Free compressors: hidden gems

[The Noodlist]

Accidental double post, soz.

[Eauson]

I could be wrong, but his vsts are of interest.

One of his plugins is called 'Tina Turner'. It is literally impossible for you to be wrong.

[kvnes]

http://www.audio-tk.com/atksidechaincompressor/

I noticed there are two GUI's for this compressor, that I recommended. I tried the GUI on this website for the first time and realized it acts differently than the version I originally downloaded, which I liked. I think the old GUI is best, so if anyone does spend time trying this one out, be sure to try the GUI that is just a metallic plate with black knobs. You might have to google it.

Again, the developer's other VST's, not in the compressor category (the modulated delay, which I think needs to be done stereo instead of mono, and the general delay) I found to be not useful (for me). I haven't tried his other compressors yet. I plan to try out his transient and other compressor plugins some more when I have time. One of them is a 'coloring' compressor, so perhaps his saturation comes out really nice with his ATK system, I will have to see. Since there is a 'color' knob on the side chain compressor, I am guessing ATK sidechain is the only one that is really necessary to use from his collection.

[Guy Produce]

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.

I am on Mac, tho it says that some of the downloads are compatible for Mac, I am not able to get it into my DAW. The plugin comes as Unix Executable, and I have no idea how to get this into my DAW... Im quite a noob when it comes to things like this lol

[jochicago]

it says that some of the downloads are compatible for Mac, I am not able to get it into my DAW.

Sorry I can't help, I'm a PC user.

[badass_billy]

I've been using Kotelnikov (TDR) as a go to all-purpose comp, and Rough Ryder 2 (Audio Damage) for all things drums.

And I've spent a lot of money on compressors over the years. These just happen to be the ones I like and get the most use out of.

RR2 qualifies as a hidden gem (although word is getting out). Kotelnikov less so. Cat's pretty much out of the bag on that one.

[Guy Produce]

it says that some of the downloads are compatible for Mac, I am not able to get it into my DAW.

Sorry I can't help, I'm a PC user.

Apparently it was only for Reaper users lol

[The Noodlist]

Gem?
Cocell Productions Stressor.
smacklabs Logic Channel

[scalawag]

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/kt-c-by-kingtao

[scalawag]

http://www.vstplanet.com/News/2015/Free ... finity.htm

[K82]

MDA Dynamics
Battlecomp vintage

and airwindows if you don't like them

[s28]

Airwindows curve and VariMu.

[codec_spurt]

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.
Antress Modern 1.30
Antress Modern 1.35
Antress Modern 1.80
Antress Modern 2.45
Antress Modern 3.27
Antress Modern 4.95

I spent most the weekend going through the internet archive downloading everything I could find by Antress. I managed to find some of those plus some others as well. There's hundreds of dumps but most are dead ends.

I ended up with over a Gigabyte of stuff in the end. I used 'everything' (file finding program) to sort through. Some of those .dll's there are like 3 or 4 versions of! Antress seemed to change and tinker with them all every time he did a new release. Not sure if he even changed anything apart from the odd graphic. Some he did, according to the notes.

Anyway, I was looking for the Distressor plugin (ModernVHME), and I could not find it anywhere on the net at all, even after 12 hours solid of searching. I found pretty much everything else. The new white face Distressor is in his latest and final pack, but the other one? Well, I did find one, tell a lie. It's the non-working one. It just does not work or register in any DAW. There is another .dll from about a week or so before that and it is almost bit-identical, but for whatever reason it works. I had to dig that out of my own archive on another computer.

So, if you are looking for a working version of this plugin:



I seem to have found it. Beware though that it still crashes Cubase though it works fine in all the other hosts I tried it in.

I've curated and compiled a sort of Antress Classic Top 10 of all his most recent classic compressors. I haven't included any other plugins, just the most famous and sought after and legendary units.

Here's a picture of them:

[click on thumbnail for full size image]







This is the directory structure after ordering them:






I've created a folder structure for the Top 10 compressors using the names of the models the plugins are supposedly 'emulating' (I know, I know...)

