Limiter

ZynAddSubFX free software-synthesizer by paulnasca 2

Limiter is a free compressor VST plugin developed by mda. Compatible OS(s): Windows, macOS.

mda Limiter is an opto-electronic-style limiter.

http://www.mda-vst.com/

Lightweight Multiband Compressor

Lightweight Multiband Compressor free compressor by Christian Budde

Lightweight Multiband Compressor is a free compressor VST plugin developed by Christian Budde. Compatible OS(s): Windows.

Lightweight Multiband Compressor is a lightweight multiband compressor based on Christian’s Lightweight Soft Knee Compressor.

Features:

  • Lightweight multiband compressor.
  • Second order linkwitz-riley crossover filter.
  • Continuous and consistent characteristic.
  • Fully adjustable soft knee in dB (as margin below the threshold).
  • Mathematically optimised (using three psychoacoustical evaluated approximation functions).
  • Open source (as part of Christian’s Delphi ASIO & VST Project).
  • Manual.

http://www.pcjv.de/

Leveling Tool

Leveling Tool free compressor by AdHd Audio Tools

Leveling Tool is a free compressor VST, Audio Unit plugin developed by AdHd Audio Tools. Compatible OS(s): Windows 64b, macOS.

AdHd Leveling Tool is a Tube Leveling Amplifier inspired by the legends and carefully crafted to meet your compression needs.

http://www.audiotools.se

Lazy Kenneth

Lazy Kenneth free compressor by Noisebud

Lazy Kenneth is a free compressor VST plugin developed by Noisebud. Compatible OS(s): Windows.

Lazy Kenneth simulates the pumping effect of a sidechained compressor in music that mark every 4th with a bass drum (techno, house, trance and so on).

Put an instance of Lazy Kenneth on your bass line, your pads or percussion and it will automatically duck on every fourth.

Lazy Kenneth started out as a hoax to torment a mastering client for being lazy because he never bothered to use sidechain even when it would improve his mixes by far.

It turned out that there’s still a need for a simulated sidechain in some DAWs since they simply lack the needed routing capabilities so Noisebud decided to continue the development of this simple but yet effective tool.

Lazy Kenneth is a part of our Indiegogo campaign where we try to fund the development of OS X and 64-bit versions. You find the campaign here: http://igg.me/at/noisebud

Made with SynthEdit

http://www.noisebud.se

LA school esquire limiter

LA school esquire limiter free limiter by King Oz Records

LA school esquire limiter is a free limiter VST plugin developed by King Oz Records. Compatible OS(s): Windows.

Please comment and rate if you love this product :).

The esquire limiter uses two algorithms to process sound; A standard “envelope” mode as well as a “pumping” mode which allows some very unique effects. Now 32 and 64-bit VST2 compatible.

Designed to be fast and easy on the CPU; The envelope Mode uses at most 1.2% of Your CPU while the pumping Mode 1.8 – 2.2%.

In pumping mode; at low threshold and ratio tolerances, the esquire reacts much like a peak limiter in that it aggressively reduces volume. This however can be a great strength to create both effect and a more pleasing variety of normalization.

The one really nice touch about the esquire though is that it leaves no color. In fact it smooths the sound out. But it’s not an artificial sounding smooth, not clipping or leathery complexity. It’s not chalk or grit, it sounds like the smoothness in the air to some degree. And the envelope has no spectral tilt smoothness while it’s processing, in fact – the sound stays the same.

A smooth and sweet sound allows this limiter to be used at either the forefront in the master channel or track by track with little dissonance. Do be careful of the pumping mode however due to its intolerance of gain variance.

There’s another plus to using this limiter. Due to the fact that it uses a natural logarithm; its implementation of latency in the form both attack and release allows you to add transience to a great extent. In fact, you can potentially add 275 ms to the tail of your vocals and synth lines. The esquire is one the most sought after styles of limiter that have ever been made. But, it’s not designed to be a utilitarian limiter to remove clipping to a huge extent. It’s instead designed to smooth over sound to make it sound natural. Try the wall by boz for an ideal limiter for hard clipping limiting.

It’s also important to note that many limiters have a high pass built in. One may be added so that attack for drums and wide samples does not cause any mild distortion. Planned for version 1.7.

For a live preview watch the youtube video:

Changelog

(2)
+ Added LU support
+ Converted method of selection to bus.

(1.6)
+ Improved the behavior of the pumping limiter by individualizing the db detector type to threshold.
+ Enhanced the levels of pseudo morph ism because it looks neato and keen.

(1.5)
+ Reduced CPU usage (thanks Cytosonic & Aliasant).
+ Changed design (thanks Robert for color advice).

(1.4)
+ New refresh rate algorithm reduces lag.
+ Reduced CPU usage.

(1.3)
+ Better Logo Aesthetics
+ Named Presets.

(1.2)
+ Better math (Now Using Ruby);
+ Peak calculation using slide and line primitive
+ Rough solution for attack and release now applied.

Planned Changes

+ (NEW) adding RMS, DBFS detector alternative (will make sure preset #’s match)
+ Plug-in preset manager (Will require installer)
+ Extensive youtube tutorials
+ PDF user guide
+ Upwards limiting
+ Rational Mapping of threshold and ratio;

(To include three decimal places in the first 5 increments – More control)
+ Mouse wheel Support

For product suggestions and support try the DSProbotics forum:
http://dsprobotics.com/support/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=16533&p=51766#p51766

LA school esquire limiter is a release of King Oz Records & Bipsounds which is hosted by bigdreamproducer.

