Don’t all people interested in audio production spend at least a little more time than they should thinking about compression? Not many other processes are quite as hard to pin down, surely because the results depend so heavily on the source material and to a great degree on the particular tool being used to do the compression.

If you want to get a new compressor, the most useful question is probably to ask why? You’ve definitely got access to one already. What are you looking for? What do you want to achieve? Here are 7 plugins we think might help you fill that gap in your inventory.

Do You Already Have The Compressor You Need?

Maybe you already have what you need but just haven’t used it in quite the right way? Every DAW has a stock compressor plugin and they are all very flexible. If you want to gently bring up the low level stuff to bring the sound together, maybe you just need to dial in some slow attack and release with a low ratio and threshold and some make up gain. If you don’t have a wet/dry control then maybe figure out how to set up parallel compression using routing. Most of what you need can be done using just your DAW.

There isn’t really a ‘bad’ stock compressor but if you use Logic Pro you’re lucky enough to already have one of best compressor plugins out there already in your DAW. If you tend to use one or two of the models, maybe you should put some time into getting familiar with the others. I’m not much of a Logic user but when I do use Logic it makes me wish the compressor was available as an AAX plugin.

Do You Just Want To Get The Sound?

Compression takes years to master and I’m not sure anyone ever thinks they stop learning about how to use it. While that can be a source of fascination for some, it’s understandable how for others it might all sound like too much work. To get your track sounding ‘like a record’ it’s going to need its natural dynamics keeping under control and that takes experience and skill to do well. If you want to concentrate on the stuff which really matters - the song, the performance, the arrangement then maybe you don’t need a to go too far into the mixing. The mix is important too but no one has ever hummed your release time settings…

If that sound like you then give the compression presets a miss and get a compressor plugin which uses some tech smarts to set itself up in a way which is appropriate for your audio. Of the new breed of AI powered compression plugins we’ve tried, Smart Comp 2 is one to check out. It can be as simple as you want or if you want to dig into the process you can, but it is content-aware and its choices and results are excellent. If you just want the results you can get them without all the learning.

Make It Sound ‘Like A Record’

We’ve already used ‘that’ phrase in this article, it’s hard to avoid. A warning to the unwary. There is no process which can be applied to audio which will ever turn it into something it is not, but with expectations suitably managed, it has to be said that if one processor deserves this accolade it is the SSL bus compressor.

It’s hard to appreciate from this distance just how dominant SSL consoles were for a significant period of 20th century recorded music. And because it was right there in the centre section of the consoles being used to make so many high profile records, the sound of this rather simple VCA compressor became inextricably linked with the sonic fingerprint of records.

In use, the biggest mistake I’ve seen is people hitting it too hard. Barely moving the needle is usually where you want to be. And speaking to people who were using them on those big consoles back in the day, you might be surprised by how little the settings changed from record to record.

If you want an SSL Bus Comp plugin there’s no better place to find one that from SSL themselves. Their Native Bus Compressor 2 has that sound and when it comes to compressors, bus compression is where the fun really starts!

A ‘Must Have’ Compressor

If there’s one compressor which qualifies as mandatory it’s got to be the 1176. Originally its reason for being was its speed. In the mid 60s compressors were already important in pop production but the equipment being used was largely borrowed from other areas of the audio industry. Limiters were important in broadcast to protect transmission equipment and in mastering to control and protect lathes. But these valve and optical designs were slow. The 1176 was lightning fast by comparison.

In a DAW a digital look-ahead limiter is instantaneous, speed is no longer the factor it was but the 1176 had a sound which keeps it popular today and its technical shortcomings which give it the perceived aggression for which it is so valued have been captured in plugin for for as long as there have been plugins. They are everywhere. Most copy the idiosyncratic ‘backwards’ attack and release knobs which confuse newcomers and many make a great deal of the trick of pushing in all the ratio buttons at once and running it in parallel for wild compression.

But there’s far more to it than that and an 1176, while not transparent, can be subtle. You can’t avoid the 1176 so if you’re going to have one you might as well get a good one. If you’re looking for authenticity then the UA 1176 Classic Limiter Collection is as authentic as they come but just for sheer popularity and value we’re going to suggest the venerable CLA76 from Waves which between its black and blue stripe iterations gives all the sounds so identifiable with the hardware which inspired it.

Do You Need To Go Multiband?

It doesn’t take long using a dynamics preocessor to get frustrated with the propensity of a full range compressor or limiter’s action to be dominated by bass energy. A high pass filter keeping the kick drum from wrecking the sound in a drum bus long before the compressor gets near the snare is a compression 101 move. But before long the way the energy distribution in the audio limits choices when trying to dig a little deeper leads us down the multi band route

By splitting the frequency into multiple bands and compressing them individually a far greater degree of control can be brought to bear. It’s not without its downsides though, with great power comes great responsibility and with three bands of compression there are three times as many ways to mess things up!

Multiband dynamics can be useful on individual channels but they are really useful on busses and masters. They can be used to finesse complex signals and as long as you know what it is you are trying to achieve, a multi band compressor or limiter can be an excellent tool.

When it comes to choosing one the number of bands available is important, you don’t have to use them all but you can’t add more that the plugin supports. And with so much control you need a well thought-out user interface from which to control all that processing. For an ultimate solution we’d suggest McDSP’s ML8000. This 8 band mastering limiter is a powerhouse.

Compression Confidence Builder

For novices compression can be a confusing subject. If you want to let AI figure out the details for you then that’s a valid choice. If you want to use simple tools that can also work, and simple doesn’t mean inferior. There are plenty of vintage and modern designs which use just one or two controls to achieve very useable compression. For example just try any of the many LA2A style optical compression plugins. But if you want a top quality, flexible compressor which will help you learn compression by giving you rich visual feedback then try any of the modern designs which use scrolling waveform displays with the audio level superimposed on the compressor's transfer curve and a scrolling gain reduction history.

As we said in our article Does Better Metering Mean Better Mixes? these scrolling displays, though not designed as learning tools per se, are very valuable to people learning compression so if you lack confidence but want to learn using the same tools as are used throughout the industry try something like FabFilter’s excellent Pro-C 2 compressor. The visual feedback is right there, and if you think you’re using the meters too much and not using your ears, you can always hide them.

Do You Actually Need A Compressor?

Because it’s so common, it’s easy to think that compression is ‘necessary’. It’s not and it’s only one way of controlling a signal’s dynamics. Compressors are great for controlling the level of very short term fluctuations but if you’re using them to even out longer variations you might be making a mistake. Compressors have a sound and while they can be very transparent they aren’t as transparent as no compressor at all.

Automating the fader is probably the best way to even out variations in a performance which happen over seconds or minutes. It takes practice to be good at it and its time consuming too. But there are plugins which can create volume automation instead of applying gain reduction like a compressor.

The best of these we’ve tried is Waverider Tg. This simple plugin gives flexible control over levels relative to a target and because it writes automation, you can edit and tweak that automation after the fact to get exactly the effect you want. Compression might not be the right tool for the job you’re trying to do.

Compressors all have their own nuances and it takes time to get to know them. This is probably why they are so rewarding and sometimes frustrating. No matter how many compression plugins you have, you’re probably going to get another so before you do maybe ask what it is you want to achieve and you might find you make a better choice?

What is your recommendation for a next compressor plugin?