Squeezer: Flexible Compressor for Modern Sound Design
Looking for a versatile compressor that can handle both delicate dynamic leveling and aggressive sound shaping? Meet Squeezer by mzuther – a powerful and exceptionally flexible plugin designed to be your go-to dynamic processing tool for any music genre or sound project.
Unlike many other compressors, Squeezer offers a unique approach to parameter control. By default, most knobs have fixed “stepped” values, allowing you to quickly experiment and find good starting settings. However, for fine-tuning and achieving the perfect result, you can easily switch any knob to a smooth, continuous adjustment mode with a single click. This innovative feature combines work speed with accuracy, giving you complete control over dynamics.
Uncompromising Flexibility and Mode Variety
Squeezer is designed to adapt to your needs and tastes. It offers a wide range of internal algorithms and operating modes, allowing you to emulate the behavior of various analog and digital compressors. Whether you need transparent compression for vocals, tight compression for drums, or expressive pumping for bass guitar, Squeezer has the tools to realize your vision.
Key Features and Operating Modes:
- Architecture: Choose between Feed-forward and Feed-back schemes for different compression characteristics.
- Release Stage: Linear, logarithmic, and smooth release curves are available, allowing you to precisely control how the compressor returns to its initial state after the signal.
- Detectors: Emulation of classic optical (Optical) and FET detectors to reproduce the unique tonal properties of legendary compressors.
- Level Detection: Work in Peak mode for fast response to signal peaks or RMS for smoother compression based on the average signal level.
- Knee Characteristics: Choose between Hard, Medium, and Soft knee to determine how smoothly the compression starts to apply when the threshold is reached. A soft knee provides a more transparent and musical sound.
Advanced Features for Creative Mixing
In addition to standard features, Squeezer stands out with the integration of capabilities that were previously available only in more complex or specialized plugins.
- Flexible Sidechain: Use an external signal to control the compression of the main track. This is ideal for ducking (muting music during speech), creating a pumping effect, or for “cleaning up” the mix, for example, to make the bass guitar “breathe” with the kick drum.
- Parallel Compression: Add a compressed version of the signal to the original “dry” signal directly within the plugin. This is a classic technique for adding density, punch, and “weight” to tracks, especially drums and vocals, while maintaining the natural dynamics of the original.
The Squeezer plugin requires a processor with SSE2 instruction set support. Windows users may need to install the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2017.
Whether you are an experienced sound engineer or just starting your journey in the world of music production, Squeezer will provide you with powerful, flexible, and intuitive tools for masterful work with the dynamics of your audio materials.
