Arturia Comp FET-76 v1.0.0.595 MacOSX

The phrase “industry standard” gets used a lot in music production circles, but few products actually live up the hype. The original 1176 compressor designed by Bill Putnam Sr. truly lives up to the name. Now - thanks to Arturia’s TAE® technology - you can enjoy its legendary tone-shaping from the convenience of a software plugin.

Produced from the late 60s, the original hardware compressor was a staple of all major studios. Every mix engineer demanded at least one in a session, and they were used to shape the sound of countless hit records from Michael Jackson to The Killers, Guns n Roses to Joe Cocker, Bruce Springsteen to Chaka Khan. You won’t have to settle for just one, though; with Comp FET-76, you can load up one of these classic compressors on as many channels as you want.

People often say the 1176 “just makes things sound better”, but how does it do it? Our engineers carefully analyzed and modelled every component, electronics nuance, and quirk in the data of an original D/E model to find out, and recreate it as software. The combination of the Field Effect Transistor, the “Class A” amplifier, and its unique design imparts a subtle, but very desirable tonal change even at very low compression levels. Crank the input, patch in higher ratio, or even go “all in”, and that FET magic really comes alive. We didn’t simply create a software clone, we created a truly modern compressor with updated features, but featuring the same legendary sound.