FG-116 Vintage

FG-116 Blue Vintage recreates the sound of two “rev A” FET compressors. Both compressors sound rich, colorful, and musical.

Circuit 1 has the classic “mid forward” character that has made the blue striped FET compressors so famous. It adds a wonderful coloration to the upper mids especially, and adds a warm presence to vocals, bass, drums, and guitars. Compared to the Black 116, it will have a softer top and bottom end, and more articulate transients due to the harmonic distortion in the midrange.

Circuit 2 is modeled after a “rev A” unit that had been updated and refurbished, and had a very unique and musical sound. Compared to Circuit 1, this model has much bigger lows and smoother mids and highs, making it sound quite stunning on drum room mics as well as vocals that need to have more bigness and don’t require the midrange push of Circuit 1.

Both Circuits have a Hi Pass Detective Filter that prevents low frequency content from triggering compression, which can sound really musical on a drum buss. Finally, the Mix/Knob allows you to parallel compress right inside the module, which is an ideal way to use this type of compression.

NOTES: Remember, the magic sound of this compressor really lies in the release. Many top mixers keep the release all the way to the right (fastest) which makes everything that goes through the limiter much more forward, aggressive and exciting.

The attack time on this compressor is very fast even on its slowest setting which means it’s always going to attenuate some of the source transient, but you’ll be able to tailor the attack time depending on the desired effect. The attack fully to the right (fastest) will obliterate the transient completely. I would recommend starting out with the slowest attack and fastest release and then tweaking from there. Don’t be afraid to over-compress and dial back the mix knob!

GR Meter

Displays the amount of compression in dB.

Input/Output¹

Increasing your Input Gain will result in more compression. To compensate for the gain reduction introduced, use the Output Gain.

Ratio

Sets the amount of gain reduction. For example, if the ratio is set to 4:1: this means for input level 4dB over the threshold, 1dB will be output.

Attack

Controls the speed at which compression occurs after the signal has exceeded the threshold value. Turn clockwise for a fast attack, and counterclockwise for a slow attack.

Shift+Click the Attack knob to turn compression on and off. When set to off, the unit will bypass the compression, while continuing to process with the Input and Output Gains. This allows you to impart some nice transformer saturation, without reducing the dynamic range of the track.

Release

Controls the speed at which compression stops, once the signal has fallen below the threshold value. Turn clockwise for a fast release, and counterclockwise for a slow release.

Circuit

Toggles between the two circuits

High Pass Filter

Adds a high pass filter to the compressors sidechain.

Mix

Blends between dry and wet signals. This is very useful to achieve parallel compression without any additional routing.

External Side-Chain

The FG-116 Vintage is a compressor with a fixed threshold; you normally increase the Input Gain to apply more compression to the sound without causing a corresponding drop in output volume. When using the External Side-Chain, it is the Side-Chain Gain that will determine the amount of compression on the signal; increasing the Side-Chain Gain will increase the compression, but the sound may drop in overall volume if you don’t also increase the Input Gain manually. Input Gain itself has no impact on the compression amount when using the External Side-Chain.

1. Moving the Input or Output Knob while holding the Shift key will inversely link the two controls. It is very useful in Attack OFF mode to use the module as a line driver ↩