Free compressors: hidden gems

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Was testing out compressors in honor of adding Limiter 6 GE to the collection, and wanted to give a shout out to some very good compressors that I don't often see mentioned:

Sonic Anomaly:
These plugins are really something
https://sonic.supermaailma.net/plugins

In particular Hybrid Bus Compressor 2 and Quadracom. Killer plugins. Versatile, unique featureset, you can probably mix anything you want with just one of these on every track. HBC2 can do anything, but Quadracom is a monster for touching up a vocal track or something that you want to really iron out if you take the time to learn the plugin. And of course Slax.

Hornet Fat Fet
https://www.hornetplugins.com/plugins/hornet-fat-fet/
If you don't have an 1176 in your collection (and even if you do) grab this and try it on your next project. Sweet sounding plugin.

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Kilohearts Limiter, is pretty good but for some reason absolutely no one talks about it.

S.L.A.X. is one my favorites btw, it can be dark but also transparent depending on the color setting, easy to use and the most versatile two-knobs compressor in the free world.

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Modern VRME v2.70 Modern VFME v2.70
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Antress Modern Keep coming back to these.
http://vstmuseum.com/grid_vst_Antress/
Audiocation Compressor AC1.
GComp
GComp2
GMulti
jsComp
jsCompShaper
KT-C Really like this one. Hard to make it sound bad.
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MSC Compressor
Optron 3A
Platinum Ears AKA Dan Worrall
Red Phatt Pro
RedAmption Really like this one.
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Rough Rider 2 Works well on bass guitar.
SL63x
x10 Multiband Compressor
Last edited by The Noodlist on Wed Jul 03, 2019 11:10 pm, edited 13 times in total.
Currently trying to turn noise into music. :neutral: Is boutique the new old?

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Other than what's already been mentioned, I'm a fan of:
Blockfish
as_fbComp
sixtyfive
Compressor AC1
Dynamic Frequency Limiter
SlickHDR
Music can no longer soothe the worried thoughts of monarchs; it can only tell you when it's time to buy margarine or copulate. -xoxos
Discontinue use if rash or irritation develops.

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CrimsonWarlock aka TechnoGremlin, using Reaper and a fine selection of freeware plugins.

Ragnarök VST-synthesizer co-creator with Full Bucket

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EnergyXT3 - LMMS - FL Studio | Roland SH201 - Waldorf Rocket | SoundCloud - Bandcamp

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Since you include 32 bit plugins, you should definitely not forget about Thrillseeker VBL (Vintage Broadcasting Limiter). The best Vari-Mu emulation out there PERIOD! :ud: :love:

In the 64 bit world MJUC jr and DC1A are absolute gems, though not hidden (quite popular I think).

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Good list.

I was going to say jsCompShaper

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Great compressor, great GUI. It works slightly differently to other comps, but gives similar results. One you can have a lot of fun playing about with. Hard to believe it's free with all the work that went in to it.

There is also Compressive by Martin Eastwood:

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https://www.kvraudio.com/product/compre ... wood-audio

An easy to use yet very powerful and great sounding compressor. Computer Music did a version of it as well that you should check out. I learned my whole base knowledge about compression with this free plugin. It will always have a place in my heart.


As for Antress stuff, I posted quite a bit before about them. Categorizing them to the units they were supposed to 'emulate'.

That one caught my eye though -

Modern VRME v2.70
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I always remember it as VFME -

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http://www.dancetech.com/item.cfm?threadid=4132

For some reason he pulled it after release. Maybe the Fairchild 670 reference was too much for some people. Did he change the code? It's a different 'dll'.

It is a really really superb compressor that performs magic on the transients of snare hits. It's just got so much mojo it's not true. A really superb comp.

This is another great one by him -

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https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... -wilkinson

Obvious to see what it's modeled on, maybe it even sounds a bit like the original. But it sounds good none the less.

Just a bit unstable. Tends to crash so be careful when you use them.

Other than that, they are real winners.

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codec_spurt wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 9:48 pm Just a bit unstable. Tends to crash so be careful when you use them.

Other than that, they are real winners.
Been OK bridged with Jbridge.
Yeah, it looks like I got the VFME mixed up with another model. :ud:
Antress Modern 1.30
Antress Modern 1.35
Antress Modern 1.80
Antress Modern 2.45
Antress Modern 3.27
Antress Modern 4.95
Last edited by The Noodlist on Sat Jun 15, 2019 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
Currently trying to turn noise into music. :neutral: Is boutique the new old?

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ReaComp for Reaper users :tu:

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frackermak wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 12:24 pm ReaComp for Reaper users :tu:
Not only for reaper users, it's in the free Reaper VST effects bundle :D
CrimsonWarlock aka TechnoGremlin, using Reaper and a fine selection of freeware plugins.

Ragnarök VST-synthesizer co-creator with Full Bucket

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crimsonwarlock wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 12:30 pm
frackermak wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 12:24 pm ReaComp for Reaper users :tu:
Not only for reaper users, it's in the free Reaper VST effects bundle :D
Even better! :hihi:

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crimsonwarlock wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 12:30 pm
frackermak wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 12:24 pm ReaComp for Reaper users :tu:
Not only for reaper users, it's in the free Reaper VST effects bundle :D
Reaper users have the latest version AFAIK, resolved issues outlined by Dan Worrall, where non reaper users don't. Not knocking it, just saying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpXqYk1FoWA
The Reajs also has lots of cool FX.
Here's some others. https://geraintluff.github.io/jsfx/
https://stash.reaper.fm/u/macfizz
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Ozzifier GUI
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Currently trying to turn noise into music. :neutral: Is boutique the new old?

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