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oxford dynamics works like a less aggressive lookahead limiter without the clippers and other bs. it has a lookahead of 16 samples to smooth the attack with a windowed maximum filter so is forced to attack for a minimum amount of time to mitigate aliasing distortion and not release prematurely because it is always reducing gain 16 samples in advance of the signal. time is the reciprocal of frequency so reciprocal of 44100 hz and multiply that by 16 to get the minimum amount of time the oxford dynamics must attack for which is 0.000363 seconds instead of switching between gain reduction and gain recovery instantly with the signal. take the reciprocal of that and you get 2756.25 hz for the maximum rate of the ox dynamics attack / release switching. this means that the compressor always moves slower at a 44100 kHz sample rate than the signal frequencies over that so it cannot compress them, merely ramping the volume down before them, unlike most analog compressors and modern oversampled digital ones where attack and release are just rates, not fixed amounts of time usually. thus the slightly mid forward sound from holding down the high end.

the most comparable plugin is the waves renaissance compressor but that has an even longer lookahead of 64 samples. which means it must attack for about 0.001451 seconds which means its modulation rate is 689.0625 hz hence the comically dark sound especially when you use the low frequency distortion warmth function on it unlike warm in ox dynamics which pushes the signal upwards into a wave shaper. of course r comp has more release program dependencies with the arc auto release and opto/electro for the first 3 db of gain reduction but ox dyn lets you have an entirely separate limiter process (just the compressor with infinite ratio and differently scaled attack/release knobs i believe) for just the peaks post makeup and it will still only pick to use one so you don't have only a set amount of fast or slower gain reduction you can do.

of course now we still have all kinda of nasty compressors aliased garbage, garbage with too long lookaheads, compressors that make you select the oversampling and stock, sound like a 3630, etc.

dan