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Minimal Audio releases Fuse Compressor, a dynamic sculpting effect for macOS and Windows

Minimal Audio Releases Fuse Compressor

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By // Updated on News

Minimal Audio has been very busy lately, and here they are with another brand new release, Fuse Compressor.

Fuse Compressor is a dynamic sculpting effect that provides up to six bands of dual compression. Dual compression means that each band allows you to apply downward and upward compression, set downward and upward thresholds, and use them to squeeze your dynamic range with precision.

In typical Minimal Audio fashion, the aim of the Fuse Compressor isn’t just to provide an excellent multi-band processing tool but also to simplify the concept in the application.

Applying common effects, like OTT compression in electronic music, is often a convoluted and time-consuming process. However, Fuse Compressor, with its intuitive interface, allows you to macro control all bands simultaneously, which will be a real timesaver.

Of course, it’s not just about the time you save; it’s about staying in your creative flow (at the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy). Tweaking parameters is fun when you’re in exploration mode, but it kills enthusiasm when it becomes tedious to do simple things.

The intuitive interface relies on meaningful visual feedback and simple yet flexible controls.

You can select up to six bands at once, and you’ll see everything going on with each band on the main graph section of the GUI. The plugin has a handy Responsive Gain Display that indicates real-time gain scaling for each band.

Valuable visual feedback continues with two spectrograms displaying the input and output signals. Having real-time feedback that clearly identifies the impact of the plugin and the difference from one setting to the next makes it easier to make the right creative choices faster.

One of the main benefits of the Fuse Compressor’s macro controls is the ability to adjust attack and release times across all bands using the Adaptive Time function.

With Adaptive Time, positive settings mean higher frequency bands respond faster, and lower ones respond slower. This approach allows you to alter the character of the compression without the need to set parameters per band.

Next to the Adaptive Time section, you have controls to adjust the Threshold and Ratio for Downward and Upward compression on all bands simultaneously. If you want to adjust all bands simultaneously without being quite so blunt, you can take more of a fine-tuning approach using the Tilt knob.

The spectral Tilt function slopes the bands by tilting the intensity of the compression towards higher or lower frequencies.

You can make individual adjustments per band, so you aren’t limited and can be as surgical as you like. But the macro controls enhance the overall workflow significantly and do most of the work in getting where you want to be or very close to it.

The plugin has a range of presets for processing drums, leads, pads, etc.

Fuse Compressor also offers Mid-Side Mode, Channel Link, and a Wet/Dry slider for a parallel compression effect.

If you haven’t tried Minimal Audio plugins yet, check out Morph EQ and Rift, too.

You can hear examples of the Fuse Compressor in use in the walkthrough video. Still, as good as it sounds, the thing I love most is Minimal Audio’s continued quest to eliminate distractions to creativity.

Fuse Compressor is available in AU, VST, VST3, and AAX formats for macOS and Windows.

Buy: Fuse Compressor by Minimal Audio ($49)

The Giveaway

Minimal Audio kindly offers one FREE copy of Fuse Compressor for one lucky BPB reader.

To enter the giveaway, please answer the following question in the comments section below: What mixing technique was the hardest for you to learn?

We will randomly pick three comments and announce the lucky winners on this page on August 1st, 2023.

Good luck, everyone, and a big THANK YOU to Minimal Audio for sponsoring the giveaway!

The winner is SBTT. Congratulations (please check your inbox to receive the prize).

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About Author

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James is a musician and writer from Scotland. An avid synth fan, sound designer, and coffee drinker. Sometimes found wandering around Europe with an MPC in hand.

372 Comments

  2. Stephen

     on

    The hardest mixing technique for me is getting lower male vocals to sit in a mix with a lot of low end information already. I’ve lost considerable amounts of hair over it.

    Reply

  4. Jaime Lopes

     on

    Like many have said, I still feel like I’m learning EQ… but I guess what I mean by that is that I’m learning how something should sound tonally… vs what it should sound like in the mix…

    You could say I’m still learning how to level balance the frequencies :)

    Reply

  9. John Ghadimi

     on

    By far, the most elusive concept / method in mixing is truly understanding what compression does and not necessarily how to do it. It’s a combination of “feeling” and hearing. It took me a while to understand the effects of compression and of course, learning how to achieve the results via sought after compressor plugins. Once you understand compression, the rest is gravy :)

    Reply

  10. adam

     on

    Hardest mixing technique for me has been the right amount of compression in a given situation and which compressor type would be best.

    Reply

  12. Patty Cigs

     on

    Appropriately-enough, compression gave me the most trouble. I just had trouble hearing the changes for the longest time until it clicked

    Reply

  13. Ryan Martin

     on

    Learning that compression is a tool with many uses. But the big one mainly is that not everything needs compression (especially determined by the genre you are mixing). Some genres don’t even need any compression, while others go OTT with everything.

