[music-dsp] Soft-knee algo & implementation

[Citizen Chunk]

hi all. happy new year!

i've been trying to figure out how to implement a soft-knee in my VST 
compressor. the Soft parameter will range from 0 to 1.0, where 1.0 is a 
curve from twice the threshold (in dB) to half of the threshold. e.g. 
if thresh = -12dB, the curve will run from -24dB to -6dB when the 
soft-knee is set to 1.0. at soft = 0, there will be a corner at -12dB.

i first figured that i should set a Hi and Lo soft threshold, based on 
the criteria above. i came up with:

softThreshLo = thresh ^ ( 1 + k )

softThreshHi = thresh ^ ( 1 / (  1 + k ) )

then in my sample loop, after the envelope has been calculated ...

if ( env > softThreshHi )	// if the envelope is out of soft knee range
	gR = ( thresh / env ) ^ ( 1 - ratio )	// regular gain reduction
else if ( env > softThreshLo )	// if envelope is in soft range
	gR = ( thresh / env ) ^ ( 1 - ratio )	// calculate regular gain 
reduction
	gR = gR ^ ( (env - softThreshLo) / (softThreshHi - softThreshLo) )
else
	gR = 1	// otherwise, gain reduction set to unity

out = in * gR

the problem with this scenario is that, if you graph it, the transfer 
curve has a hump in the soft-knee range. in other words, the soft-knee 
is actually LOUDER than the hard-knee transfer function in the 
"soft-zone". i've tried all sorts of different transfer functions, but 
nothing seems to work.

does anyone have some advice? perhaps a better way of going about this? 
am i missing something fundamental here?