DDMF Comprezzore

Compressors are usually similar: timing, ratio and threshold controls abound, unless using a simple LA-2A-style gadget. Often, a compressor will differentiate itself by its specific analogue-style response, or hardware unit origins. But DDMF’s newest plugin is unashamedly digital and so more able to put your signals under control, being about precision not ease. Comprezzore lets you customise compression response in two ways: first, you can select more nodes to determine a transfer graph, creating your own knee shape or adding in upward compression. Secondly you can set changing attack and release times that adapt to signal properties (eg time or level). Let’s explore…

Knees to die for >

On first launching Comprezzore, you’ll be greeted by a standard-looking display that measures gain reduction alongside a threshold/ratio selector. The first trick here is the plugin’s ability to call up more nodes for its transfer graph. You can define a custom knee shape, and you can bring the dynamic response into upward compression territory by bringing some nodes across the diagonal line. There’s lots to do here, and you can spend plenty of time getting your ideal result if you feel like churning up a few minutes.

< Timing things just right

Ratio, done; threshold, done. Attack and release controls? That’s where Comprezzore gets to its real point. Using two special graphs – one for attack, one for release – you can set differential times. Here we’ve set attack time to be quicker the higher the signal has breached threshold. The x axis shows gain level above the threshold; the y axis the attack time. This is all programmed using the three knobs above, where you pick the lowest/highest extent, and measure to use.

< Release and time-led timing

The compressor’s Release stage of operation works like the attack, letting you dial in timing based on the signal’s behaviour around the threshold. But here we’ve set the release graph to work in Time mode, not dB mode. So our x axis changes to a time base, and the compression differential we create is for the compressor’s attack or release time to change as the signal stays over the threshold for shorter or longer periods.

< More controls

Although the fine-tuning of adaptive timings is Comprezzore’s most notable feature, let’s not forget what else it can offer. Sidechain filtering controls (high and low cut) plus a Hold control, Wet/Dry mix for parallel compression, external sidechaining, and stereo link options. These extra functions are fairly modest, and rightly so too – the real headline features here in Comprezzore are the four-node knee graph and those comprehensive timing options.