Dynamics And Tone Control, All In One

Despite its name, Open Compressor is much more than a dynamics processor. On the right side of the plugin window, you’ll find several controls for comprehensive tone and harmonic adjustment. Here, you can quickly tweak the overall tone, or dial in more precise harmonic saturation to give your sound different styles of bite.

On/off switches for the harmonic section and the tone control make A/Bing easy. And, as with other sections of Open Compressor, there’s a visualizer to provide an at-a-glance reference. 

The Tone knob

The Tone knob applies an EQ curve to the overall output signal, giving you a quick and easy way to adjust the frequency curve of your sound to help it fit into a mix. (For more precise EQing, you’ll still need to grab a dedicated parametric equalizer.) 

Odd harmonics

By turning up the amount of odd harmonics, you can boost the brightness / brashness of a sound, which can help to give it more presence in the mix without turning it up or reducing the dynamic range. The knob lets you go from subtle and bright to trashy and sharp, giving you lots of creative range. 

Even harmonics 

Boosting the even harmonics will give you a rich, warm texture, similar to that of a tube circuit or classic analog gear. Dial in a nice chunky bite, or create blown-out timbres without needing to grab more plugins. 

Open Compressor is designed to make the mixing process as objective, transparent and as easy to understand as possible. Try it for free here.