KVR Audio

bpblog · Post by **bpblog** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 1:38 pm

nope, there are quite a few brilliant freeware compressors:

Density mkIII
Molot
ThrillseekerLA
TDR Feedback Compressor 2

recursive one · Post by **recursive one** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 1:41 pm

Imo, Klanghelm Dc8c is head and shoulders above any free compressor out there. It costs 20 Eur.

If I were you, I would just invest 20 Eur and free myself from the hassle of trying to get decent results out of hordes of half-assed freeware tools.

However, if your religion does not allow you to pay for compressors, try TDR Feedback Comp II.

u_f_o · Post by **u_f_o** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:03 pm

ariston wrote:
u_f_o wrote:..been looking for a good free compressor for a long time now (...)
Well, you can't have been looking TOO hard. It's very hard to NOT stumble upon all of the excellent freebies mentioned above...

actually i already did try most of them, but i feel many of those just don't fit my needs. some you can barely hear it's doing something at all. :O now i do realize that might be because it's 'transparent'.. but if i can't hear much diff a/b-ing then what's the point of using it..

i'm grateful for all suggestions and will try those i didn't know yet. so far comparing to paid compressors there is a pretty big difference. still some left to test though

u_f_o · Post by **u_f_o** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:07 pm

recursive one wrote:Imo, Klanghelm Dc8c is head and shoulders above any free compressor out there. It costs 20 Eur.

If I were you, I would just invest 20 Eur and free myself from the hassle of trying to get decent results out of hordes of half-assed freeware tools.

However, if your religion does not allow you to pay for compressors, try TDR Feedback Comp II.

yeah next step might be trying some 'budget' ones, seems there is no escaping on this one

but i didn't give up just yet

AC222 · Post by **AC222** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:19 pm

Well software compressors in general free or paid don't stack up to hardware. They don't have the richness or bigness that real hardware has. A lot of it seems to be the harmonics that are missing. The Nebula compressors that actually work (Slick9K for instance or Rayphlex or the Gemini libraries) seem to be the best imo. UAD stuff is pretty good as well.

Looking for good sounding (for software for free):

My recommendations:

VLadg Molot, Limiter No. 6
Sir Elliot Little Black Box, Mastering Compressor
and maybe a longshot but the free Klanghelm Compressor

I don't particularly fancy the VOS stuff but you'll probably get recommendations for that as well

Cheers,

AC

Mudcat007 · Post by **Mudcat007** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:37 pm

All of the above plus RedPhatt Pro from Jeroen Breebaart. This was a payware compressor until fairly recently. Jeroen made it available free of charge after he got his ToneBoosters brand established.

ENV1 · Post by **ENV1** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 2:54 pm

Mudcat007 wrote:...Jeroen Breebaart...

Now i remember the other one i wanted to mention but couldnt think of.

JBs SmashPro. Due to the way this one is made it is a little less 'immediate' than other compressors, but once you got the hang of it you can get some real good results out of it. Worth to be checked out in any case.

@midnight · Post by **@midnight** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:11 pm

no good free compressors?

must be trollin....

AC222 · Post by **AC222** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:39 pm

Mudcat007 wrote:All of the above plus RedPhatt Pro from Jeroen Breebaart. This was a payware compressor until fairly recently. Jeroen made it available free of charge after he got his ToneBoosters brand established.

Hmmm interesting.... You know I've tried pretty much all the free ones that get frequently mentioned but not that one. How would you describe it? Character comp or transparent? Fast/Slow attack by default?

Edit: whoops just thought about the name - the phatt implies character and prolly slower attack

It's surprising how good Ferox and Reelbus are for what they charge. They seem to hold their own in usefulness with alternatives that cost ten times as much. Maybe I should really check out all of the Tonebooster stuff. Any other TB stuff recommended?

maxxxter · Post by **maxxxter** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:47 pm

DELETED

Mudcat007 · Post by **Mudcat007** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 3:55 pm

AC222 wrote:
Mudcat007 wrote:All of the above plus RedPhatt Pro from Jeroen Breebaart. This was a payware compressor until fairly recently. Jeroen made it available free of charge after he got his ToneBoosters brand established.
Hmmm interesting.... You know I've tried pretty much all the free ones that get frequently mentioned but not that one. How would you describe it? Character comp or transparent? Fast/Slow attack by default?

Edit: whoops just thought about the name - the phatt implies character and prolly slower attack

It's surprising how good Ferox and Reelbus are for what they charge. They seem to hold their own in usefulness with alternatives that cost ten times as much. Maybe I should really check out all of the Tonebooster stuff. Any other TB stuff recommended?

You can set this up to where it is relatively transparent or with some "character" as well. Plenty of tweakability available.

Also look at SmashPro which was also mentioned above.

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:02 pm

u_f_o wrote:but if i can't hear much diff a/b-ing then what's the point of using it..

Ever thought that you might NOT need any compression?

These days, everything needs to be compressed up and down. But why not educate yourself why there is a need for compression.

On top of the behavior of certain types.

Feedback Compressors (vintage type) vs. Feedforward (most modern), what can be achieved with parallel compression, etc.

Before you ask which of these comps my weapon of choice are:
Short answer - all of them.

Long answer: IKM Opto (mostly), Steinberg built in stuff, VoS, MeldaProduction, Klanghelm, SKNote, etc.

I tried Molot (but it was not my cup of tea, and it's quite CPU intensive for me), and there are plenty of other mentioned candidates that I dropped by now (Rough Rider, Camel Audio, etc). I'd also still use ReaComp's compressor due to it's flexible routing (FB and FF design) and simplicity, but Cubase tells me "sorry bro - I hang myself if you launch that one". So I moved on.

If I'm at a clients place, I prefer Pro-C and The Glue as plain technical compressors. Should I need them.

But you have to understand first what they do. Disregarding them with "I don't hear sh*t" tells me that you are maybe doing it wrong.

U-o · Post by **U-o** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:40 pm

Compressive CM

arkmabat · Post by **arkmabat** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 4:45 pm

@midnight wrote:no good free compressors?

must be trollin....

Edit: I guess a smiley can be ambiguous... I actually agree that there are lots of free compressors certainly worth looking at. I don't think that there are as many trolls as we sometimes assume...

u_f_o · Post by **u_f_o** » Tue Apr 02, 2013 5:22 pm

arkmabat wrote:
@midnight wrote:no good free compressors?

must be trollin....

no sir, no trolling, thank you

are there really no good free vst compressors?