DSPDEV Releases A23ST Mastercomp for SCOPE Platform, Changes Name
February 18, 2003
DSPDEV, a developer of audio tools, is introducing their newest offering for Creamware Pulsar/Scope Soundcards, the Mastercomp Limiter/Compressor unit designed for mastering and tracks compression.
Most compressors on the Creamware platforms are based on the basic hard knee atoms delivered by Creamware in their development kit. The A23ST Mastering Compressor is something new : it is both an Hard Knee, Soft Knee and variable MU processor/simulator. To create such an emulation of hardware that cost more than $4000, it is necessary to create a good combination of several added polynomials, to achieve a typical transition curve of a photo-resistor or a variable-mu design.
Hard Knee : A basic compressor does not affect the signal until it has exceeded the threshold volume. At this point, delayed only by the attack time, it fully applies the compression selected by the user. This type of compression is known as Hard Knee compression. This may be sufficient for overall level control, but the effect becomes too obvious on more heavily compressed signals at the front of the mix.
Soft Knee : A smoother compression can be obtained using Soft Knee compression. This applies an increasing level of compression gradually to the input signal, as the signal level approaches the Threshold level. This ensures the transition from uncompressed signal to compressed signal is far less noticeable.
Variable-Mu : This compressor does not appear to offer any side chains, but in fact the side chain is handled by the variable-mu processor. The compression action is constantly re-biased by the vacuum tube rectified side-chain control level which smoothly changes gain. The first product to introduce this technique is the vintage Fairchild 670.
Company Changes Name
DSPDEV future product releases now include non-DSP based developments, such as VST and DirectX plugins as well as sound banks for Gigastudio, Halion, Kontakt and others software samplers. For this reason, they are taking one a more general name, DADEV - Digital Audio DEVelopement. For more information, visit their web site at www.dspdev.com. | 