    Compressors are an amazing tool, but used too much can make a mix sound flat, regardless of the attack and release settings.

    A tip I wished I knew sooner, I started out assuming every good mix used compression (to proper taste), but in all reality not everything needs compression to sound good (although it is an absolutely necessary tool to understand).

    Reply

  23. Indrajit

     on

    Setting the right threshold, attack, release, and ratio settings to control dynamics while maintaining a natural sound is the most challenging for me to learn.

    Reply

  30. misha uchenick

     on

    Hello! Equalization. Eliminate unwanted artifacts in the recording without compromising the useful signal.

    Reply

  31. Judah Wyman

     on

    Hardest technique to learn wasn’t a specific technique but sound design and how to create my own unique sound and samples to use. Still learning it but consistently getting better at it.

    Reply

  33. Rich

     on

    The hardest for me to learn was compression and I believe the reason it was so hard was because of the hype and the pressure placed on the process. Ppl made it sound like it was the end all and if you can’t get it right your track would suck. It didn’t help when learn on analog either, digital compressors and plugins with detailed gui made me go ‘so this is what all the hype is about? It ain’t that serious! Then you have those that go… oh you NEED to have an 1176 on your drums or your track will suck! Lol

    Reply

  35. Christian martinez

     on

    I see many saying the mid side is weird, that was very easy for me, on the other hand, the reverbs were the most difficult for me

    Reply

  38. Peter Teipe

     on

    Definitely Mastering tracks in a DAW environment and getting them to sound consistent across different playback systems.

    Reply

  51. Roman

     on

    Still wrapping my head around compression but more having to do with different situations and different purposes.

    Reply

  57. Andrew

     on

    Compression by far the most difficult to conceptualize. Auto volume control?! Also by far the most useful! Thanks BPB and minimal!

    Reply

  60. Je Christian

     on

    Complementary EQ moves. When my ears were inexperienced enough not to know what to cut/boost, changing the frequencies in two different EQs whenever something wasn’t working felt like such an imposition that it was easy to find excuses not to bother (despite how much of a difference it ~can~ make).

    Reply

  61. Edgar Fiugeroa

     on

    What mixing technique was the hardest for you to learn? to give presence to a track with out loosing the quality of the sound.

    Reply

  62. Aj

     on

    This being my hobby I’d say all of them cause I understand the concepts but I don’t have enough experience to understand how to apply them in the all the possible situations.

    Reply

  64. SAI

     on

    I have been mixing for 20 years now and still can’t get a satisfactory reverb feel. Sometimes it works, but depending on the arrangement, it can be very time consuming. The same goes for EQ and comp. Mixing is a very deep process. So I am very interested in this plug-in.With love from Japan！

    Reply

  69. Eric

     on

    Cymbal bleed in my tom mics (Audio Technica Pro35R). I’m 5′ 7″ and without long arms. I’m having trouble with unwanted cymbal frequencies from my ole Paiste Full Crash Sound Formulas. Maybe I need to get new mics and/or cymbals.

    Reply

  76. Isaiah

     on

    I think for me the hardest mixing technique to learn was the Andrew Scheps parallel pultec sandwich. as you can never get it spot on. I’ve gone back to using Slate Digital’s fresh air tbh haha.

    Reply

  83. Mike

     on

    Honestly, EQ was toughest for me, I always either overdid or underdid it, and had to tame my best friends’ EQ racks as well when I helped him mix his first album haha

    Reply

  88. Wes gardner

     on

    Well as I’m still trying to get a “good” mix I would have to say at the moment frequency masking is something I’m really focused on. It confused me at first thinking that a sound masked another sound because it had similar frequencies. Then I realize it’s a frequency that is loud enough to make it hard to hear other frequencies. Some times we focus so hard on so many things at one we over do it and miss the concept entirely.

    Reply

  104. Mibrilane

     on

    For me it is a toss-up between compression/expansion and equalization, sorting out the different kinds and when to apply them. It is a never-ending learning process.

    Reply

  113. Thomas

     on

    Making a mix feel overall cohesive (gluey) while retaining headroom. Mostly automation and compression go hand in hand here, and ironically it feels like every once in a while you have to relearn what you might have already done succesfully in the past just by actually listening and was messing up later cause you were chasing something you thought was even better.

    Reply

  114. sacaan

     on

    The most difficult thing has been knowing how far to compress so that your mix is ​​not ruined in the master

    Reply

  116. Matt

     on

    The creative aspect of transferring the listener with the emotion and space of the song to another world, and it feel 3d like its a physical weighted object and not a piece of paper, flat and no color.

    Reply

  123. James

     on

    Definitely creating space in the mix for all the parts – panning, eq and a bit of everything is needed to find the balance!

    Reply

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