If there was ever an iconic plugin, this is it. A cult following for sure. It seems like it’s been around forever, and was the “I swear by this” plugin for a long time.
Set to unity, not much is going on. It’s clean and filters out all the low-lows. But give the gain or knee control (no one actually knows what does what on here — part of the mystique) a twist and look out. Lots of low end and lots of crazy distortion. There are no discernible harmonics, no obvious emulation. Nothing does what this does! But dang, it somehow makes things sound cool and analog-y.
Anyway, PSP keeps making sweet plugins. How about an update to this boy? Or perhaps, that is impossible.
Results from my custom preset I use as a console insert:
This looks like another take on a compressor. So the functions are not a mystery. The “knee” adjusts the softness of the threshold on the input signal, and the gain knob adjusts the overall input to the compressor (since there is no threshold adjustment this compressor is controlled by the amount of input with a static threshold – likely making it an optical compressor).
The vintage warm tone is due to the EQ and processing algorithm included in the plugin. Fun stuff, but ultimately this is a just a compressor. Thanks for pointing me to your site though! Fun stuff.
It has a really interesting multi-band hidden behind the “front panel” just fyi.
Also – I think you will find the “knee” is more than a simple knee adjustment, and the gain is not just raising the input.
Fun stuff is always good – thanks so much for the kind words.