Code: Select all

Daking - 

ModernVTME (2 different known versions)



DBX160 - 

ModerndbME160 (2 different known versions)
ModernVDME    (4 different known versions)



Distressor - 

ModernDeathcore 
ModernVHME    (2 different known versions)



Fairchild 660 - 

ModernFireChainer 



Fairchild 670 - 

ModernVFME (4 different known versions)



Manley Vari-Mu - 

ModernVRME (4 different known versions)
ModernVariME



SSL G384 - 

ModernApophis 



Teletronix LA-2A - 

ModernLA-2ME 
ModernLostAngel 
ModernPainKiller 
ModernVLME (2 different known versions)



Thermionic Culture Phoenix - 

ModernPoloKiller 
ModernVPME   (3 different known versions)
ModernPhoenix



Tubetech 
ModernVCME 



Urei 1176LN - 

ModernSeventhSign 
ModernVSME   (3 different known versions)
ModernDynaKiller 

I've also made note of where I've found duplicates of the plugins, as you can see.

I've included the very latest ones I could find, and I think it's just about complete. I don't think there are any more up to date .dll's than what I have here. Some plugins like the 'Tubetech' ModernVCME seem to only have one version. Where as the 'Fairchild' ModernVFME has about 4 or 5 iirc.

Just keep in mind that these are old now (over 10 years) and most of these stem from around 2008! They are only 32-bit and not anything you should rely on for production work. Prepare for them to 'poof' your DAW at any moment, or just not load or work properly at all. Having said that, I've got all these working nicely apart from that one that crashes Cubase.


Somebody recently put up a link to the plugins here on KVR, using my research (and not crediting me - it's ok). Well, I've done quite a bit more research the last few days, and this is as far as I can take it without spending a silly amount of time that quite frankly isn't worth it. Some of the plugins are very very hungry and inefficient, but most of those I've included here work pretty good over all.

They are Synthmaker, and if you are interested, Antress released the source code for them I believe a while back. They do sound absolutely superb on a lot of stuff, especially drums. They can rival pretty much anything you can get ITB, depending on program material.

Someone put a link up to their collection of Antress plugins a little while back (which was incomplete and had old stuff in it). So I'm assuming it's ok to put a link up here to my Top 10 (which are the best Antress has to offer imho - bar a few, maybe - and is as up to date as you are likely to find). If nothing else it should help anyone who needs a working version of one of these plugins to finish an old project or whatever.


If you are a noob and want to know more about the compressors included, then check out this article in Sound on Sound: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ompressors

Also this is quite informative as well (from the REAPER forum): https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=81213

----------


This isn't a complete collection, just my personal faves. I've got a serious software compressor collection, and I'm even about to buy some hardware as well, so even though these plugins may sound very little like the 'real thing', they can help you to get your head around what is what in compressor land.

Probably my favorite plugin out of all of these is the VFME - a so called Fairchild emulation. I don't know about that, but it does something magical to snares in a drum loop that is just very hard to get with any other software. It totally creams out the signal and helps the snares just fit in the mix while floating on top. It's quite a trick. I'm not really a compressor expert though so there is probably some other way to do it and I've probably even got the plugins to do it - but still...

I won't be buying a Fairchild of course. They go for about 20K for a 'real' one (if you can find one) and about half that price for a 'clone'. But you can buy one of the plugins modeled here I know for a couple of hundred quid.



Here are the plugins in the directory structure I've created. Just unrar and put them in your 32-bit VST folder -

http://www.filedropper.com/antress-classic

[The Noodlist]

I spent most the weekend going through the internet archive downloading everything I could find by Antress. I managed to find some of those plus some others as well.

First time I've seen the ModernVCME. Good work.

AVA Mastering EQ is free at the moment.
https://harrisonconsoles.com/site/free-plugin.html
 

[Halonmusic]

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.
Antress Modern 1.30
Antress Modern 1.35
Antress Modern 1.80
Antress Modern 2.45
Antress Modern 3.27
Antress Modern 4.95

I spent most the weekend going through the internet archive downloading everything I could find by Antress. I managed to find some of those plus some others as well. There's hundreds of dumps but most are dead ends.

I ended up with over a Gigabyte of stuff in the end. I used 'everything' (file finding program) to sort through. Some of those .dll's there are like 3 or 4 versions of! Antress seemed to change and tinker with them all every time he did a new release. Not sure if he even changed anything apart from the odd graphic. Some he did, according to the notes.

