User manual
A clean compressor with level history, spectrum and stereo output meters.
Less Comp is a clean single-band compressor. Blue input, green output and amber gain reduction share a six-second history, with a left-channel spectrum and stereo output meters. Sidechain input and lookahead are built in.
Run the installer for your platform. On macOS the AU and VST3 versions install for all users; on Windows the VST3 installs under Common Files. Factory presets install into your user preset folder and are never overwritten: presets you save land in the same folder and stay yours.
| macOS presets | ~/Library/Application Support/MixLess/Presets/Less Comp |
| Windows presets | %APPDATA%\MixLess\Presets\Less Comp |
Press I in the plugin to toggle the same control descriptions as cursor tooltips.
Two moments from the simplified display on the how-to page: at rest, and with material running through it. Print cannot move, so these are frames of that animation.
| THRESHOLD | Threshold: level where compression starts |
| RATIO | Ratio: how hard levels above the threshold are reduced |
| ATTACK | Attack: how fast the compressor grabs. Slow lets transients through |
| RELEASE | Release: how fast gain recovers. Too fast pumps, too slow chokes |
| KNEE | Knee: 0 dB is a hard corner; wider bends in gradually |
| MAKEUP | Makeup: output gain to compensate the reduction |
| MIX | Mix: blend dry and compressed for parallel compression |
| SC HPF | Sidechain high-pass frequency, keeps bass from pumping the mix |
| LOOKAHEAD | Lookahead: reacts before the transient. Adds that much latency |
| AUTO MAKEUP | AUTO: makeup gain follows threshold and ratio automatically |
| SC HPF | Enable the sidechain high-pass filter |
| SC EXTERNAL | EXT SC: key the compressor from the sidechain input instead of the signal |
| CURVE | Transfer curve: input level in, output level out; the dot is the current signal |
| MOTION | Six seconds of stereo peak input and final output. Input is aligned to lookahead. GR shows the compressor detector reduction before makeup, mix and bypass |
| AUTO G | AUTO G: loudness-matched output (K-weighted), honest A/B against bypass |
| DELTA | DELTA: hear only what the compressor changes (output minus dry) |
| BYPASS | Click-free bypass |
Start from the Vocal Leveler preset. Lower the threshold until the GR meter shows 3 to 6 dB on the loud phrases; the amber history shows the reduction and its recovery between phrases.
Set Ratio high and Attack fast, then pull Mix to about 50%. The dry path is delay aligned, so blending is free of comb filtering.
Route the kick to the sidechain input in your DAW and enable EXT SC. The detector listens to the kick while the audio path carries the bass.
| Formats | AU, VST3 |
| Latency | 0 samples, 240 at 5 ms lookahead |
| Sidechain | internal or external bus |
| Factory presets | 8 |
Questions and problems: support@mixlessaudio.com. Legal notices, the privacy notice and third-party licences: mixlessaudio.com.