Ten of the Best: Compressor Plugins 2020

FabFilter Pro-MB

Price: €169

There are times when you want to focus your dynamics processing on just one part of a signal, say the bass or mid-range. Conventional compressors will affect all frequencies equally. In situations like these, having a good multiband compressor is essential, and FabFilter’s Pro-MB is about as essential as they get.

Where most multiband compressors will provide you with crossover points to isolate frequencies for dynamics processing, Pro-MB instead allows you to insert bands at the appropriate point. Compression can then be applied where and only where you need it.

Settings can be called up in the traditional way i.e. with dials but they can also be done by dragging on the screen. Anyone familiar with FabFilter’s other plugins like Pro-Q 3 will feel instantly at home, and even newcomers will have no trouble getting their heads around it. It’s an incredibly intuitive multiband compressor—and that’s probably the first time “intuitive” and “multiband compressor” have ever been used in the same sentence.

With additional functionality like expansion (upwards compression), a dynamic phase processing mode that eliminates latency and pre-ringing, and mid/side modes alongside your usual functions like lookahead and soft knee, Pro-MB has most everything you could need in a multiband compressor. The price is a little on the high side but it has to be said, it really does sound great, and the intuitive GUI is the icing on the cake.