VCA compressors are the workhorses of mix buses and drum tracks: fast, clean and predictable. TAN-2 is positioned as a free VCA-style compressor, so this guide is built around one question, how do you use a VCA compressor well? It walks through a mix-bus glue setting, a drum-room punch setting and a vocal levelling setting, then closes with a test you can run in ten minutes. Check the developer's official page for the exact controls, ratios and any price.
What makes a VCA style different
A voltage-controlled amplifier design reacts quickly and stays transparent even under heavy gain reduction. Compared with optical designs (slow, smooth) or FET designs (aggressive, coloured), a VCA suits transients and bus work. Its weakness is that it can sound clinical if you leave it on default, so the settings matter.
Setting 1: mix-bus glue
- Ratio 2:1, attack 30 ms, release auto or 200 ms.
- Lower the threshold until the meter dips 1 to 2 dB on the loudest beats.
- Leave makeup gain at 0 first, then match the bypassed level.
- If the kick makes the whole bus pump, set a side-chain high-pass at 100 Hz where available.
Gentle is the rule: more than 3 dB on a bus usually flattens the song.
Setting 2: punchy drum bus
- Ratio 4:1, attack 10 to 30 ms so the initial transient passes.
- Release 100 ms, timed so that the meter recovers before the next snare.
- Aim for 3 to 5 dB of gain reduction on peaks.
- Blend the compressed signal with the dry one to keep dynamics: try 60 percent wet.
Setting 3: vocal levelling
- Ratio 3:1, attack 15 ms, release 80 ms.
- Reduce roughly 4 dB on the loudest phrases.
- Follow with a second, gentler compressor if needed. Two light stages beat one heavy one.
Attack and release cheat sheet
| Goal | Attack | Release | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preserve punch | 30 ms | 100 ms | 2:1 to 4:1 |
| Tame transients | 1 to 5 ms | 50 ms | 4:1 |
| Smooth sustain | 10 ms | 300 ms | 2:1 |
| Parallel squash | 1 ms | 60 ms | 8:1 to 10:1 (blend under dry) |
Troubleshooting
- Dull mix after compressing: the attack is too fast. Lengthen it in 5 ms steps.
- Pumping bass: use the side-chain filter or increase the release.
- Distortion on peaks: lower the input, not the threshold. Check gain staging if levels stack up.
- Nothing happens: the threshold is above your signal. Watch the gain reduction meter.
Ten-minute compressor A/B
- Load a rough mix and loop the loudest chorus.
- Insert TAN-2 with the bus-glue setting and compare with a compressor you already own, such as the one in your DAW.
- Match gain reduction to the same amount on both.
- Match output level to within 0.5 dB.
- Keep the one that makes drums feel tighter without dulling cymbals.
If you are still learning how the knobs interact, our compressor tutorial covers threshold, ratio, attack and release from scratch. For another free option with a different colour, see an optical-style compressor.
Genre notes
- EDM: faster release on the bus so it breathes with the kick.
- Rock: slower attack to keep snare crack.
- Acoustic music: lowest ratio and shortest gain reduction, only 1 dB.
FAQ
Should I compress before or after EQ?
Fix problems with EQ before compression, shape tone after.
How much gain reduction is normal on a master?
One to two decibels is typical for glue.
Is TAN-2 free at the moment?
Confirm availability and price on the official developer page.
You can browse more dynamics tools in the free VST collection.
Gain reduction meter habits
Watch the meter, not the knobs. A bus compressor that bounces between 0 and 2 dB in time with the groove sounds musical; one stuck at 6 dB is almost always too heavy. When in doubt, reduce the ratio first, then the threshold. Reset the plugin between sources so that settings from a drum bus do not carry over to a vocal by accident. Small habits like this make free tools sound expensive.
Worked example: fixing a bus that sounds flat
A pop mix at 110 BPM loses punch after bus compression at 3 dB of reduction. Change attack from 5 ms to 30 ms, ratio from 4:1 to 2:1, and raise the release from 50 ms to 150 ms. Gain reduction drops to about 1.5 dB and the kick and snare regain their front edge. Add 1 dB of makeup gain only after level matching. Compare against the bypassed version at equal loudness, and pick the version that keeps the groove alive rather than the loudest.
Genre tips
- Hip-hop: slower attack on the drum bus and a little parallel compression on the snare.
- Metal: faster attack on the bus to tame spiky guitars, but keep gain reduction under 3 dB.
- Ambient: hardly any compression; a 1.5:1 ratio is enough to smooth peaks.
Sidechain filter experiment
Loop a section with a heavy kick and bass. Set the compressor's side-chain high-pass to off, then 60 Hz, then 120 Hz, keeping the threshold fixed. Note how the bass stops ducking as the filter rises. Pick the lowest frequency where the pumping disappears, commonly somewhere between 80 and 150 Hz. Save that value in your bus preset so every new session begins with it, and re-check it whenever the kick sample changes because a different kick shifts where the pumping appears.
