Vertigo Sound VSC-3 Operation Manual

Operation Manual
The Vertigo Sound VSC-3
Quad Discrete VCA Compressor
Thank you for purchasing a Vertigo Sound Product.
The VSC-3 is the legal successor of the VSC-2, which now is a modern classic and can be
found in many top class studios around the world.
Vertigo Sound spent a lot of effort making a good product even better. The VSC-3 can do
all the tricks the VSC-2 is known and loved for plus a bunch of new features and options.
The VSC-3 is still named Quad Discrete Compressor because it's topology stays the same.
It is so named, because it uses 4 VCAs built using only discrete components.
It's design is a nod toward the best VCA based compressors of the 70s and 80s.
The Vertigo VCA is in fact named 1979. Some of the best features of these classic Compressors
have been complimented in the VSC.
This classic based topology is combined with a modern mastering grade signal path.
Some unique and innovative features lie beneath the bonnet, such as the ratio which increases
with level in Soft mode.
The basic idea and concept of the VSC-3
The Vertigo Sound Limiter incorporates four discrete 1979 VCAs for two channels. Each channel
has one VCA in the Audio Path and another one inside the sidechain. In stereo mode both
sidechains are active (they are not summed together) and the higher signal peak on any of both
channels results in the compression of both (in Stereo SC Mode).
Therefore the VSC-3 is reacting also on out of phase signals (peaks) without image shift.
Moreover, the detector (a Peak Forward Design) of each channel works in such a way, that stereo
compression can be achieved even without stereolinking. This precision makes the VSC-3 also
the first choice for mastering applications. Although the VSC-3 was developed as a
Bus Compressor. Each channel provides all controls separately which makes it also a Must Have
for processing while recording.