Pulsar Audio VM-Comp v2.0.3

The most faithful emulation of a modern yet legendary tube compressor/limiter – perfect glue for mixing and mastering

An industry-standard tube compressor
Variable-bias tube compressors deliver smooth, transparent gain control, and naturally “glue” buses, mixes, and masters together.

Unfortunately, the original hardware is expensive and difficult to integrate with in-the-box workflows. Software emulations exist, but most owners of the hardware agree that they cannot be compared to the original unit, as there’s always “something” missing.

With its unique Topology Preservation Technology, Pulsar VM-COMP sounds objectively identical to the hardware in every production context, but also introduces improvements such as visual sidechain EQ editing and extended timing ranges.

■ Sounds objectively identical to the hardware

■ Signature “glue” compression on buses and masters

■ Complete Sidechain EQ, Look-ahead & Look-behind

■ Zero-latency for tracking / oversampling for mixing

■ 100+ presets and modern analyzers

Main Features

Topology Preservation Technology
Our modelling technology guarantees a perfect emulation of the original device’s behavior. From the saturation of the magnetic flux in the transformers, to the precise response of the tubes, to the effects of tiny calibration defects, everything is perfectly reproduced. For more info, take a look at our technical article on the subject.

Powerful sidechain EQ
High-passing the sidechain is possible with Pulsar VM-COMP, but so is a lot more, thanks to an entire sidechain EQ section. Five filter types are available here, as is band solo and sidechain audition to help perfectly tailor your signal and arrive at the ideal detection response.

Mid-Side processing
Pulsar VM-COMP comes with built-in optional M/S encoding and decoding, enabling a signal’s mono and stereo information to be processed separately with different settings. The Listen buttons simplify the setting by allowing you to listen to Mid or Sides signals in isolation, and the modern visualization can be set to monitor only the channel you’re working on, so you always know what you’re doing.

Look ahead, look behind
This innovative feature lets you shift the timing of Pulsar VM-COMP’s gain reduction compared to the input. Look-ahead enables the VM-COMP to start reacting to transients even before they happen, ensuring perfect limiting. Conversely, the look-behind delays the gain reduction, so that fast transients can be left unprocessed while the gain reduction kicks in after them. This opens up various possibilities like clipping transients separately after Mu has done its work.

Advanced metering section
Gain reduction, input level and output level are all visible in different ways. The scrolling gain reduction meter offers a view of gain reduction and the audio signal; VU-style metering shows instantaneous gain reduction for both stereo channels; and LED-style input, output and gain reduction is available to calibrate peak and RMS loudness.

Extended Attacks and Releases
Faster attacks and releases let you dial in a more aggressive, mid-forward timbre, impossible to achieve with the original unit. Discover even more creative uses of this powerful “color box” that is the VM-COMP.

External sidechain
Pulsar VM-COMP allows to define an external sidechain input, as all compressors should in the digital age. This opens a very wide range of applications: ducking, de-essing, filtering the sidechain signal with your favourite EQ, or even applying dynamic processing.

Low CPU Usage
Low CPU consumption
We spent a ridiculous amount of time optimizing VM-COMP to consume as few system resources as possible – despite the complex algorithms at work. Pulsar Mu takes full advantage of modern CPUs to do more with less. But if your computer can stand it and you enjoy making it suffer, you can always turn oversampling on, processing at rates up to 384kHz!