It was when I was watching the super-talented Greg Wells recording drums in his pureMix series recording Bryce Drew at Sunset Sound that I was surprised that Greg, a man who has access to pretty much any compressor he wants, chose the venerable, and largely forgotten, Focusrite d3 Compressor/Limiter from Avid for some compression duties. Many of us are drawn to the newest and most attractive when it comes to plugin choice but I’m not going to argue with someone with as much talent as Mr Wells. If it’s good enough for him then it’s good enough. Here are five you might have forgotten about…

Focusrite d3

We should start here, I think that if Avid did with the d3 something like what it did with the old Joe Meek plugins and re-skinned them to the current 304 suite then more people might use them. However dated the UI might look, if you try this you’ll find a very capable compressor/limiter which is modelled on the Focusrite d3 hardware originally designed by Rupert Neve himself.

It had been a long time since I’d used it but when I have used this it has usually been because I like the option of auto release which is relatively unusual in plugins. Having spent years with hardware Drawmers at live shows I’ve never had a problem with using auto if it’s there and this one works well.

In use I find it gets the job done with the minimum of fuss. The two versions of Compressor/Limiter and Compressor + Limiter reflect its heritage as a TDM plugin in the days when DSP wasn’t to be squandered and the ‘+’ version allows the compressor to be used at the same time as the Limiter. Thankfully not something we need to worry about running native versions. Something I really like about this is that, like a good live compressor, the gain reduction meter stays active when the compressor is disengaged, allowing you to dial in settings with some visual guidance and then put it in circuit with the sound pretty much dialled in. Nice.

Sansamp PS1-A

This one definitely qualifies. It’s been around for as long as I can remember and in spite of its inscrutable controls, it sounds absolutely killer! Originally designed as a hardware ‘record ready’ guitar solution it was an all analogue amp simulator which was remarkably successful at what it set out to do. Given the quality and choice available in digital models of real amps I have to confess I don’t use this for guitar but I use it very regularly on bass, something at which it excels.

If you’re after trashy, clanky bass sounds (think Rickenbacker) then this is a great place to find them but it’s more versatile than that. Anything from warm fur on bass sounds, to gritty drums and even vocals, this is one of those plugins which will always be useful because it sounds like itself, it has personality.

Eleven MkII

On the subject of digital models of real amps, while I’ve never been an owner of the ridiculously long-lived Eleven Rack, I am a fan of the plugin models which it gave rise to. I’ve tried the usual suspects from UAD, Softube and Brainworx and, keeping in mind that amplifier preference is deeply personal, I’ve found myself using the models in Eleven MkII more than anything else. I have other favourites. I like the Fender 55 Tweed Deluxe from UAD. I also like Bassdude from Brainworx and I’ve recently come to Bluecat amp sims but If I had to choose one desert island plugin for guitar it would be Eleven MkII. The Fenders are great and It’s the only Vox sim I’ve used which I like. And it does bass amps! Many amp sim makers clearly assume that bass just gets DI’d…

Check out this video of Paul Drew comparing the Eleven Mk II plugin with the Eleven Rack.

Smack!

If you excitedly explain to your peers that you’ve just tried Smack! and it was better than you expected you might get some concerned looks, but drug references aside this compressor was specifically designed for music applications and offers some useful features to help you get some character compression quickly.

I’ve heard it said that this plugin was to some extent based on the Empirical Labs Distressor. I don’t know if this is true but it does share some of the features which make the Distressor so interesting including simple but powerful side chain EQ settings which allow you to focus the action of the compression away from the bottom end, towards the midrange, or both. The distortion controls add subtle but useful flavour and this thresholdless design is reminiscent of the vintage units it seeks to evoke. Despite its name, of the three compression modes Norm is the most interesting, being more aggressive than Warm or Opto. It has to be said that using Smack! Is a lesson in gain structure though, its clip lights are unforgiving. If like me you can’t ignore a clip light remember the ‘clear clips’ shortcut - Alt/Opt+C. You’ll probably need it!

Pitch II

Pitch II is one of those plugins I’ve only ever used for one thing, but it does that thing well. If you’re not familiar with it, Pitch II isn’t an Autotune type plugin. It does pitch shifting but not that kind of intelligent pitch correction. Instead it offers the kind of fixed interval offset associated with Eventide’s harmonisers and, more accessibly, Yamaha’s once popular SPX multi effects processors. Being able to offset a signal by a fixed amount like a third isn’t all that useful as it isn’t intelligent pitch shifting, it doesn’t shift diatonically and stay within the key you’re playing in. You can offset by a fourth, fifth or octave but that’s about it unless you’re going for a 90s Steve Vai sound. The problem is that the further you shift, the more artefacts you get. An octave sounds like it would be useful but if you try it it sounds pretty grainy!

So why does it make the list? Because it’s great for detuning effects for thickening. I’m not a fan of effects like chorus but the effect of two synth oscillators, slightly detuned from each other is great. Use Pitch II to detune audio in the same way. And if you’re using AAX DSP you can do so with negligible latency while tracking. You can also use it for adding width as demonstrated here.

BF76

An 1176? And that one? Well hear me out. This is possibly not as well thought of as it might be but if you enjoy forensic plugin comparisons, set up a test with a slowish drum track and your favourite 1176 plugin, I used the UAD 1176. Set it up to do the fast attack, fast release thing to bring out some gritty ‘scoosh’ on the tail of the snare. Now set up the BF76 with the same settings. It’s pretty different but I found I was getting a longer, grittier “scooshier” snare with the BF76 than I could get with the UAD. I’m sure the UAD is more like a real 1176 but what the BF76 did was cool. Try it.

I touched on the subject of AAX DSP and if you are an HDX or Carbon user you can take advantage of the fact that while AAX DSP support isn’t universal amongst third party developers, Avid plugins support DSP. If you’re a Pro Tools subscriber you have access to all of these plugins as part of your subscription bundle and while some of them have been around for a while, this article has hopefully encouraged you to take a look at what is in your bundle and to dust off some of those less used plugins and see if they offer something you might use in your mixes.

What plugin in the subscription bundle would you recommend people try?