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  • The Best Bus Compressor Plugins in 2025

    My quest for the best mix bus compressor plugin is neverending. I have spent countless of hours reviewing and testing different plugins. Here are my picks for the best bus compressor plugins in 2025.

    There are a lot of plugins covered in this article and related video so let’s address one question first up: Do you have to have so many? Of course not. I’ve accumulated a lot of plugins over the years. Many of them I’ve bought but I also get a lot of plugins for free. I make music, but I also do mixing and mastering work for others. I need different types of tools for different situations.

    In this review, I’m presenting you the mix bus compressor plugins I like and use. But please do not feel like you need to have a ton of different plugins in order to get good results.

    Think about your needs. What kind of sound you are looking to achieve? Take a look at what is available. Maybe your DAW already has one that works for you? Demo different products.

    Are you consistently working with the same type of material? You might only ever need one good mix bus compressor plugin. In any case, the key is to test it for yourself.

    Table of Contents – These Are The Best Bus Compressor Plugins in 2025

    For your convenience, here is a list of all of the chosen plugins. Continue reading for the blog post and video below.

    iZotope Ozone

    iZotope Ozone offers great tools for mix bus compression. The added benefit is that besides the compressors you also get a whole host of super useful tools. The Standard version of Ozone works as a single plugin that hosts all the different modules. With the Advanced version, which is what I use, you can also use all of the modules as separate plugins.

    The standard and advanced versions of Ozone come with two different compression modules that are both great for bus compression: Dynamics and Vintage Compressor.

    iZotope Ozone - Best Bus Compressor Plug Ins

    The Dynamics Module

    The Dynamics module is super flexible and sound great. It has that modern hard hitting sound that works especially well for electronic styles, but also other types of music.

    For bus duty I like using Dynamics in single band mode. But you can have up to 4 bands if you wish.

    Best Bus Compressors - Ozone Vintage Compressor

    The Vintage Module

    The Vintage Compressor is a single band compressor with three characters: Sharp, Balanced and Smooth. They all sound different and great in their own right. The UI is super clean and nice to operate. The great metering section as well as auto make-up gain are very nice to have also.

    iZotope Ozone Dynamics Tips

    • Try running the Dynamics in Mid/Side mode. A whole new world opens up from there.
    • Try the different detection modes (Peak, Env, RMS). They all result in a different sound.
    • The detection filter is very versatile. The Tilt setting works similarly to Thrust control in the famous API 2500.
    • Ozone offers great facilities for working with the gain. This helps to make better decisions and not cloud your judgment by volume differences. Make use of these facilities!
      • There is an auto-gain option above the “Gain” fader. I like to keep it on but then fine tune the gain manually.
      • The master section has a “Gain Match” option to further help you match the level of your processed signal to the unprocessed one.
      • The RMS meters will help you too, and it’s nice to have precise input and ouput gain faders in the master section too.

    Link: iZotope Ozone

    FabFilter Pro-C2

    A true all in one workhorse. The Fabfilter Pro-C2 has a ton of options including an extremely featured sidechain filtering section. It has several different compression modes including Bus, but also Clean and Mastering which can also work equally well in a bus compression context.

    FabFilter Pro-C2 - best bus compressor plugins

    It has great metering and visual feedback which is especially helpful for someone just trying to learn about compression. A great learning tool! The Pro-C2 has switchable oversampling of up to 4x.

    You can do just about anything with this plugin, which is also its downside. Personally I often rather reach for something quick and easy that I know will get the job done without too much tweaking. That said, the Fabfilter Pro-C2 comes with good presets for mastering and mix bus that will get you going in no time.

    Link: FabFilter Pro-C2

    UAD Fairchild Tube Limiter Collection

    Best Bus Compressor Plugins - UAD Fairhchild

    The UAD Fairchild Tube Limiter Collection is one of the finest emulations of vintage tube limiters on the market. The plugin imparts silky warmth and harmonic richness on the material.

    If you’re looking to add a touch of vintage magic to their mixes, this compressor delivers just that.

    Link: UAD Fairchild Tube Limiter Collection

    Waves Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain

    The Waves Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain includes several nice tools for the mix bus. But for this article, let’s just focus on the wonderfully chunky compressor/limiter. If you want to read more about it, check my blog posts about The Best Waves Plugins and The Best Waves Plugins for Mastering.

    Waves Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain

    The TG Mastering Chain has been in use in the Abbey Road studios ever since the early ’70s. It has contributed to the sound of countless hit records, including Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, Nirvana’s In Utero, Radiohead’s OK Computer and Ed Sheeran’s “+”.

