Fircomp 2

Ever since I first tried out the free Fircomp 1, I have known that this developer was going to make something really special in the future. Luckily enough, we didn't have to wait for too long before he released Fircomp 2. I bought it the day it was released, and I have never been so satisfied from buying a plug-in! My go-to clean compressor used to be the excellent Fabfilter Pro-C2, and even though I didn't expect this one to replace it, I changed my mind after using Fircomp 2 for just 2-3 days.

Fircomp 2, together with Fabfilter Pro-Q3, are my most used third party plug-ins (probably my most used plug-ins overall, except for JS:Volume/Pan Adjustment) by a long shot. Fircomp 2 has all the functions I could ever want or need in a clean, digital compressor and it does it with the same quality and perfection as the Fabfilter Pro plug-ins and some iZotope plug-ins. I have yet to find a single negative thing to say about it. I especially love the fact that it can be used as a brickwall ISP limiter, without causing a single sample of delay (and it's not just hard-clipping the peaks either, because I have tested it for harmonics and aliasing, and it creates neither).

It's very easy on the CPU as well. For me, it uses about 0.3-0.4% CPU while the GUI is shown, because the meters use a bit extra, and only 0.2% while the GUI is closed. This is on a Intel i7-8559u (4-core 8-thread, laptop CPU in a Intel NUC). The GUI is fully re-sizable and vector based, so it looks just as sharp no matter what size you are using (perfect for 4k monitors). The metering is nicely drawn, with both input/output, gain reduction+makeup, peak metering, peak hold and LUFS-short term included.

You get all of this for only €27 or $31! Absolute madness. He has also updated it with 2 new modes (VCA mode and Coupled Peak Mode) since the release that has only expanded it's usability even further.

The only thing I can say is. GO BUY IT NOW!