Musicians Collaboration Studio

How To => Free Pluggins, Utilities and Cool Finds => Topic started by: stoman on March 04, 2012, 09:24:42 AM

Title: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: stoman on March 04, 2012, 09:24:42 AM
... then take a look at Bootsy's latest blow:

http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/thrillseekerla-released-today/

I have a couple of really great and expensive compressors, and I must say, Bootsy's free plugin can easily compete with some of them. Check it out, guys!

Regards,
  Steffen
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: mickbrit55 on March 04, 2012, 03:40:41 PM
Thanks Steffen. I'll give it a whirl :)

Mick.
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: stoman on March 05, 2012, 11:18:24 AM
Let me know what you think about it, Mick!

Regards,
  Steffen
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: mickbrit55 on March 05, 2012, 02:18:40 PM
Let me know what you think about it, Mick!

Regards,
  Steffen

I like it. Has a very nice warm character and is dead easy to use :)

Mick.
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: stoman on March 05, 2012, 02:33:15 PM
Yep, I agree. The best Bootsy tool so far - IMO.

But the others are great too. And you definitely can't beat the price. ;)

Regards,
  Steffen

Let me know what you think about it, Mick!

Regards,
  Steffen

I like it. Has a very nice warm character and is dead easy to use :)

Mick.
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: mickbrit55 on March 05, 2012, 04:12:05 PM
Definitely, free is about the price I like :)
Think i'll go pick up the others too.

Mick.
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: CosmicDolphin on March 06, 2012, 02:26:17 PM
I have too many compressors  ;D

If it sounds as good as it looks it should be nice.

There's a good emulation of the LA2A in the liquidmix which  I have already and also the Waves emulation of the same thing so I can't justify installing another but it's great that you can get all these cool plugins for free.

CD
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: stoman on March 06, 2012, 02:48:20 PM
I have too many compressors  ;D

How can you ever have enough of them?  :o

They all sound so different ... And they are so neat little toys for us big boys. ;)

Regards,
  Steffen
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: CosmicDolphin on March 06, 2012, 03:17:38 PM
I rarely need anything other than one of the many Liquid Mix ones,  the cool thing is the interface is the same on all the different models so you just focus on listening to the character rather than the GUI.

Then I have all the URS, Waves, Sonnox, and a few others besides. Think my fave VST one is 'The Glue' and I quite like the Wave API ones.


CD
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: Paulo on March 07, 2012, 12:18:38 PM
I'm with CD... I got more than what I need lol... All of them do the same, one way or another... when we talk about crisis, we gotta be kiding, we're rich  ;D
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: stoman on March 07, 2012, 12:28:53 PM
No, Paulo, they don't do the same. All compressors work and sound very differently. You definitely cannot compare a VSC vertigo, A Softube FET, an elysia alpha, a Voxengo Crunchessor and a PSP Oldtimer, to name just a few. The differences are much more than subtle, they are extreme.

You can do most tasks with different compressors, that's true - but the results will never sound the same.

Regards,
  Steffen
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: Paulo on March 07, 2012, 12:40:04 PM
Nothing sounds the same Steffen, but they all do the same, one way or another... They might have different tones and that is a personal taste, other than that...
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: stoman on March 07, 2012, 12:50:45 PM
I use different compressors (or combinations thereof) for different tasks (e.g. mixing or mastering, drums or vocals, agressive or soft, crisp or warm, etc.). It's just like cooking where you never use the same amount of spices but make your decision based on the food, on the guests, etc..

Sometimes I find that I cannot get the sound I'm after with my initial compressor choice, then I use a different one (e.g. most of the times I use the Vertigo to get a smooth, warm retro sound, but in some cases the rougher character of the PSP OldTimer suits the task better).

The question is whether you use a compressor for purely technical tasks or for sound shaping. Both are every-day tasks though.

Regards,
  Steffen
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: mickbrit55 on March 07, 2012, 01:27:01 PM
All spanners do the same job but they don't all fit the same nut :)

Mick.
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: stoman on March 07, 2012, 01:43:26 PM
All spanners do the same job but they don't all fit the same nut :)

Mick.

Good analogy! :)

Regards,
  Steffen
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: Paulo on March 07, 2012, 01:55:50 PM
Most of the times I say that i need time to play... There's a thousand of good stuff out there, I have no time for them and i'm a rich and blessed guy... Those guys in big studios, not so long ago, had 20% of what I have. The difference is that they know how to tweak the knobs and I no nothing, no matter the thousands of compressors, limiter, delays, reverbs... It all sounds crap in my hands.
Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: CosmicDolphin on March 07, 2012, 02:34:36 PM
There's much more of difference in the sound of hardware compressors than Vst versions.

I'd argue you can make alot of the plugins sound very similar if they have the necessary controls and you applied a little eq.

Some stuff I use because the interface is just easier   ;D

CD

Title: Re: Need a great free compressor?
Post by: Paulo on March 07, 2012, 05:00:07 PM
CD, when you talk about  liquid mix, I follow you... It's the same interface for everything, just some lill differences depending on the original specs.. As a matter of fact, a compressor is about treshold, attack, release, and so on... eqs is the same, frequencie, gain, Q... most of them sound different in the tone like guitars amps and everything else... It's a matter of taste... Why do you use a fender a gibson or a ibanez.. it's the tone.

why you like roland, yamaha, korg, kwrzveil, whatever?.. it's the tone, all of them are great.