Smasher: All-Buttons-In 1176-Style Compressor by Pulsar Audio Free Download

Smasher is built around the FET compression style of the 1176, known for fast attack times and a tonal response that moves from soft limiting into heavy saturation. Pulsar Audio says the plugin reproduces the bias voltage changes and other circuit behaviors that occur when the all-buttons-in mode is engaged.

The developer describes the result as raw and gritty, with transient squashing and an explosive character. It works well when you want to push a sound forward in the mix, but Pulsar notes it will not suit every track.

The Mix knob blends in the unprocessed signal, so you can apply heavy compression and then bring back a small amount of the dry sound.

Smasher has a simple interface with a Mix knob for parallel compression. Pulsar Audio recommends reaching between -6 and -10 dB of gain reduction on a snare to thicken its body and sustain, then blending a few percent of the processed signal back into the dry sound.

On a stereo bus, Smasher uses a single detector for both channels. The developer says this keeps the stereo image stable when compressing more aggressively.

The plugin also supports oversampling at rates up to 384 kHz, which lets you choose a higher-quality setting when your system can handle the extra load.