the cleanest compressor you can recommend

[philbrown]

I edit and master a LOT of spoken word and live seminar material. I'm forever on the lookout for the cleanest, least coloration compressor. The stuff I deal with runs between whisper and shout levels, so I do a ton of extreme automation, but still need judicious compression, including stacking fast and slow comps. In other words, all the color we're usually after mixing music, I kind of want the opposite of that.

FYI, I own a couple of dozen comps, probably more, and my go-to's are generally Native Instruments Solid Bus Comp and Waves C1. As far as my arsenal, I have a lot of PSP, Waves and UA plugs.

So I'm looking for suggestions for the cleanest compressor you know of - any brand really and it needs to be reasonably fast and have the usual controls, in other words not something like an LA2A or DBX 160 for example. If I'm lucky, I'll already own it.

Anyone doing dialog or spoken word mixing/mastering please chime in with any ideas.

Thanks!

[daniel.sneed]

I've been there, Phil.
And never been really pleased with any compressor (hardware or software).

But I gave a (last) chance with Unisum, from Toneprojects.com
Ghee! A tedious amount of time to tweak and build my own presets (4 of them now).

Now, I'm totally pleased with this plug.
My dreams about compression have come true.
Single band compression, but very very deep configurable detector (speed, band, rms, peak, time, etc ...)
In simple words: to my ears this beast can achieve transparent compression.

In case you care, it's Bob Katz approved!
And as usual, YMMV.

[philbrown]

I've been there, Phil.
And never been really pleased with any compressor (hardware or software).

But I gave a (last) chance with Unisum, from Toneprojects.com
Ghee! A tedious amount of time to tweak and build my own presets (4 of them now).

Now, I'm totally pleased with this plug.
My dreams about compression have come true.
Single band compression, but very very deep configurable detector (speed, band, rms, peak, time, etc ...)
In simple words: to my ears this beast can achieve transparent compression.

In case you care, it's Bob Katz approved!
And as usual, YMMV.

Thanks, Daniel, I will definitely check it out.

[stubbsonic]

I am by no means an expert on compression, and tend to avoid it, or use it very sparingly.

I've used WaveArts MultiDynamics 7, because it is very very tweakable and has a dedicated clean mode that doesn't add tube, saturation, color, warmth, air, etc etc. It just does what you set it to do.

I think many digital compressors have a look-ahead option. And for voice over, that's incredibly helpful to have. because it will catch transients before or as they are happening rather than slightly after the fact. This makes the action very transparent. If you set the look-ahead to say 5 ms, and set the attack time to 1 or 2 ms, and the release to taste- it really does a splendid job. Having it work on multibands makes it more transparent in my opinion, and WA MD7 makes it relatively easy to adjust bands en masse or individually.

I'd also put in a plug for DP's Dynamic EQ-- which interestingly has separate look-ahead values for each band. I don't find it as enjoyable to use as the WaveArts, but it is clean.

[Rick Cornish]

My go-to compressor is “The Glue” from Cytomic. It’s a model of the 80s vintage SSL buss compressor, but clean as a whistle.

I use it on spoken word recordings all the time, but it works just as good on my jazz guitar tracks. It’s my favorite any time I want transparent compression.

Trial and demo versions available here.

[FrankD]

Tokyo Dawn Labs - Kotelnikov

https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-kotelnikov/

... and it's free!

There is a paid GE Edition, but the free version is excellent.

[Killahurts]

Hi Phil, have you tried the Sonnox Dynamics plugin? That one is my go-to for anything where I don't want to hear the compression.. very transparent, and has a 2nd stage limiter built in. Older plugin, but a great one.

[philbrown]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions!
I'll follow up on all of them.

I do own Cytomic "The Glue" and use it a lot on music tracks.
It's a great tool, but I wouldn't put it in the transparent category, myself.
I used to own some Wavearts and Sonnox way back -
geez it might have been OS9... lost through OS attrition.

Backstory: When I posted this I was editing and mastering audio from
a livestream broadcast. The guy recording had written me
about a new recorder - I didn't even ask 'cause I don't anything
about that gear, and honestly forgot all about it.
Anyway, I was really battling this track and then about
45 minutes in, he obviously turned OFF the internal compressor
and MYSTERY SOLVED. Just a brief note of explanation would have saved
me a bunch of time and hair pulling, but honestly I should have
figured it out sooner. Duh.

I bounce around but I ended up using a UA Neve 33609 on this.
Not really transparent, but the compression called be dialed in
to be pretty unobtrusive and not grabby and noticeable.

[leigh]

I'll put a word in for both the Metric Halo Channel Strip and their Multiband Compressor. They are part of the Production Bundle but I believe they can also be purchased separately. They are very transparent.

**Leigh

[philbrown]

I'll put a word in for both the Metric Halo Channel Strip and their Multiband Compressor. They are part of the Production Bundle but I believe they can also be purchased separately. They are very transparent.

**Leigh

More stuff I owned back in OS9. lol Thanks.