CP1A Compressor: Low-Distortion Dynamics Plugin by Mellowmuse Free Download

CP1A Compressor uses a feed-forward design with multiple processing stages. Mellowmuse says this approach is meant to minimize distortion artifacts, even when the compression settings are extreme.

The main controls are Attack, from 0.1 to 50 ms; Release, from 1 to 1000 ms; Threshold, from 0 to -60 dB; and Ratio, from 1:1 to 20:1. Together they cover everything from slow, transparent leveling to fast, aggressive limiting-style compression.

The plugin also processes internally at 64-bit, which helps preserve resolution through the compression chain.

Separate wet and dry level controls let you blend the compressed signal with the original. This makes New York style parallel compression straightforward: push the compressed signal hard for density and body, then mix it back under the dry track to keep the transients.

The variable high pass filter on the envelope detector lets you control how much low frequency content drives the compressor. Mellowmuse notes that this helps keep kick drums from losing their thump, since bass energy can otherwise cause the compressor to pump the rest of the mix.