Faithful and unique emulation of an old German broadcast compressor/limiter unit U73b.
U73b was often used for mastering in European studios between 1960 and 1980. It is an all tube vary-mu compressor/limiter with adjustable release time option. Audified kept the circuit exactly as it was originally designed and only added an input and output gain before and right after compressor circuit to help with proper adjusting of the compression. The plugin effect has been also supplemented with a VU meter and selectable side-chaining.
U73b is great for mastering, mixing drums, bass, guitar, vocals and voice overs.
The compressor’s controls are very easy, but the effect of this unique device is audible at the same moment you turn it on:
- Compressor/Limiter switch – the upper U73b knob switches between Compressor mode (Kompr), Bypass (Durchshalt) and Limiter mode (Begr). The compressor mode has lower threshold setting and very gentle increasing ratio, in opposite, the limiter mode provides higher threshold setting with higher ratio but still with smooth knee.
- Release time – the first three positions offer fixed release time, the other three positions marked with three red label provides adjustable program content dependent release time option.
- IN – adjusts input gain before the compressor/limiter circuit.
- OUT – adjusts output gain after the compressor/limiter circuit.
- Sidechain – selects the signal source used for controlling the gain reduction.
