Buss Compressors, I spoke with many of the best professionals in the audio industry about mix bus compressor plugins. There seemed to be an overwhelming consensus that, although many of them were advertised as 'analog models', they still did not have the classic sound of analog compressors. So Fabrice and I got to work, and the first task was to examine the hardware compressors and the current crop of analog-modeled plugin emulations to see what was going on. And what we found was surprising: the classic analog compressors we studied added some very complex non-linear artifacts in their signal paths. Their sound was not simply based on their specific compression topologies, such as time curves and compression, some of them also had modulations, dynamic harmonic distortions, dynamic phase distortion, saturation, crosstalk,

And just like in our Virtual Console Collection plugin, these artifacts added a sonic footprint to the compression. Was this the magic sound that made rack compressors sound different from analog compressors? There was only one way to find out. We had to model it accurately. All of it!

Several months later, we had algorithms that combined the exact topologies, curves, and timings of the compressor, as well as the dynamic non-linear artifacts of the circuit. We were able to bypass ONLY the artifacts, and the answer was very clear: a large part of the missing magic tone in many rack compressors is found in these non-linear additives. When you listen to the three VBC compressors, you will notice an analog 'vibe', depth, and life that you probably have not heard before in a plugin compressor. I hope you enjoy it in your mixes!