MIA Laboratories 925 Compressor

The 925 is MIA Laboratories’ preferred main mix compressor.

It is designed using physical modelling principles, based around the classic ‘feed-back’ topology in hardware circuit-design.

The sidechain detection stage is based on the basic analog envelope detector circuit.

Key design features include:

- Variable knee response allowing more compression to be applied, esp. on high-transient sounds like percussion, samples, vocals etc.

- Logarithmic gain reduction, since the ear’s sense of sound level is roughly logarithmic.

When used in extreme settings on sounds with long sustain, it can produce a distortion effect. This happens when due to the high speed of the detector, it follows the actual waveform instead of the envelope of the program material. This is normal for such a design and in some cases desirable.

After a lot of consideration it was decided not to exclude setting range, as the process is very much program-dependent. Instead the user is given full control, since even if some settings will not be suitable for a specific material, often they are perfect for a different situation.

This is often the case in hardware vintage and modern equipment, and has resulted in the 925s’ very broad range of compression characteristics, esp. suited for main-mix applications but also buss-mix or multiple separate channels.

“No two compressors sound alike...each one is inaccurate in its own unique way”
(Roey Izhaki, Mixing Audio: Concepts, Practices and Tools)

Details

Stereo Link Operation

In “Stereo Link” mode the same amount of compression is applied to both L/R channels, based on the sum of the two.
With Stereo Link disabled, compression takes place independently for each channel, whilst retaining common controls for both.

External Sidechain

Use any other channel of your mix as an input to the side-chain of MIA 925 Compressor, or to process the sidechain signal independently of the program material. Note we have not included any filtering process to the sidechain path in order to provide flexibility in the eq or filters used externally.

Output Level / Gain Reduction Meters

Very fast and detailed display, to give you an accurate and clear perception of the compression process.

29 MIA Presets

29 carefully designed MIA Presets, to achieve quick and balanced results, or to act as a perfect kick start towards your desired result.