SQUASH by minimalaudio - free OTT compressor

Tutorial | Nov 29, 2024

In my video, I introduced and reviewed minimalaudio's new free plugin, Squash, an over-the-top compressor ideal for genres like dubstep and drum and bass. I explained its features, including the unique "amount knob" that avoids phasing issues, and demonstrated its impact on audio using Bitwig and Addictive Drums. Overall, I found Squash to be a powerful and simple tool worth trying, especially since it's free to download.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

• support me on Patreon
• SQUASH download

Summary #

Maybe you don't watch the video, here are some important takeaways:

In this video, I discuss the newly released Squash plugin by minimalaudio, which is an over-the-top style compressor that's perfect for genres like dubstep and drum and bass. Many viewers who watch my videos probably enjoy these types of compressors for their unique sound, especially when applied to drums. The best part is that Squash is completely free to download and very user-friendly, featuring only a tone and depth control knob, alongside a mix knob at the bottom.

Interestingly, the mix knob functions more like an amount knob, changing the applied settings on the compressor without causing phasing issues that usually occur when blending a dry signal with a band-split signal. In my view, they could rename it to an amount knob. Unlike the classical OTT compressors with three bands, this plugin has four bands. There’s a big difference in sound, ranging from subtle enhancements to extreme compression. It's not meant for subtle changes; it's a heavy compressor designed for a distinct over-the-top sound.

To demonstrate, I use the Squash plugin on Addictive Drums within Bitwig. Initially, with the mix set to zero percent, it doesn’t affect the sound. As I bring up the mix knob, you can immediately hear the drastic changes in sound—it’s not subtle at all. Although it initially seems like the mix knob functions like a dry/wet mix, I realize it probably handles band splitting differently to avoid phasing.

I then show the original dry signal and tweak the settings to demonstrate how depth controls compression levels, while the tone adjusts the EQ of the bands. Using an EQ analyzer in Bitwig, I illustrate changes in phase, frequency bands, and EQ curves as different settings are applied. Phase shifts appear at specific positions corresponding to the band splitters. We cannot modify the band split positions, but it's acceptable since this is a free plugin.

When Squash is enabled, phase shifts appear. With the mix adding the wet signal, there's a noticeable increase in volume without any automatic output gain compensation, so I use the tool device in Bitwig to manage the levels. As I adjust the EQ curve using tone and depth, it manipulates the band gains. The clean interface also offers features allowing you to change the window size, scaling, frame rate, and even enable OpenGL for graphics, and use oversampling.

Overall, the Squash plugin is quite remarkable for a free tool, and I'm excited to experiment with it on different sounds soon. I provide the download link in the description so that viewers can try it out for themselves. It’s an excellent addition to anyone’s music production toolkit. I end the video by thanking viewers, encouraging them to like and subscribe, and signing off until next time.

Transcription #

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
You can also click on the timestamps to jump to the right part of the video, which should be helpful.

