The Best Extreme and Unusual Compressor Plugins

August 2nd, 2012 by Trenton

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For years there have been plenty of compressors plugins on the market that offer tremendously clean and transparent dynamic control. Later on came countless emulations of the classics, which seem have to become progressively more convincing with each iteration.

But what about compressors that offer something a little more extreme and out-of-the-ordinary? Sure, a Fairchild or 1176 emulation can do interesting things when you set it to stun, but what about those unusual tools that can deliver aggressive, bold, unexpected and tone-bending results that other compressors can’t?  Here’s our short list of 5 recent plugins that can help you create sounds you never thought possible.

The Omnipressor by Eventide

Today, hardware versions of the classic Eventide Omnipressor are rare, and often difficult to repair. Back in 1971, the Omnipressor offered a unique take on dynamics processing, and it wasn’t until the past few years that some of the most uncommon features of this mysterious tone-bender inspired fresh new product designs.

Quite plainly, the Omnipressor can do things that no other dynamics processor can. In place of a traditional ratio knob, this unit has a unique “function” control. Its continuously variable settings begin at hard gating in the left-most position, and as you turn the knob clockwise the Omnipressor moves through soft expansion, compression, hard limiting, and finally, even negative compression ratios.

Eventide Omnipressor

These extreme negative compression settings are rarely seen in other audio tools. At its root, the Omnipressor’s negative compression mode does more than completely stop a signal from passing the threshold. In effect, it takes the loudest peaks and brings them down even further, beneath the threshold.

In other words, where a conventional limiter might stop a signal from rising 10dB past the threshold, these negative ratios smack that signal down further, so that it winds up 10dB below it.  In practice, the negative compression mode can take the quietest parts of the signal and bring them up so that they become even hotter than the loudest parts. This can lead to a sound that’s not unlike a “reverse” effect.

Even in its traditional compression modes, the Omnipressor can be made to sound unlike anything else on the market. Its attack and release times can be set so blazing fast, and its gain reduction so deep, that its pumping effects can sound almost like a tremolo.

The Omnipressor also includes a knob that was innovative back in 1971, and can still seem innovative even now. Finally, other audio designers are beginning to include something like the Omnipressor’s “Attenuation Limit” control, but for a long time, it was a nearly forgotten variable in new gear.

This powerful feature allows you to dial in some serious, constant compression, and then put a cap on the maximum amount of gain reduction allowed.

Using the Attenuation Limit in this way allows you to create startling, dramatic sounds and then reel them in a bit, or to maintain a consistent compression tone while keeping some of the underlying dynamics of the performance.

I’ve found the plugin especially useful on a parallel drum bus, and to help shape unexpected effects during the bridge of a song. It also works surprisingly well for reshaping the sound of a guitar solo, which may help explain why Queen’s Brian May was one of the first owners of the original hardware. He kept one in his touring rig.

Keep in mind that the Omnipressor is not the kind of plug-in that you should expect to use on every track, or even on every song. Even the most daring of mixers are unlikely to pull out this powerful tool on more than one mix out of every ten. But when it’s the right fit, nothing else is quite like it.

Back when the Omnipressor existed only as rare, vintage hardware or as a TDM plugin, it might not have been a justifiable purchase for every studio. But now that it’s available on native systems for only $99, the Eventide Omnipressor is a great buy for the jaded mixer who thinks he already has it all.

Valley People Dyna-mite by Softube

The Valley People Dyna-mite is a versatile VCA dynamics box with a tone all of its own. The original hardware unit was a useful expander, gate and de-esser all in one. But where it’s most unique is in the sound of its limiter and compressor functions.

Softube Valley People Dyna-mite

The tone of the Dyna-mite is like a dbx 160 on steroids; a cartoon rendition of the smooth-but-snappy compression of the best VCA compressors. Hitting the limiter on this box is like driving your sound into a solid wall of brick marshmallows at 60 m.p.h.

Like the Omnipressor, the Valley People Dyna-mite allows several modes of operation and includes a useful control that limits the maximum amount of gain reduction allowed. But while the Omnipressor can easily be made to sound jittery, aggressive and blown-out, the Dyna-mite is thick like peanut butter, creamy and chunky all at once.

It excels naturally on bass, can bring unexpected tone and impact out of room mics and parallel drum bus, but the Dyna-mite can also be used to help create unexpected vocal tones for adventurous artists.

Since it’s made by Softube, you can expect everything that company is known to do well: The GUI is beautifully rendered and fun to look at, and the plugin has a unique and memorable tone, even at subtle settings. In that way, it feels so much like hardware, and just like the rest of Softube’s line.

Once again, this is not a “use-it-everywhere” kind of box. But when it fits, it’s like a supple leather glove. At $159 the Dyna-mite is a good value for those looking for a distinctive new flavor of the VCA variety.

The elysia mpressor by Plugin Alliance

When the hardware version of the elysia mpressor was released in 2008, it was unlike anything else on the market. In a landscape dominated by vintage recreations, the mpressor seemed to be one of the only forward-looking boutique compressors out there. In many ways, it owes its heritage to the kind of unconventional thinking that went into both the Omnipressor and the Dyna-mite, and winningly represents the next generation of these kinds of designs.

elysia mpressor

The mpressor is far more transparent than either the Omnipressor or the Dyna-mite, but it still offers a unique tone. It’s uncanny for bringing surprising amounts of “pock” and “smack” out in drums, and can squeeze a bass within inches of its life without robbing it of power and depth.

As we’ve seen before on this list, the mpressor once again offers an extremely useful “Gain Reduction Limit” control, as well as negative compression modes that can help deliver unexpected results.

