Regular compression can be hard enough to get your head around, so you'd be forgiven for struggling to master its more complex counterpart, multiband compression.
Multiband compressors split the frequency spectrum of any signal up into multiple bands, applying compression to each one separately to achieve precise and controlled dynamic sculpting. It's not an easy technique to get right, but Minimal Audio are hoping to make the process a little more accessible with a new plugin called Fuse Compressor.
Fuse Compressor is a multiband compressor that does everything a multiband compressor should do, letting you apply up to six bands of independent upward and downward compression to any sound source. Each band can be bypassed to hear the overall sound without it, or soloed to work on it individually.
You can tweak parameters like threshold, ratio and makeup gain individually for each band and visualize the compression being applied in real-time via the plugin's detailed spectrum display. Most of the important controls are placed on the spectrum display in the relevant band, which is a handy feature that helps to visualize how each parameter affects the sound.
What makes the plugin different to the many other multiband compressors out there is that Minimal Audio have included a bunch of features that help make multiband compression quicker, easier and more intuitive. Though the threshold and ratio can be dialled in specifically for each band, you're also able adjust these values globally across all bands via macro controls.
The Spectral Tilt feature lets you quickly tilt the intensity of the compression's distribution across the entire frequency spectrum, while a feature called Adaptive Time lets you dial in global attack and release times for every band along with a percentage value; a positive value will make higher frequency bands respond faster than the times you've specified, and lower frequencies will respond slower, while a negative value will reverse that.
All of these features make it easier to dial in tweaks and adjustments to the overall character of the plugin's compression without having to get into the nitty-gritty of each band's settings.
Minimal Audio's Fuse Compressor is available now for Mac and Windows in AU/VST/VST3/AAX formats. It's priced at $49.
If you want to find out more, watch the walkthrough video below or visit Minimal Audio's website.