[00:00:00] Hey folks, welcome back and I didn't want to make a video today but minimalaudio just came out here
[00:00:05] with this plug-in called Squash. It's an easy to use over-the-top style compressor and I know a lot
[00:00:11] of people watching my videos like these kind of compressors because it's perfect for dubstep and
[00:00:17] drum and bass and all that stuff, right? It has a certain sound to it. Sometimes you need it on
[00:00:23] drums if you want to produce in these kind of styles and this one here is completely free to
[00:00:29] download and it's easy to control because you have just one knob here to change the tone and the
[00:00:34] depth and you have a mix knob down here at the bottom. So the interesting part for me was first
[00:00:41] the mix knob is not a mix knob, it's more like an amount knob. So you change the applied settings or
[00:00:47] the applied values to the gains of these bands and compressor settings and so on. So you don't add up
[00:00:56] these weird phasing issues, right? Where you mix a completely dry signal with a band-splitted signal and
[00:01:03] you get these weird phasing issues, right? You don't have this here. The dry and wet knob is basically
[00:01:08] an amount knob. In my opinion, they should rename this to amount and call it a day.
[00:01:15] So then here it says "OTT reimagined" and the big difference is that this one uses four bands instead of three bands with the classical
[00:01:24] OTT preset from class in Avid Live and also the OTT VST by XFER. I think this one is also free.
[00:01:34] Then here it says "It's not another clone under the hood of four bands of dual compression that range from pristine enhancement to extreme over-the-top size." And it's really extreme sometimes, right? You can really dial in, you know, big compressor
[00:01:51] compressor sounds with this. So it's, yeah, heavy compressor basically. It's not for subtle changes or anything like that.
[00:01:58] I want to show you how it sounds here in Bitwig. I have addictive drums running here. I put the mix here to zero percent so it doesn't affect the sound at all.
[00:02:08] And then I bring in here just a mix knob.
[00:02:15] You can hear it's already pretty drastic in change, right? It's not, it's not a subtle compressor.
[00:02:35] This is over the top, right?
[00:02:37] Oh, it actually sounds like a dry and wet mix. So it's, it's prob- I'm probably wrong with this here with the mount knob. It sounds like they-
[00:03:04] It sounds like they do band splitting for the dry and the wet signal, and then they mix these two together. So you don't end up with the phasing signal.
[00:03:13] I don't know. Um, so this is how it sounds here on, on these addictive drums. I show you here the dry signal for a moment.
[00:03:31] Yeah, so the depth more or less changes the compressing, uh, how much you want to compress the signal.
[00:03:37] And the tone is some kind of EQ setting.
[00:03:40] On let's not say EQ, it's probably more like, uh, changing the gain of the bands.
[00:03:47] And I show you what exactly happens here.
[00:03:50] Um, oops, um, with the EQ analyzer.
[00:03:56] Let's use this one here.
[00:03:59] Use phase.
[00:04:04] that is generator. Okay.
[00:04:05] So you can see already here we have, um, phase inversions or let's say phase shifts here at these positions, three positions.
[00:04:16] So we have one band, second band, third band, fourth band.
[00:04:20] We can't change the position of these band splittings or band splitters.
[00:04:25] Uh, but it's okay.
[00:04:26] It's just a free light plugin.
[00:04:28] You probably have to use the fuse compressor if you want to change this, but I'm totally fine with the splitting here.
[00:04:34] Um, when we disable squash, we get rid here of the phase shifts.
[00:04:40] Of course, um, when you bring it back in, phase shifts are back.
[00:04:44] Then we use here the wet signal bringing, um, the compressed signal.
[00:04:49] You can see it drastically changes here the volume, right?
[00:04:53] There is no compensation here for the output gain, but we can use here tool device in the output here in Bitwig, right?
[00:05:04] We'll bring it back down.
[00:05:09] And you can see it applies a very heavy EQ curve.
[00:05:14] You can also see here the, yeah, the peaks of the band splitters a bit here, this one, right?
[00:05:21] And this one, um, so with the tone left and right, you can slightly change the EQ curve.
[00:05:30] And yeah, the more we compress in here with the depth, you can see the low end goes up.
[00:05:38] So yeah, this is what happens.
[00:05:43] And the mix knob here, wet and dry applies a bit of phase shift here at certain positions.
[00:05:53] So, so this is how it works.
[00:05:54] This is how it looks like.
[00:05:55] It's a very simple plugin.
[00:05:57] we can also change here the window size or the, um, um, the sizing or the scaling of the plugin.
[00:06:03] We can change the frame rate.
[00:06:04] We can use open GL here for the visuals over sampling of two times, four times.
[00:06:10] Um, yeah, pretty dope actually to have this for free.
[00:06:14] Uh, I probably gonna use this here in the near future and try it out on all kinds of different sounds.
[00:06:21] Um, yeah.
[00:06:23] So I want to show you this.
[00:06:24] The link is in the description below.
[00:06:26] Um, maybe actually try to see also on the space.
[00:06:31] the space aren't I prepared.
[00:06:32] I put a peak limit at the end here.
[00:06:43] Um, maybe also interesting to modulate this, huh?
[00:06:59] Uh, let's use random modulator here.
[00:07:17] Just for the fun, uh, tone.
[00:07:22] Tone and depth.
[00:07:26] Different one.
[00:07:29] Kind of works.
[00:07:44] Okay.
[00:07:45] So the link is in the description below as you can try it out for yourself.
[00:07:48] It doesn't cost anything.
[00:07:50] I think it's a great tool to have.
[00:07:52] Um, yeah, that's bit that.
[00:07:54] That's it.
[00:07:55] Thanks for watching. Leave a like, leave a subscription. See you next time. Bye.