TDR Kotelnikov – Free Mastering Compressor VST Plugin

TDR Kotelnikov is a brand new free mastering compressor in VST, VST3, AU, and AAX plugin formats for compatible digital audio workstations. The plugin comes from Tokyo Dawn Labs, a team of developers behind the absolutely brilliant TDR Feedback Compressor.

Coming from the guys who brought us TDR Feedback Compressor, my expectations for this new mastering compressor are very high. The official announcement says that TDR Kotelnikov is basically the successor to TDR Feedback Compressor, featuring a similar control scheme and sharing some of the high-precision algorithms for dynamics control.

See also: Best FREE Compressor VST Plugins

TDR Kotelnikov is a stealthy compressor VST plugin designed for use on the master bus. It is “proudly digital” in the sense that it doesn’t color the processed audio signal even when pushed to the extreme settings. In my opinion, it’s safe to say that TDR Kotelnikov is the most transparent mastering compressor on the freeware market (and beyond)!

UPDATE: TDR Kotelnikov is one of the top picks in our free music production software article!

The plugin is available in two different flavors. The basic version of TDR Kotelnikov is completely free to download and use. The alternative Gentleman’s Edition of the plugin (labeled TDR Kotelnikov GE) is priced at €40 and it adds several improvements to the standard feature set. Please note that the free version of the plugin is not limited in any way. It’s a fully functional mastering tool and the alternative version of the plugin simply adds some new features.

It’s also worth noting that you can choose to download the portable version of the plugin (just a ZIP archive containing the DLL file) if you don’t like using the installer. That’s always a nice move from a developer! I usually like to avoid installers, unless they’re absolutely necessary for the plugin to work properly.

I’d like to thank BPB readers K and Drew Lake for letting me know about the new release. Thanks for the support guys! And of course, thanks to Tokyo Dawn Labs for yet another powerful freeware tool! It’s amazing how many fantastic free effects and instruments we have at our disposal these days.

TDR Kotelnikov is available for free download via Tokyo Dawn Labs (9.7 MB download size, ZIP archive, 32-bit & 64-bit VST/AU/AAX plugin format for Windows & Mac).