Best FREE alternative of Waves Renassaince Compressor

[Winstontaneous]

Tokyo Dawn Labs are the best by a long shot. In many ways, superior to the Ren Comp.

Tokyo Dawn stuff is decent for sure, but I'm not a fan of the knob behavior. One has to put way too much pressure to get the knobs to turn and for me it's frustrating to use. If it was smoother, it would be in my top 10 but as it stands now, I can't recommend.

Just spray a little De-Oxit on the shaft and you're set

Honestly one of the things I like about the TDR stuff (other than awesome sonic performance) is the solidity of the knob response.

[Orbit-50]

[imrae]

I'd be very careful about redesigning the Renaissance plugins; the skins may be a little dated but the usability is superb.

The free compressors mentioned are mostly excellent and I use Kotelnikov more than RenComp... but it's a very different kind of compressor. I don't see a good drop-in replacement here for "simple smashy". DC1A maybe.

[rifftrax]

Antress Seventh Sign for sure. Kicks so much ass

[Mathematics]

Melda MCompressor and TDR Kotelnikov are good sounding (and 64-bit) but the problem is that there are 4 common types of compressors and depending on the type of material, there isn't a one-size fits all compressor if you really care about quality of sound. These are my free choices that I recommend to friends starting up with digital music.

[ENV1]

I dont know if it is the best free alternative (because i dont know the Waves), but JB RedPhatt Pro has ratios that go from 0.1 to INF.

(Plural because you get control over both ends of the knee, i.e. it has 2 Ratio knobs.)


This compressor can be very aggressive and is excellent for drums and drummachines. It can turn stuff which by itself sounds rather mushy and undefined into hard and explosive. (And in a very nice way too i might add, i can post an audio example if theres interest.) At the same time it is also very versatile because you have a very wide range of control. It is still very simple to use though because it only has a handful of controls. It used to be payware but was eventually made free.

Jeroen (now ToneBoosters) doesnt offer it on his website anymore but the archive he released (which contains all of his legacy plugins including the Pro versions), is still available on wayback.

redphattpro.png

[recko]

Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls, dogs and cats and the whole planet!

I really owe you a big thanks for your work, time and advices. I tried many and many of your advices after night shift, but before I go to sleep ->

The winners are:

1st: Jeroen Breebaart :
Red Phatt Pro
This one will be perfect for every sound type, especially for drums The 'Ratio 2' knob is a genius invention

2nd: Cocko's ReaXcomp
It's a multiband compressor, but if you have enough time and patience you can use it for everything I'll use it for basses and pads imo

Both of winners are able to less than 1.0 ratio!

Thank you everybody, Waves can do a favor from now

[heavymetalmixer]

Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls, dogs and cats and the whole planet!

I really owe you a big thanks for your work, time and advices. I tried many and many of your advices after night shift, but before I go to sleep ->

The winners are:

1st: Jeroen Breebaart :
Red Phatt Pro
This one will be perfect for every sound type, especially for drums The 'Ratio 2' knob is a genius invention

2nd: Cocko's ReaXcomp
It's a multiband compressor, but if you have enough time and patience you can use it for everything I'll use it for basses and pads imo

Both of winners are able to less than 1.0 ratio!

Thank you everybody, Waves can do a favor from now

Are you sure you wanna use Red Phatt Pro? There's a reason why people have problems using 32 bit VSTs inside 64 bit DAW: JBridge doesn't report latency to the DAW, and the more 32 bit VSTs you use the more desync you have for those tracks.

[ENV1]

Red Phatt Pro is zero latency.

[heavymetalmixer]

Red Phatt Pro is zero latency.

Have you tested that in a 32 bit DAW?

[ENV1]

VSTHost has an Info function which shows how much latency (Initial Delay) a plugin has.

JB Broadcast for example reports 1536 samples.

JB Barricade Pro reports 512.

JB Smash Pro reports 1024.

JB Red Phatt Pro reports none.

[do_androids_dream]

https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-kotelnikov/

Reacomp by Reaper......maybe.

Ren Comp is quite good. It has a dark color and drop dead simple. The two above are a bit more complex but should get your in the ballpark.

I hate to criticise.. there may well be a lot of answers in this thread like this (I see there is)..

Neither of these compressors sound like Ren comp at all. Ren comp has a distortion (aka colour) and a slightly squishy, dark sound. It's also a pretty unique sound - there's not much I've come across that sounds like it.

It would be nice, in these type of threads, if there was an attempt to stick to compressors that actually have a fair amount in common with the plugin to be replaced - not just a 'here's my favourite compressor' response.

Nothing really springs to mind other than Bootsie's Nasty VCS channel strip compressor which can sound similar. Ren comp is quite unique.

[The Noodlist]

RedAmption
KT-C I would say this is the closet to the one you mentioned.
MJUC jr
jsComp
5ORCERY
Antress
FL4TT3RY 2
jsCompShaper
SLAX
GComp
GComp2
GMulti
Hybrid Bus Compressor This thing has a load of usable options

[badass_billy]

Neither of these compressors sound like Ren comp at all.

One of his requirements is it has to be free.

Beggars can't be choosers.

[swatwork]

Tokyo Dawn Labs are the best by a long shot. In many ways, superior to the Ren Comp.

Tokyo Dawn stuff is decent for sure, but I'm not a fan of the knob behavior. One has to put way too much pressure to get the knobs to turn and for me it's frustrating to use. If it was smoother, it would be in my top 10 but as it stands now, I can't recommend.

Yes, I find the default (velocity-based) knob behaviour uncomfortable but it's easily changed in the settings (click the wheel icon in the titlebar).