Right now I use my Portico 5043 into this thing into my UAD Precision Limiter on my 2-buss and could not be happier with the results. I'm in NO WAY affiliated with these guys - just a mega/super fan after running a few of my mixes through this thing. Trust me, I don't care how many compressors you have - this is one you want in your arsenal. I demo'd the UAD Buss Comp (also modeled after the SSL buss comp) and it didn't blow me away so I never bought it. I bought the Waves SSL bundle a while back and was just never impressed with the compressor - it's compression characterstics are nice but it kills the stereo image. It's modeled after the SSL 4000 but IMHO (and many others), absolutely blows away the Waves SSL. For a 2-buss compressor this thing is stunning - blows the doors of the Waves SSL stuff and it's not even close. I have just about every ITB compressor you can think of - Waves SSL, API, Chandler/EMI, UAD, Stillwell, etc. If you haven't had a chance to mess with this thing - GET IT!!! Even though the differences were small, the oversampled Glue felt a bit more alive compared to the non‑oversampled.Cytomic "The Glue" VST - Best ITB Compressor I've Ever Used!
I used my army of SSL clones to smash it even further at a ratio of 10:1, with 3ms attack and 0.1s release times, and a threshold set so that the meter indicated about 15dB of compression. The first test was an already heavily processed drum loop with lots of low end. Both of these units offer basically the same settings as the original SSL hardware. Just for the fun of it, I also included two of my own analogue compressors: the ultra‑transparent TK Audio BC1 and a home‑made GSSL compressor based on the SSL schematics, but with old Dbx 202C VCAs. The digital contenders were the two versions of The Glue, the UAD 4k Buss Compressor and the Waves SSL Compressor - the two latter being used by many industry professionals. There are a lot of products on the market - both digital and analogue - trying to mimic the performance of the classic SSL bus compressor, so I decided to line up a few of them in a proper shootout. To catch overshooting transient peaks, there is a peak clipper available with zero attack and release time, and with a fixed infinite ratio and medium knee.
Unfortunately, the VST3 standard is not yet supported, so the success of setting up an external side‑chain very much depends on the DAW host and its ability to route audio in a flexible way. When you press the external side‑chain button, the plug‑in reports one or two extra inputs - depending on whether it is set up for mono or stereo processing - making it possible to use any signal to control the compressor. The side‑chain EQ is a gentle 6dB/octave filter with a cutoff frequency that can be set from zero to 2000Hz, and it can be applied to the internal signal or an external side‑chain signal. Threshold and make‑up gain are represented by two knobs but, more interestingly, there is a compression range knob, which limits the maximum amount of compression applied, regardless of the other settings. As for the release settings, they range from 0.1 to 1.2 seconds, with the classic auto‑release at the clockwise extreme.