Compressor

Parameters

The everyday leveling and glue tool.

Controls and display

Mix below 1.0 is parallel (New-York) compression — it blends the compressed signal with dry. Mid/side compression: set one compressor's channel to Mid and add a second set to Side — two fully independent parameter sets compressing mid and side separately (that pair is the M/S compressor; there's no separate device).

Surface (the threshold dial, the limiter's sibling): the Threshold knob sits in the centre of the face inside a bezel, with the gain reduction sweeping around it as a red arc (an amber tick holds the maximum); the red GR · DB numeral and its MAX read above it, the threshold's value cell below. Two screens flank it, each with its own knobs: on the left the transfer curve (a draggable knee node, the input/output ball) with Ratio, Attack and Release under it; on the right the detector scope (program envelope, white output crest, the red gain-reduction curtain pressing down from the top, and the threshold as a draggable dashed line on the signal itself) with Makeup and Mix and the IN / OUT level meters under it, and the Stereo / Mid / Side words on its head.

Both views are always on screen. The wheel over either screen scrubs the ratio. The dock box is the same face at 480 px wide with 34 px knobs; the focus pane grows the dial and the knobs.