    The compressor on the TG Mastering Chain sounds chunky and has lots of character. It has three modes to choose from, each bringing a different flavor:

    • Original
    • Modern
    • Limit

    There are six different settings for release time, a ratio control, make-up gain and a wet/dry mix knob. By opening up the extended control panel, you also get access to separate controls for L/R or Mid/Side compression as well as very nice sidechain filtering options.

    The compression sounds smooth, solid and deep. It brings together the low end of the song and makes it sound stronger. The different release characteristics and compression modes offer plenty of options for finding just the right timing for the material. It is easy to get very pleasant movement and pumping action going if that’s what you desire.

    Waves Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain Tips

    • Personally I find myself going with the “Modern” compression mode most of the time. It works the best with the type of material I usually work with.
    • The Mid/Side option on this compressor is great to have. You can use it to get the center of your mix really tight without having to worry about the compressor reacting to/affecting the material on the sides of the stereo image. Equally, you could use it to clamp down or widen the stereo field. Open the extended panel (top right corner of the compression module) and learn to make use of the M/S features!
    • Learn to use the sidechain filtering options. The bell filter is especially nice to have for making the compressor react more on certain frequencies. The M/S functionality and the powerful sidechaining together bump up this compressor to a new level.
    • The output/monitoring section of the plugin has options for soloing the Mid and Side components of the material, as well as checking how your mix sounds in mono. Very helpful, especially when doing Mid/Side compression!
    • Remember to work with the makeup gain to keep your levels in check. You don’t want your compressed end result sounding any quieter or louder than your unprocessed signal. This makes it easier to do before/after comparisons.

    Link: Waves Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain

    Waves SSL G-Master Bus Compressor

    The Waves SSL G-Master Bus Compressor is a classic plugin, modeled after a classic compressor. This SSL bus compressor clone has been around for a long time but I find it still holds up nicely. There is nothing wrong with it, it can be had for a great price and it works in many situations.

    Waves SSL G-Master Buss Compressor - Best Bus Compressor Plugins

    I typically use this to create just a small amount of movement in the mix, barely making the needle move.

    What I also like about the Waves SSL bus compressor clone is that it’s very quick and easy to dial in and get a good sound going. I would not recommend paying the expensive full price for it because it’s very often discounted.

    Waves SSL G-Master Buss Compressor Tips

    • This compressor does not have a mix knob so be careful with the fast attack settings. You don’t want to kill your transients. Attack settings of 10 or 30ms are the safest.
    • Adjust the release time so that the compression moves nicely in sync with your material, creating movement or glue.
    • For a more aggressive sound, bring down the attack and use a faster release time.

    Link: Waves SSL G-Master Bus Compressor

    Waves MaxxVolume

    Don’t be fooled by the ageing looks of Waves MaxxVolume. This plugin can do some seriously good things on your mix bus. It’s very easy to operate and gives you clean loudness and glue on the mix bus.

    Waves MaxxVolume

    The Waves MaxxVolume is quite a unique plugin in that it offers both low and high-level compression. It brings together algorithms from different Waves plugins such as the L2, C1 and Renaissance Compressor.

    In a standard compression setting, any signal above the set threshold gets compressed and attenuated. With a low level compressor, any signal that goes below the set threshold gets compressed upward, resulting in an increased gain. The dynamic range is thus compressed, pushing low levels up while leaving high levels as they were.

    This is a set and forget type plugin. It’s very easy to dial in and quite safe provided you don’t go crazy with the gain reduction.

    Waves MaxxVolume Tips

    • I typically do only 1-2 dB of both high and low-level compression on the mix bus. This is enough to give me a nice boost in overall volume without changing the character of the mix much.
    • Use the bypass switches on the threshold faders to hear the difference between processed and unprocessed signals.

    Link: Waves MaxxVolume

    u-he Presswerk

    The U-He Presswerk is a compressor with lots of options. It is great for someone who likes to go deep. It sounds very analog, especially when you start to hit the saturation and soft clipping the right way. It’s also very easy to go overboard with this compressor.

    u-He Presswerk - Best Mix Bus Compressors

    The Presswerk has tons and tons of controls, and it’s all very useful. This plugin is a lot of fun to play around with! It also has several simplified modes that hide and automate many of the detailed controls and allow you to focus on what’s essential. The preset manager is very good too, complete with descriptions and a resizable GUI.

    If you’re after a thick and gluey analog-type sound, definitely check this compressor out.

