Compression is a key aspect of mixing and mastering. Without compression, our mix will sound quite poor. That’s why it’s always good to have a bunch of compression plugins up your sleeve. And better if they are free. In this article I will show you 8 of those free and effective VST compression plugins.
Contents
8 Free and Effective Compression VST PluginsTDR KotelnikovKlanghelm DC1AAudio Demage RoughRiderSemantic Audio – SAFECompressorTDR MolotokMeldaProduction MCompressorFXpansion DCAM FreeCompD16 Frontier
Final Thoughts
8 Free and Effective VST Compression Plugins
TDR Kotelnikov
TDR Kontelnikov is an incredible super clean, complete and free compression plugin. All TDR plugins are tremendous, in this case. Kotelnikov is the successor to the TDR Feedback Compressor, adding other functions. This plugin is a processor broadband dynamics that has individual release control for peak and RMS. It stands out for doing clean compression without adding extra coloration… its job is just to compress.
Klanghelm DC1A
The Klanghelm DC1A is a compressor with two knobs: input and output. There is not much science, with one knob you compress and with the other you manage the output level. It also has buttons to activate the deep functions (which is a filter high pass), relaxed (peak and RMS compression), dual mono (to compress left and right channels separately) and negative compression.
Audio Demage RoughRider
RoughRider is another very good compressor with a dynamic processor on the free plugin market. It has essential compression controls such as ratio, sensitivity (which is the same as threshold) and makeup to boost the signal after compressing. The new version of this plugin includes an external sidechain input, as well as a full bandwitch to apply a warm filter. It should also be mentioned that its visual is also very attractive.
Semantic Audio – SAFECompressor
SAFECompressor is a semantic compression plugin. Have you ever heard that concept? Possibly not. What this “semantic” compressor does is load configurations/presets based on what other users describe. When a user is compressing their audio they can save the configuration and for example write “Soft ” referring to gentle compression. That description is then uploaded to a server and stored and available to other users. In other words, this plugin saves “presets” based on its users’ settings. It’s a very good idea if you are new to compression. and you want to experiment with other users’ configurations.
TDR Molotok
Molotok is another free compressor from TDR, but it has some differences with the Kotelnikov. In the case of the TDR Kotelnikov, it is a completely clean compression plugin, which does not add any extra coloration. On the other hand, the TDR Molotok is designed to compress and at the same time add an extra color/tint. It serves very well to add an extra touch to some instruments such as guitars, basses, drums or vocals. But you don’t want to use it in the overall master because it will color the entire mix.
MeldaProduction MCompressor
MCompressor is a plugin that comes free with the MFreeFXBundle bundle. This plugin provides refined compression with many options to customize different parameters. Such as changing the knee mode between soft, linear or hard… or also enabling sidechain.
FXpansion DCAM FreeComp
DCAM FreeComp is a free bus compression plugin with circuit modeling technology. It is designed to bring mixes and subgroups together, while adding definition and dynamism to them.
D16 Frontier
Frontier by D16 is another of the free vst compression plugins that you can consider for your repertoire. As it says on its page, it is useful both for individual tracks, bus or for the master. With “input control” you can select the input channel and with release you can change the release between slow, medium and fast. It is available for free download, but you have to create an account on their page to activate it after installing it.
Final thoughts
All these free vst compression plugins are super useful when mixing and mastering. Some are more adapted to uses for individual channels, others for buses and others for the master. The best thing you can do is try and learn the better plugin settings.