In addition to these once-forgotten features, the mpressor’s unique “niveau filter” allows broad tonal shaping unlike anything you’ll find in other compressors. This powerfully simple EQ lets you select a center frequency, and then simultaneously raise bass and lower treble above and below that point – or vice-versa. The result can be a subtly or radically new sound, minus the sometimes grating artifacts of a run-of-the-mill parametric EQ.

In practice, this elysia plugin may be more flexible than the Omnipressor or Dyna-mite, both in its ease of use, and because it exerts less of its own distinct color over the sound being mangled. But make no mistake – it’s still a compressor with tremendous character. It can force steadiness and impact without sucking out life, and it sounds modern, streamlined and smooth even at extreme settings.

At $200, it’s a purchase that requires a little more commitment than the others. Still, it’s well-worth the sticker price, or else we wouldn’t have included it on this list. Compare $199 to the cost of the original hardware at $4,699, and all of a sudden the mpressor plugin starts to seem even more like the bargain that it is. It can help you create bass and drum sounds that you might not dream up otherwise, and it’s a natural fit for electronic musicians and adventurous rock mixers alike.

The UBK-1 by Kush Audio

Where the other plugins on this list share a common thread, the UBK-1 is in a category of its own. More than “doing things no other plugin can,” the real appeal of the UBK-1 is that it encourages you to try things you might otherwise not. Even when the UBK-1 doesn’t make the cut, it can teach even an old hand new tricks about dynamic manipulation and tonal shaping.

Kush UBK-1

Without exaggeration, the UBK-1 is laid out unlike any other plugin I’ve ever used. It serves up 3 distinct sections, each of which are chained together in series, and can be blended in underneath the dry signal if desired.

The UBK-1’s designer, Gregory Scott, is a consummate marketer who likes to put a sense of magic and mystery back into audio engineering. He has removed almost any trace of number values from the weathered-looking control panel, which looks as if it were pulled from a Mad Max movie or from Tom Waits’ tool shed.

He calls his novel design a “motion generating compressor plugin.” To those of us who prefer a more straightforward description, this means that UBK-1 encourages and rewards you for experimenting with attack and release settings that are likely to enhance or alter the rhythmic groove of your tracks.

The first of the 3 basic modules in the UBK-1 is a simple “Saturation” knob. Both this knob and its associated VU meter are free from any number values. In a brief and hypnotic video manual, Scott encourages you to set all controls by ear, and to go for a sound that’s a little more bold than you ordinarily might. Once you’ve dialed in an amount of saturation that seems to take the track to a new level, you can reel in this sound with the wet/dry control at the bottom of the module. This parallel blend is then fed in to the second stage of the UBK-1.

The next module is a compressor that’s 100% free of any visible attack, release or ratio controls. One giant “Compression” knob appears to set both the threshold and the makeup gain. Just like with many vintage units, all the other parameters are dependent on the signal you feed into the compressor, and on the type of compressor that you choose.

Although some of the compressor models are clearly based on the sound of some iconic designs, Scott has given them all nebulous names like “crush”, “splat” and “glue.” The most obvious difference between settings is that each of them offers a distinct program-dependent attack and release algorithm. Some are slow and syrupy, some are fast and snappy, others are smooth and transparent.

Flipping between compressor models really does seem to generate “movement,” as new beats and sub-beats are accentuated or de-emphasized. If there’s one critique to offer about this section, it’s that some of the models can seem like cartoonish exaggerations of hardware compressors. That is, until you use the wet/dry control to reel in your new tone.

Some users would contend that the lack of tweakability in this section is also a defect. But if you understand the design intention, it becomes clear that this is actually one of the plugin’s main selling points. Instead of engaging your mathematical and hyper-critical left brain, the UBK-1 encourages you to work intuitively, to pick a setting that makes for a big, broad and positive change, and then move on to the next step.

The wet/dry blend from the compressor is then fed into a final module, named “Density.” Scott never really explains what this module does, but if I had to guess based on the sound, I’d imagine that the density control is something a little like an aural exciter, which synthesizes peak-limited new harmonics in a particular frequency range, and then folds them in underneath the signal.

Until Scott comes clean with precisely what this knob does, all we have to go on is speculation – which in all likelihood is exactly what he wants.

Even when the UBK-1 hasn’t made it onto my final mix, I’ve absolutely loved playing around with it. In many cases, I’ve used it almost as a kind of audio sketchpad where I can explore new ideas which I have then fine-tuned with custom signal chains of my own.

This Kush Audio plugin is probably at its best on percussion instruments and rhythmic keyboards where its radically differing attack and release times can alter the groove and the tone in ways you may not think of otherwise. With that said, there’s nowhere I wouldn’t give it a try.

Devil-Loc and Devil-Loc Deluxe by SoundToys

The Devil-Loc may be a one trick pony, but that one trick is one of the best. Based on a notoriously terrible podium compressor called the Shure Level Lock, it’s capable of turning a kick drum into a 1-megaton explosion or a snare into a cream-pie torpedo capable of smashing through plate glass.

SoundToys Devil-Loc Deluxe

I have no idea how or why someone designed the original limiter to sound the way it does, but I’m sure glad that they did.

The Shure Level Lock distorts as it compresses, and SoundToys’ Devil-Loc does the same. It offers the kind of sound that you can hear on drums from records by Tom Waits to Phil Collins. Just turn it on, and it does its thing. Want more? The Devil-Loc sports two knobs that take its sound from unthinkable to unimaginable and beyond. The new Devil-Loc Deluxe adds in two more knobs and a switch to adjust the release time.

If you’re a hobbyist or just starting out, I’ll warn you that this is not a plugin you should expect to use every day. But if you’re a professional mixer or engineer, at $129, the joy of printing this effect even once is sure to pay for itself.

Justin Colletti is a Brooklyn recording engineer and studio journalist. He is a regular contributor to SonicScoop and edits the music blog Trust Me, I’m A Scientist.