MusicRadar

Mpressor is based on a hardware compressor.

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• Review

There are loads of hardware compressors out there so it's pretty hard for a manufacturer to come up with something new.

One of the few companies to have blazed this particular trail with any success over the past few years has been German manufacturer Elysia. Its Alpha compressor has found its way into many a big mastering studio; with its stunning audio quality and incredible range of control it has quickly established itself as a tool of choice for many a top mastering engineer.

The Mpressor has had the same kind of reaction from top recording engineers. Besides being a great straightforward compressor it has a few tricks up its sleeve that really help it to stand out from the crowd. However, the price for the hardware units does put them firmly out of reach for a lot of potential customers so it seems like a wise move to get this software version – which has been developed with Brainworx - out on the streets.

In detail

To start with, you have a great straightforward compressor with controls for threshold, attack, release, ratio and gain make up. Attack and release times are very comprehensive, attack ranging from the ultra fast 0.01ms to 150ms which gives you plenty of options for shaping the front of a sound. Release times vary from 5 to 1200ms giving lots of scope from pumping to smooth.

The Mpressor will grab hold of and shape pretty much anything that you throw at it - from buzzy synths to funky guitars and any kind of drums or percussion. But the real surprises come when you bring some of its more exclusive features in to play.

The first of these is the Auto Fast switch on the attack time. When a sound is a mix of attacking and sustaining components it's often hard to find an attack time that complements both. Too short and the sustains suffer, too long and some of the peaks you want to tame slip through.

"The real surprises come when you bring some of Mpressor's more exclusive features into play."

What auto fast does is to use the setting on the knob as the basis for all softer or more sustained material but when it gets loud or attacking, it drops to a much shorter attack time. The result is a very even feeling compression that never lets go, allowing you to sit an instrument in the mix without any unwanted peaks and troughs. It's particularly useful for clean or crunchy guitars, basses and loops where you often have a mix of short transients and sustained elements.

Next you have the Anti Log button next to the release knob. This applies an antilogarithmic curve to the release time which is normally linear. A linear curve allows for a smooth release of compressed signals which sounds more natural to our ears and less evident.

Anti Log turns this characteristic on its head and makes it very audible indeed. Pumping drums and quieter percussive elements in loops can be brought to the fore. Dry drums can start to sound ambient, and in combination with the attack time you can really stick some energy into a groove.