REQ: Cupwise C254-E Compressor & Limiter

Based on an incredible sounding, classic compressor. For Nebula.

This is my Nebula take on a legendary compressor known for its round, thick sound. It’s commonly considered great for vocals and almost any kind of audio material. Also great for bright audio inputs, which it can smooth out with its silky high end. It’s definitely a character piece. A unique design featuring a diode bridge and multiple transformers, and which drops the input level greatly before compression with a subsequent make-up gain stage afterwards (done to bring down distortion levels), gives this compressor a sound all its own.

Two units were sampled in stereo. The hardware features separate compressor and limiter sections, and I’ve made separate programs based on each. Some limitations/drawbacks of the hardware have been addressed with this release. The limiter section especially, was held back by its lack of an adjustable attack control. The compressor section also lacks adjustable attack (but few ever held it against it). I’ve made sure to recreate the attack shape from the hardware, while providing the ability to adjust the time up and down from the fixed setting of the real thing. This really unlocks a lot of power and potential. The release time settings have also been extended above and below the fixed settings allowed on the hardware.

Up to over 30dB of compression is possible with the compressor programs, and around 27dB with the limiter (depending on input level). There’s also a ‘pass-through’ program that works like the typical Nebula preamp style programs, useful for getting some tone of the hardware without any compression. There are skins for both Nebula 3 and 4.