This applies to the Liquid Channel
When in 'as original' mode, as you change from one compressor emulation to the next, the Liquid Channel will try to keep the settings the same. On some emulations certain parameters are fixed so in this case it cannot keep the value for that parameter the same and is forced to change it to the fixed value. Now when you go back to the first emulation you chose the LC will again keep the settings the same, including the value that was fixed. Therefore, when switching from one emulation to another and then back again, the values may not stay the same. As an example:
-First emulation is selected and attack time is set to 100ms.
-A second emulation is selected where the attack time is fixed at 50ms - screen will display 'FIXED' for attack time.
-The first emulation is selected again and the attack time now reads 50ms since the LC attempts to keep the settings the same when changing from one emulation to another.
Further to this, the units emulated by the Liquid Channel may be marked differently e.g. some compressors label attack and release times in milliseconds and others as a time constant. Also on some of the older units the markings round the knob are not scaled correctly e.g. the knob may point to release time of 1000 ms but it may really only be 600 ms. In 'as original' mode we have retained these irregularities in markings - this makes it possible to compare the LC to an original unit by dialing up exactly the same settings on both. The consequence of this is that if you switch from a emulation where a parameter's scaling is not irregular to one where it is irregular, the value of the parameter will appear to change but in actual fact it does not - only the way it is scaled does. As an example:
-First emulation is selected and release time is set to 1000ms.
-A second emulation is selected and release time changes to 1400ms - this is because on the original unit used to make the emulation, when release was set to 1400 it actually applied a measured release time of 1000ms.
-The original emulation is selected again and the release time returns to 1000ms.
Looking at the above it should be easy to see why, when you have been switching through a load of different compressors, that the parameter values can change quite drastically. This is one of the main reasons we included the compressor 'free' mode. In 'free' mode all compressor paramteres are available for each emulation (even if they were not on the original unit) and have the same ranges throughout all emulations. When you go through the compressor emulations in 'free mode' the displayed parameters will not change so if you are going to directly compare one emulation to another it should be done in free mode. If you wanted to compare emulations in 'as original' mode then the best way is to dial in the required settings and then save the front panel settings as a program (see the Liquid Channel manual for info on how to save 'programs'). Repeat this for other emulations and then compare the emulations by loading up the respective programs, not by switching from one emulation to another.