    Link: U-He Presswerk

    Tokyo Dawn Labs Kotelnikov GE

    Now, I’m first to admit that I’m biased with this one. I have been involved with beta testing the TDR Kotelnikov GE. I’ve also been releasing a lot of music on Tokyo Dawn Records (the label) back in the 90’s! So I go a long way back – almost 30 years – with Tokyo Dawn. However, it also means I know that Tokyo Dawn Labs guys know what they’re doing.

    The Kotelnikov GE is a super modern and transparent compressor for mastering and mix bus duties. It is inspired by the legendary Weiss DS1-MK3 compressor, but doesn’t attempt to sound the same.

    It has a whole host of innovative features including things like equal loudness bypass and frequency-dependent ratio.

    It’s an advanced plugin to use and because of the unique feature set, there is a learning curve. But all the information is clearly laid out for you in the interface as well as the manual.

    Proudly digital, very trustworthy, great quality and affordable. Plus it comes with some presets designed by me! What more do you want may I ask?

    Link: TDR Kotelnikov GE

    TDR Limiter 6 GE

    TDR Limiter 6 GE is an entire dynamics toolkit comprising of compressors, clippers, and limiters. I often use it for the purpose of mix bus compression alone. You can hide the other modules and just have the compression and output/metering sections visible.

    The compression section includes five different compressors: Alpha, Sigma, Leveler, Nova, and Broadcast. For the type of music I often work with (modern drum&bass), Sigma works great.

    I also love the excellent output and metering options. They are making the task at hand a lot easier.

    Link: TDR Limiter 6 GE

    UAD API 2500

    The UAD API 2500 is modeled after one the most iconic compressors out there. It’s a great compressor to get some thickness, movement, and glue into your mix.

    What about Waves API 2500 vs UAD API 2500? I’ve used both plugins extensively. My take is that the UAD sounds more analog and feels better in use, but the Waves plugin sounds more punchy. I have not been able to get the same kind of smack from the UAD. But for glue type compression, more nuanced analog modeling and overall better user experience, I would go for the UAD.

    Link: UAD API 2500

    The Best Bus Compressor Plugins – Video

    Here is a video where I go through some of these compressors (and a few more) in a typical work setting!

    The Best Bus Compressor Plugins in 2025 – Final Words

    There we go – a review of what I think are the best bus compressor VST / AU / AAX plugins. What are your thoughts? Do you have some different favorites? Do you have any questions about any of the plugins?

    Let me know in the comments.

  • My Top 28 Favourite Plugins Right Now

    Here’s a list of my most used plugins right now. This is the stuff I use in production and mixing. There’s a whole bunch of further stuff I use for mastering.

    I made a 1 hour long video that details each plugin, why I enjoy them, and how I use them – which is available through my Patreon.

    Be advised some of these are affiliate links. Buying through them helps support my work, at no additional cost to you. I only ever mention products I know well and use myself.

    Here we go, in alphabetical order.

    ADPTR Metric AB

    ADPTR Sculpt

    Apogee Soft Limit

    DMG Limitless

    Excite Audio Vision 4X

    Inphonik RX950 Classic AD/DA Converter

    Klanghelm VUMT

    Oeksound Soothe 2

    Pulsar Audio P42

    Relab LX480 Dual Engine Reverb

    SIR StandardCLIP

    SSL Fusion Transformer

    SSL X-Delay

    SSL X-Saturator

    SSL Native Drumstrip

    SSL Fusion HF Compressor

    Softube Chandler Limited Germanium Compressor

    Softube Weiss DS1-MK3

    Sonnox Claro

    Tone Projects Basslane Pro

    UAD API Vision

    UAD LA-2A

    UAD Lexicon 224

    Waves DeEsser

    Waves S1 Shuffler

    Waves Trans-X

    WaveTracing DQ5010

    WaveTracing SP950

  • Pulsar Massive Review

    The folks at Pulsar Audio kindly hooked me up with their EQ plugin Massive so I could work with it for a while and give you my thoughts. I’ve been using it in mastering as well as some mixing work for a few weeks now. Here is my review of Pulsar Massive.

    Disclaimer: I only ever write about products I like. Pulsar Audio hooked me up with Massive for free so that I could get to know it and work with it for a while to do a proper review. They have no say in the content of this review. This post contains affiliate links. If you decide to buy through them, you are supporting my work.

    What is Pulsar Massive?

    Pulsar Massive is an emulation of one of the most famous EQ’s around – the Massive Passive.

    It accurately models the original, but adds a modern feature set on top.

    Pulsar Massive review
    Pulsar Massive

    It’s a great EQ for situations where you want to gently shape the tonality of the material, without changing its nature too much. Common applications include mastering, vocals and drum bus or mix bus.

