United Plugins offer the FirePresser compressor plugin as a FREE download until April 16th, 2023.
Who doesn’t love a free compressor?
Before you answer that, who doesn’t love a free compressor that people usually pay for? Rather than pondering the universe’s metaphysical functions, let’s acknowledge the excellent FirePresser by United Plugins being free for a limited time.
For the uninitiated, FirePresser is four compressors in one, with a handy interface.
The four compressors featured in FirePresser are the Distressor, 1176, a Vari-Mu of some sort, and the dbx 160. For many plugin fiends, you no doubt have some of these flavors in your own toolboxes, but the way FirePresser combines them is fairly novel.
The center of the interface has a multicolored X/Y slider. Here is where the proverbial magic happens, where you can get some of the characteristics of each compressor depending on the slider’s position. This is coupled with the detector, which acts as the traditional set of controls on a compressor.
The only real complaint to level at FirePresser is a real lack of ratio control, as the STRESS and 76 can be a little extreme for some materials. Sound-wise, FirePresser is quite nice in action and features a pleasing saturation you can introduce through the detector section.
FirePresser isn’t reinventing the wheel for compression. Instead, it takes some of the aspects of serial and parallel compression that you might introduce to a mix and streamlines the process.
It’s also worth pointing out that FirePresser’s interface is soaked in visual feedback, with individual gain reduction meters telling you how much compression each compressor applies.
A little more granular control for each compressor module would be great. However, for the price, it’s hard to aim too many criticisms at the software itself.
FirePresser is free for a limited time and requires no special coupon codes to snag. You will need a United Plugins or Plugin Boutique account to grab it, but updates are free for life, and the company isn’t considering a subscription-based service anytime soon.
If you need more vintage-style compressors for mixing music, check out our free BPB Dirty LA and the excellent Xtressor by Kiive Audio.
FirePresser is available for Windows and Mac computers. Supported plugin formats are VST, VST3, AU, and AAX. There are binaries for Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.
The free download offer expires on April 16th, 2023.
Get FirePresser FREE: United Plugins / Plugin Boutique
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