Anyway, I was looking for the Distressor plugin (ModernVHME), and I could not find it anywhere on the net at all, even after 12 hours solid of searching. I found pretty much everything else. The new white face Distressor is in his latest and final pack, but the other one? Well, I did find one, tell a lie. It's the non-working one. It just does not work or register in any DAW. There is another .dll from about a week or so before that and it is almost bit-identical, but for whatever reason it works. I had to dig that out of my own archive on another computer.

So, if you are looking for a working version of this plugin:



I seem to have found it. Beware though that it still crashes Cubase though it works fine in all the other hosts I tried it in.

I've curated and compiled a sort of Antress Classic Top 10 of all his most recent classic compressors. I haven't included any other plugins, just the most famous and sought after and legendary units.

Here's a picture of them:

[click on thumbnail for full size image]







This is the directory structure after ordering them:






I've created a folder structure for the Top 10 compressors using the names of the models the plugins are supposedly 'emulating' (I know, I know...)

Code: Select all

Daking - 

ModernVTME (2 different known versions)



DBX160 - 

ModerndbME160 (2 different known versions)
ModernVDME    (4 different known versions)



Distressor - 

ModernDeathcore 
ModernVHME    (2 different known versions)



Fairchild 660 - 

ModernFireChainer 



Fairchild 670 - 

ModernVFME (4 different known versions)



Manley Vari-Mu - 

ModernVRME (4 different known versions)
ModernVariME



SSL G384 - 

ModernApophis 



Teletronix LA-2A - 

ModernLA-2ME 
ModernLostAngel 
ModernPainKiller 
ModernVLME (2 different known versions)



Thermionic Culture Phoenix - 

ModernPoloKiller 
ModernVPME   (3 different known versions)
ModernPhoenix



Tubetech 
ModernVCME 



Urei 1176LN - 

ModernSeventhSign 
ModernVSME   (3 different known versions)
ModernDynaKiller 

I've also made note of where I've found duplicates of the plugins, as you can see.

I've included the very latest ones I could find, and I think it's just about complete. I don't think there are any more up to date .dll's than what I have here. Some plugins like the 'Tubetech' ModernVCME seem to only have one version. Where as the 'Fairchild' ModernVFME has about 4 or 5 iirc.

Just keep in mind that these are old now (over 10 years) and most of these stem from around 2008! They are only 32-bit and not anything you should rely on for production work. Prepare for them to 'poof' your DAW at any moment, or just not load or work properly at all. Having said that, I've got all these working nicely apart from that one that crashes Cubase.


Somebody recently put up a link to the plugins here on KVR, using my research (and not crediting me - it's ok). Well, I've done quite a bit more research the last few days, and this is as far as I can take it without spending a silly amount of time that quite frankly isn't worth it. Some of the plugins are very very hungry and inefficient, but most of those I've included here work pretty good over all.

They are Synthmaker, and if you are interested, Antress released the source code for them I believe a while back. They do sound absolutely superb on a lot of stuff, especially drums. They can rival pretty much anything you can get ITB, depending on program material.

Someone put a link up to their collection of Antress plugins a little while back (which was incomplete and had old stuff in it). So I'm assuming it's ok to put a link up here to my Top 10 (which are the best Antress has to offer imho - bar a few, maybe - and is as up to date as you are likely to find). If nothing else it should help anyone who needs a working version of one of these plugins to finish an old project or whatever.


If you are a noob and want to know more about the compressors included, then check out this article in Sound on Sound: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ompressors

Also this is quite informative as well (from the REAPER forum): https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=81213

----------


This isn't a complete collection, just my personal faves. I've got a serious software compressor collection, and I'm even about to buy some hardware as well, so even though these plugins may sound very little like the 'real thing', they can help you to get your head around what is what in compressor land.

Probably my favorite plugin out of all of these is the VFME - a so called Fairchild emulation. I don't know about that, but it does something magical to snares in a drum loop that is just very hard to get with any other software. It totally creams out the signal and helps the snares just fit in the mix while floating on top. It's quite a trick. I'm not really a compressor expert though so there is probably some other way to do it and I've probably even got the plugins to do it - but still...

I won't be buying a Fairchild of course. They go for about 20K for a 'real' one (if you can find one) and about half that price for a 'clone'. But you can buy one of the plugins modeled here I know for a couple of hundred quid.



Here are the plugins in the directory structure I've created. Just unrar and put them in your 32-bit VST folder -

http://www.filedropper.com/antress-classic

Thanks for these