Voxengo Deft Compressor

After a phase of trying other plugins, mostly analog emulations, by other makers, I once again have to commend Voxengo for the quality of their plugins.

If you want a compressor that can tame the peaks of a vocal while giving it a polished sheen, I highly recommend Deft Compressor.

For giving warmth to vocals?  Or a bass compressor that (in my opinion) works much better than most LA2A emulations?  Use Crunchessor.  I use the 2A preset to keep the levels of bass tracks consistent without sounding squeezed (something I often hear from LA2A plugins).

Deft Compressor going into Crunchessor is my preferred version of "1176 to LA2A", that is, a fast attack compressor going into a smoother attack compressor.

I still highly prefer CRTIV Tape Bus compared to other tape plugins I have if I want to keep an open high-end sound to the track.  It's really good at keeping the punch and transients on the master bus while improving the crest factor (push the record gain).

I have to say that Warmifier is great since unlike other saturation plugins, it's not easy to overdo the amount of saturation.  It's super subtle, and these days I find that using too much saturation has a blurring effect on tracks.

Sobor is just unbelievably good.  You have to try it.

Voxengo is just really good DSP - high quality digital - without the mask or crutch of trying to emulate old, classic analog gear.  There are a handful of small devs like that, and just like Voxengo I highly suggest you try them out.

When Aleksey says the product will 'do this and that thing' to the source material, it's easy to trust those words.

As it says on the overview of Deft Compressor:

"The characteristic feature of this compressor is its ability to produce “slim” and “slick” sounding compression, with intelligibility enhancement effect."

That is exactly what you're gonna get with this.  It's amazingly transparent in the way it handles audio.  My first time properly using it with a vocal, it didn't audibly squash the loud parts.  It just gives you the character of the source you give it, but more even, and more slim and slick, and more intelligible.  I know that's what the product overview said, but I have no better way to describe what it does.

Your products are amazing!

From your incredibly useful free-plugs to the very cheap and fantastic sounding payplugs.

I am recommending your company to anyone who'll listen, so please keep up the good work!

All the best,