Your go-to compressor in 2023?
- KVRist
- 460 posts since 2 Sep, 2012
I like these:
Softube Tube-Tech CL 1B mkii
u-he Presswerk
Kush Silika
Kush AR-1
Really though, I find that developing my skills in mixing has done more for the end results than any tool I may use. When I was learning (still am, of course) and purchased plugins that I thought would be game changers, it turned out none of them were. Once my skills grew then the plugin I was using didn’t matter as much.
Softube Tube-Tech CL 1B mkii
u-he Presswerk
Kush Silika
Kush AR-1
Really though, I find that developing my skills in mixing has done more for the end results than any tool I may use. When I was learning (still am, of course) and purchased plugins that I thought would be game changers, it turned out none of them were. Once my skills grew then the plugin I was using didn’t matter as much.
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- KVRAF
- 7941 posts since 24 May, 2002 from Tutukaka, New Zealand
For general duties - stock Cubase ones.
For clinical mix duties - TDR Kotelnikov
For hw (especially basses) LA4C.
Your DAW will likely have perfectly reasonable compressors in it for what you need most of the time. There's quite a bit of fairy dust placebo going on with plugin compression for bog-standard light compression. You'll struggle to hear any difference between most compressors when all you're doing is a dB or 2 of squashing on a synth line or bass etc. Different when you're driving them hard or smashing a drum buss or mix compression though, admittedly. Possibly you need more than one question - any old compressor will do much the same job for standard channel compression. But people will likely use different compressors for different heavy duty jobs. Just saying...
For clinical mix duties - TDR Kotelnikov
For hw (especially basses) LA4C.
Your DAW will likely have perfectly reasonable compressors in it for what you need most of the time. There's quite a bit of fairy dust placebo going on with plugin compression for bog-standard light compression. You'll struggle to hear any difference between most compressors when all you're doing is a dB or 2 of squashing on a synth line or bass etc. Different when you're driving them hard or smashing a drum buss or mix compression though, admittedly. Possibly you need more than one question - any old compressor will do much the same job for standard channel compression. But people will likely use different compressors for different heavy duty jobs. Just saying...
- KVRAF
- 10408 posts since 7 Sep, 2006 from Roseville, CA
My 2023 go-to compressor is the same as it has been in every year since its release: FabFilter Pro-C. It's a great bread-n-butter compressor. I have other compressors that I prefer for flavor or specific applications (e.g., Presswerk, RenVox), but Pro-C handles most of my needs.
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- KVRist
- 51 posts since 25 Sep, 2021 from Poland
PSP Impressor - extremely versatile with enameling of the most important units that are responsible for compression
AMEK Mastering Compressor - I've been testing it for several days and I can't get over the functionality and possibilities, but it's quite complicated, but it's worth learning it, because then it will sound beautiful.
AMEK Mastering Compressor - I've been testing it for several days and I can't get over the functionality and possibilities, but it's quite complicated, but it's worth learning it, because then it will sound beautiful.
- KVRAF
- 10439 posts since 3 Feb, 2003 from Finland, Espoo
Still using Tone Projects Unisum most of the time.. but lately I've been using quite a few instances of Acustica Audio Sunray. That compressor is really weird in a strange and polite way. It can't do snappy/clicky well so it's unsuitable for those tasks.
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot
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Scrubbing Monkeys Scrubbing Monkeys https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=397259
- KVRAF
- 1619 posts since 21 Apr, 2017 from Bahia, Brazil
I seem to be reaching for Klanghelm Mjuc alot lately. TDR kotelnikov is always around also.
We jumped the fence because it was a fence not be cause the grass was greener.
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https://sites.google.com/view/scrubbing-monkeys
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- KVRAF
- 4010 posts since 20 Feb, 2004
Do you find Unisum can do snappy/clicky?
A well-behaved signature.
- KVRAF
- 10439 posts since 3 Feb, 2003 from Finland, Espoo
No, actually it can't. It's too smooth to create really aggressively clicky tones. I mainly use it for enhancing or controlling the groove of a source (which is 90% of all my compression usage when mixing).
To "artificially" get some clicks or blocky chunky transients you need something else. Let me get back to you about this particular task as I very seldom find myself intentionally adding clicks to transients as everything is so clicky in today's music to begin with.
"Wisdom is wisdom, regardless of the idiot who said it." -an idiot
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- KVRist
- 348 posts since 5 Nov, 2007 from Liverpool, UK
NI Supercharger GT - dead easy to dial in, bags of character and colour if you want, or not if you don't. Works on everything - works on a track, works on a bus.
It's the shizzle. One of my very favourite plugins of any type.
Edit: NI Supercharger (non-GT) is free with Komplete start and is right up there too - same easy workflow, it's great, and uses a bit less CPU.
It's the shizzle. One of my very favourite plugins of any type.
Edit: NI Supercharger (non-GT) is free with Komplete start and is right up there too - same easy workflow, it's great, and uses a bit less CPU.
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vitocorleone123 vitocorleone123 https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=333504
- KVRAF
- 1949 posts since 30 Jun, 2014 from Pacific NW
SSL Bus2
Overloud LA
Trackcomp 2
ProC2
Depends on the source.
Overloud LA
Trackcomp 2
ProC2
Depends on the source.
Last edited by vitocorleone123 on Sun Aug 13, 2023 2:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- KVRAF
- 10705 posts since 31 Aug, 2013 from Somewhere near the Morgul Vale.
IK's Fairchild 670 and their LA-2A. Starting to mess with their Distressor emulation.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
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-Martin Luther King Jr.
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- KVRAF
- 2185 posts since 24 Jul, 2017
Presswerk right now.