VST is a trademark of Steinberg Technologies, https://steinberg.net

Videos

Below are a few videos You can watch showing the result of this professional level limiter.

{See video at top of page}

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btIb_6gC378

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD0pkoSIRvA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvCGaULoGbo

Made with FlowStone

http://www.leattol.com

L3V3LL3R-X3

L3V3LL3R-X3 free compressor by platinumears

L3V3LL3R-X3 is a free compressor VST plugin developed by platinumears. Compatible OS(s): Windows.

L3V3LL3R-X3 is a 3-band version of L3V3LL3R, using dynamic EQ instead of the usual cross-over filters.

The plug does have a cross-over section, but this just feeds the side-chains of the three L3V3LL3R compressors: the resulting gain modulation is matrixed into modulation signals for a pair of dynamic shelving filters plus a gain stage. This avoids introducing constant phase anomalies around the cross-over frequencies: with this design the phase is only affected when two adjacent bands have differing gains, and subtle compression will only result in very tiny phase shifts. To put it another way: when all 3 bands have the same gain, the signal will be passed with only a volume change.

You can listen to the cross-over filters by solo-ing one or more of the bands: the solo’ed signal still passes through its compressor, so you can fine-tune the settings for a band while listening to it in isolation.

Features:

  • Dynamic EQ topology to reduce phase artifacts.
  • Three vintage style L3V3LL3R compressors with band-limited sidechains.
  • Intuitive “solo in place” function for each band.
  • Switchable soft clipping keeps your peaks below 0dBFS: turn up the master Gain knob for a warm overdrive effect.
  • Global gain change meter.
  • Zero latency.
  • SSE optimisations for low CPU use.
Made with SynthMaker

http://www.platinumears.com/plugins.html

L3V3LL3R

L3V3LL3R free compressor by platinumears

L3V3LL3R is a free compressor VST plugin developed by platinumears. Compatible OS(s): Windows.

L3V3LL3R is a faithful model of the legendary “Leveller” hardware compressor from the ’60s. These units are extremely rare and collectable due to the fact that less than one of them was ever made and sold. On the plus side, this did make it possible for platinumears to collect together ALL surviving examples, and thereby create a modelled VST version that is actually more like the original units than the original units were themselves.

The compressor uses an algorithm which is somewhere between feed-forward and feed-backward and which platinumears has therefore dubbed “feed sideways”. It can be gentle and subtle if you want it to be. But its more fun when you slam it hard, especially on drums.

Features:

  • One knob compression: turn up the comp knob for more, turn it down for less.
  • Non-linear vintage-style transfer curve.
  • Switchable soft clipping keeps your peaks below 0dBFS: turn up the Gain knob for a warm overdrive effect.
  • Powerful envelope shaping, with no calibration for the time constants: use your ears.
  • Series mode: switch to mode “II” to get two L3V3LL3Rs running in series for some serious smashing.
  • Zero latency.
  • SSE optimisations for low CPU use.
Made with SynthMaker

http://www.platinumears.com/plugins.html

KT-C

KT-C free compressor by Kingtao

KT-C is a free compressor VST, Audio Unit plugin developed by Kingtao. Compatible OS(s): Windows 64b, macOS.

  • Parallel Compression.
  • Input & reduction VU-meters.
  • Continuous ratio between 2:1 to 10:1.
  • Continuous attack from 0.5 to 300ms.
  • Continuous release from 0.05 to 10s.
  • Two compression curves, matching electrical (linear) or acoustic (dB) sensations.

http://kingtao.org

killerGATE+

killerGATE+ free multi-fx | gate | overdrive by NOVAkILL

killerGATE+ is a free multi fx and gate and overdrive VST plugin developed by NOVAkILL. Compatible OS(s): Windows.

killerGATE+ is a multi-effect centred around a 32-step gate sequencer synchronised to host tempo. It includes a state-variable filter, LFO and distortion.

Gate features:

  • Envelope/gate mode.
  • Envelope with attack and decay.
  • Limited tie function.
  • Sample & hold to add randomness to gate levels.

Filter features:

  • Low/High/band-Pass and Band-Reject modes.
  • 12/24dB per octave switchable.
  • Filter saturation for a fatter sound.

LFO features:

  • Synchronised to host tempo.
  • 7 different waveforms.
  • Modulates Cutoff and Amp.

Distortion features:

  • High excite and low cut controls.
  • Wet/dry mix.
Made with SynthEdit

http://www.novakill.com/

jsCompShaper

jsCompShaper free compressor by jsAudio

jsCompShaper is a free compressor VST plugin developed by jsAudio. Compatible OS(s): Windows.

jsCompShaper is a flexible soft-knee compressor/waveshaper which can seamlessly morph between these two operating modes. It provides pre-/post-emphasis filtering (similar to a side-chain filter) for frequency-dependent compression and waveshaping, as well as an analog-like attack/release curve. Furthermore, it supports parallel compression and oversampling.

Features:

  • Blendable compression and waveshaping in a single plug-in.
  • Variable knee hardness.
  • Frequency dependent compression/waveshaping using a pre-emphasis EQ.
  • Parallel compression via the mix knob.
  • 1x to 16x Oversampling.
  • VU and peak metering of input or output.
  • GR metering.
  • A/B states for quick comparison.
  • Full 64 bit double precision processing.

http://electric-snow.net/plugins.html