“It’s great for squeezing energy out of lacklustre ambient sounds”: Our pick of the very best VCA compressor software emulation plugins for any music project

API.

PLUGIN WEEK 2025: When we think of desirable compression plugins our attention often turns to rare flavour-filled hardware emulations. Good examples would be valve designs based on the Fairchild 670 or opto designs based on the Teletronix LA-2A. However, when it comes to flexibility, well designed VCA compressors always win hands down.

Here I’ve picked 5 of my favourites and I’m going to explain what they do and why I particularly like them.