KH-COMP1

About the KH-COMP1

The KH-COMP1 is a compressor built from a blank sheet rather than a copy of some 50-year-old box. It's the first plugin in the Koen Heldens Signature Series — an original dynamics processor designed with the multi-platinum, award-winning mix engineer to do things his go-to gear couldn't. No vintage lineage, no borrowed schematic. Just a clean-sheet compressor aimed at the way records are actually mixed now, with four selectable envelope detectors, a fully invertible 2-band sidechain filter, an external sidechain input, blended stereo linking and true zero latency.

Built with Koen Heldens to break the vintage rulebook

When we started working with Koen on a signature series, the brief was simple and demanding: give him a compressor that behaves the way he thinks, not the way a 1960s circuit forces him to. He knows the technical limits of every plugin in his arsenal, and his ideas about process timing, channel linking and sidechain filtering pushed the team to build an entirely new tool. Countless development hours and listening sessions later, the KH-COMP1 is the most flexible dynamics processor we've made to date — transparent where you want precision, and characterful when you ask for it. At its core it's a clean feed-forward peak compressor: musical gain control that sits under a source without announcing itself, but with a control set that lets you push far past "invisible" when the track calls for it.

Four detector modes, an invertible sidechain, and zero latency

The heart of the KH-COMP1 is how it senses level. Four detector modes — Hilbert, Peak, Vintage and RMS — let you shape the envelope that drives the unit, from broad and forgiving to surgically precise. The Hilbert mode is the standout: it derives the analytic signal (a 90-degree phase-shifted pair) and reads a source's true envelope magnitude without the distortion or overshoots that trip up naive peak detection. On top of that, the 2-band invertible sidechain filter — a low band from 20Hz to 1kHz and a high band from 2.5kHz to 35kHz, each with its own Q — lets you EQ the detector's feed, then invert it to carve out a band for aggressive de-essing, ducking or pumping. A "Listen" button monitors that filtered sidechain so you're not guessing, and an external sidechain input ("Ext SC") lets a separate track drive the compression entirely. Because the whole thing runs at zero latency — no oversampling, no look-ahead, no sample delay compensation — it's genuinely usable for real-time monitoring and live tracking.

Using the KH-COMP1 on vocals, drums and the mix bus

On lead vocals, Hilbert detection with a fast attack (down to 0.5ms) rides a performance level without the pumping artefacts a classic RMS detector introduces, and the invertible sidechain filter doubles as a built-in de-esser. On drums, Peak mode and a short attack nail transients, while Vintage mode — a half-wave detector shape that emphasises even-order, K2-leaning content in the control signal — grabs a bus with a rounder, more forgiving feel. The Blended Stereo-Link lets you dial the exact relationship between dual-mono and stereo-linked processing, so a wide mix keeps its image instead of collapsing to the loudest channel. Threshold sweeps from 0 down to -48dBFS, Ratio steps from 2:1 up to a brick-wall infinity, and the stepless Knee plus a full dry/wet Mix control give you everything from soft parallel leveling to hard, edgy limiting. Make-up Gain runs to +36dB, release stretches from 75ms to 1.5s, and a switchable VU meter reads input, output or gain reduction. The Signature Series continues with more units designed alongside Koen — but the KH-COMP1 is where it starts.

KH-COMP1 Features

4 detector modes — Hilbert / Peak / Vintage / RMS

Shape the envelope that drives the unit for broad or surgical level capture. Hilbert derives the analytic signal (a 90-degree phase-shifted pair) to read the true envelope magnitude with no overshoots; Peak nails transients via full-wave rectification; Vintage uses a half-wave detector shape that emphasises even-order, K2-leaning content for a rounder feel; and RMS gives classic averaged response.

2-band invertible sidechain filter with Listen

EQ the detector's feed with a 2-band filter — low band 20Hz to 1kHz, high band 2.5kHz to 35kHz, each with its own Q — then invert it to carve out a band for precise ducking, pumping and de-essing. The "Listen" button auditions the filtered signal before it hits the envelope detector.

External sidechain input

Engage "Ext SC" to drive compression from a separate track fed into the plugin's dedicated stereo sidechain bus, rather than from the audio input — for classic ducking, rhythmic pumping and key-triggered gain riding without touching the source you hear.

Blended Stereo-Link

A stepless blend between dual-mono and stereo-linked processing set with a single control (0–100%). Dual mono treats left and right separately; fully linked drives both channels from the summed detector level — and everything in between lets you keep detailed control over the stereo image.

Threshold, Ratio, Knee and Mix

Threshold from 0 down to -48dBFS, a stepped Ratio from 2:1 up to a brick-wall infinity (2, 4, 8, 10, 12, 20, 100 and ∞), a stepless Knee to set how sharply compression grabs around the threshold, and a Dry/Wet Mix to blend input and processed signal for parallel compression.

Zero latency

The KH-COMP1 uses no oversampling and no look-ahead, so it reports no latency and needs no sample delay compensation — a genuine option for real-time monitoring and live environments where delay would otherwise get in the way.

Fast attack and flexible release

Attack from a super-fast 0.5ms up to 40ms, release from 75ms to 1.5s, and up to +36dB of make-up Gain — so you can catch the sharpest transients or ride slow programme material, with a switchable VU meter reading input, output or gain reduction.

SSE2-optimised code

DSP operations are pipelined on the SSE2 instruction set for high-performance operation even under complex processing.

HighDPI / Retina support

Crisp high-pixel-density rendering on macOS and Windows for a sharp interface on modern displays.

KH-COMP1 Examples & Videos