Stock plugins are great but they often don’t have that visual touch that makes them so great to use, but this free VST makes it feel real.

Designed to look like a rack effect module this compressor plugin makes you feel like you’re using the real thing. The SN01 comes from SenderSpike’s blog who has a series of free plugins including this fantastic looking compressor VST for free.

The SN01 (standing for Signal Noise) is a dynamic range compressor in the style of a VCA. You can adjust the envelope and the knee, threshold, ratio and gain all with a visual dial as found on many analogue compressor modules to visualise the decibel output.

Here are all it’s features in full:

  • threshold from +20dB to -20dB (zero mark is at -20dBFS)
  • ratio from 1:1 (no compression) to infinity (brick-wall)
  • gain up to +24dB
  • attack in range from 0.03ms to 30ms
  • release in range from 50ms to 2 seconds
  • adjustable knee width 0-24dB (0dB = hard-knee)
  • adjustable knee strength (0% = hard knee)
  • 2 optional filters for internal side-chain
  • optional ‘push’ effect for more extreme compression
  • dry/wet control for parallel compression (0-100%)
  • switchable topology (feed-forward/feedback)
  • no saturation modelling

You can download it here.

Sender Spike also has an Opamp, Brickwall Limiter, Channel EQ, Tape Recorder, and VU Meter VST plugins available for free on their blog.