Clipping In The Axe III

[FractalAudio]

A compressor with attack and release at 0 should distort (you can do the research if your curious as to exactly why), this preset had a very short attack and release so I presume Fractal's comp is acting as intended.

+1

Compressors distort. The shorter the attack and release times the more distortion. This is because a compressor works by doing y = x * g where g is the gain. As the attack and release times approach zero g approaches k * |x| so you end up with y = x * k * |x| which is obviously very nonlinear.

Compression is, by definition, nonlinear because it is not time invariant. The audibility of the distortion is a function of human auditory perception and the attack and release parameters. The shorter the attack and release the more we perceive the distortion.