    It’s not a surgical EQ. It can do some tighter curve shapes only in the low end. It comes with some special curves for the low and high band. These make it useful for specific tasks like boosting sub bass without affecting the upper bass region, or adding top end air without adding harshness below.

    As a passive parallel design, Pulsar Massive has a gentle, natural and balanced character. Most EQ’s you’ll come across are serial design where bands will add gain on top of each other. Stacking bands in a parallel design does not result in gain adding up.

    This passive topology makes for a very different band interaction compared to serial EQ’s. It can feel easier to work with for applications like mastering.

    Pulsar Massive also models the tube amplifiers and inductors in Massive Passive. This means you can drive it to introduce saturation and subtle dynamic behaviour.

    Saturation

    Pulsar Massive can be made to sound clean or coloured, depending on how hard you drive it. You can also choose between two different types of transformer saturations, or bypassing it entirely.

    I find the sound of the saturation in this plugin a very useful one. Most of the time I don’t push it. Used subtly, it can enhance the material in a nice way and make things pop better.

    When you drive it harder it gets really crunchy. I don’t consider a competition for dedicated saturation plugins and I don’t like using it that way – it’s an EQ after all. But it can introduce some nice aggression to things like drums if desired.

    The drive control is level compensated. This makes it easy to assess how the sound is changing.

    Up to 4x oversampling is available to keep aliasing distortion at bay if needed.

    Filters

    The plugin is modelled precisely from the Massive Passive. The filter shapes and behaviour are a little bit unusual compared to most EQ’s out there today.

    With the bell filters, the gain does not affect the bandwidth (Q) of the filter. But changing the bandwidth affects the gain. This works well for the type of work the EQ is mostly intended (broad band shaping, for example in a mastering situation).

    The shelves have some interesting features where boosting one area can create a dip, followed by a boost in another area. The filters will also interact in interesting ways, creating surprising curve shapes.

    The curves are wonderful for broad tone shaping work.

    However, it was a really nice surprise for me to find out that there are some special shapes happening in the extreme lows and extreme highs. These areas are marked with yellow numbers in the low and air shelf bands.

    The curves are all explained in the manual. But it’s really handy to have the curve display. It helps you learn how the EQ behaves and what you can do with it in different situations.

    Special curves on the low and top shelf (extreme settings). Plugin Doctor (left) shows how the scaling of the curve display affects our perception.

    The bottom end sharp curve is great for working on the sub bass without affecting the upper bass region.

    The top end curve works really well for adding air while keeping harshness at bay.

    These are really nice features to have as it means you can often nail the bass as well as the top end, while doing the broad tone shaping this EQ does so well. Without these special curves I would more often be reaching for another EQ to target those areas.

    Pulsar Massive is fantastic for getting a big bottom end without making things muddy. Equally it’s great for adding clarity and air in the top end without making it harsh. The usual bell and shelf filters work great for getting the overall tone of the material where it needs to be – whether it’s adding some upper mids or reducing muddyness.

    Band interaction

    As usual with passive EQ’s, there is interaction between the EQ bands. It makes working with the EQ unpredictable, especially when you’re still new to it. This is both good and bad.

    If know I want to achieve a specific boost or cut at a specific frequency, this type of EQ is not my first choice. But if I just want to start shaping the sound, roll with it and see what happens it’s great.

    Sometimes I’m not making progress with another EQ. In those situations it’s really nice to have something like Massive which can offer a different perspective.

    User experience

    I would argue one of the most important things in an EQ is the user experience. The choice of included features, how well they work and how they all come together in the user interface.

    How does it feel to work with? Does it guide you towards a workflow that gives you good results? How fast is it to achieve what you want with it? Do you enjoy using it?

    I spend a lot of time in the EQ and those things are really important to me.

    Pulsar Audio have done a great job on this front. Massive offers the charm and character of an outboard device just as well as many other good faithfully modelled plugins do.

    However, Pulsar Audio have still managed to include a lot of modern features and design also. The great attention to detail makes the experience of using the EQ much better. The user experience is the single main reason why I like it so much.

    For me, it comes down to details like:

    • Auto gain that works like it’s supposed to. Many EQ’s have auto gain. But they’re not all created equal. I don’t always use auto gain, but I usually do for tone shaping. It helps me accurately assess changes in tone, without being fooled by changes in volume.
    • Level compensated drive control that goes from almost completely clean to very distorted.
    • Well placed band on/off and Mid/Side solo switches.
    • The ability to view and edit in classic knob mode, modern graph mode, or both.
    • Stepped controls (with many options), with the ability adjust in continuous mode by right clicking on the knobs.
    • The ability to enter values in text.
    • A/B slots.
    • Great metering (Peak+RMS and input/output difference).
    • Good tooltips.
    • Good manual.
    • Freely resizable interface, which actually also makes the text bigger instead of just increasing the size of the window.

    Many of those things seem like normal features to have in an EQ. But there are not many plugins out there that get all of it right consistently.

    I really appreciate when a developer has thought about the details. It makes for a smooth user experience, which leads to better results.

    The auto listen

    Here follows my only complaint about Pulsar Massive. In the grand scheme of things it’s fairly minor. But because of it I’m still reaching for the Knif Soma sometimes instead.

    I love that Pulsar Audio have added an auto listen (band solo) feature. But its implementation doesn’t make sense to me.

    First, the auto listen only works form the curve display. You hold shift while dragging a band. That’s fine, but I often prefer to work with the curve display hidden. As far as I can tell, there is no way of using auto listen in that mode.

    Second… The auto listen has a very tight Q value. As soon as you engage it, the sound gets very resonant.

    That’s great for hunting resonances or other offending frequencies. For a surgical EQ I would get that. But Massive is not a surgical EQ. You can’t really target very specific spots or resonances with it (except in the lower bass region).

    Paradoxically, the tight auto listen filter makes the feature useless for broad shaping work, which this EQ is really designed for. It’s very hard to “hear and think” through the resonant boost of the auto listen filter.

    Why not make the auto listen follow the actual bandwidth (Q) setting that is active in the EQ? This is how it works in many other EQ’s, and it’s a much better behaviour in my opinion.

    Pulsar Audio – if you are listening… Could we perhaps have an option in the settings to change the auto listen behaviour?

    How does Pulsar Massive fit in to my workflow?

    I have mostly been using Massive in mastering work.

    I use four different types of EQ’s, depending on the situation:

    • Minimum phase EQ for surgical / general work (MAAT ThEQblue).
    • Linear phase EQ for phase-critical work (Weiss EQ1).
    • Dynamic EQ for enhancement or solving specific problems (DMG Multiplicity / Weiss EQ1).
    • Parallel EQ for overall tone shaping (Pulsar Massive / Knif Soma).

    I’ve really enjoyed using Pulsar Massive for tone shaping. I am still likely to keep using Soma in certain situations. It provides a slightly different workflow that I also like and the auto listen is much better implemented.

    I like using Pulsar Massive (and any other tone shaping EQ) without the graph and spectrum analyser visible. This helps me to focus on the listening. I will pop open the graph to learn about the curves though.

    Trial, copy protection, system requirements

    Pulsar Audio Massive uses iLok copy protection. It can be activated into the computer or on the iLok USB stick. A fully functional 14 day free trial is available.

    You can check the current system requirements here.

    Is Pulsar Massive worth it?

    Pulsar Massive costs $149 at the time of writing this. It’s definitely on the expensive side when it comes to EQ plugins. To me, it’s also quite possibly the best product out there in its category.

    I could live without it, because I already have many great EQ’s. But it’s definitely offering me something different and I have often reached really good results with it during testing.

    Pulsar Massive review – Conclusion

    Pulsar Massive is a really well made, professional grade tool for tone shaping work.

    It sounds great. And I particularly enjoy how comfortable it is to work with. The features, user interface and attention to detail all comes together in a really nice way. My only complaint is the implementation of the auto listen feature, which feels incomplete.

    It’s not an EQ for all situations. If you haven’t worked with a Massive Passive type EQ before (I hadn’t), it takes some time to begin to understand how to best use it.

    The manual is good and helps a great deal in figuring it out. The included tooltips are also very useful in learning the plugin.

    It’s a well rounded package and a joy to work with. It comes at a cost, but you get a lot for the money. If you’re looking for an EQ for tone shaping, Pulsar Massive has my full recommendation.

    Click here to check out Pulsar Massive.

  • Output Arcade Review 2024

    Output Arcade is a playful, but powerful sample-based software instrument that also works with your own sounds. I’ve been getting to know it recently – here is my review.

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  • Metric AB Review

    Reference listening is one the best things you can do to improve in music production and mixing. Metric AB helps you with that. It has made a bigger difference to my music than any other plugin or tool. This plugin, if any, deserves attention so here is my review and video.

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  • Wavesfactory Spectre Review

    I bought Wavesfactory Spectre from the Black Friday sale about a year back. Despite some shortcomings it’s still one of my favourite harmonic enhancers.

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