malibuzios

The Malibuzios Compressor is a dynamic range compressor, expander and limiter incorporating scientifically validated metrics for the human perception of loudness, as well as a set of newly designed algorithms optimized towards high perceived responsiveness and transparency.

Features

• The compressor’s internal units of measure are loudness units, which are consistent (± 1LU) with the ITU-R BS.1770 standard. Loudness units better approximate the human perception of loudness than traditional peak, RMS and VU levels.
• Due to the adaptive nature of the underlying algorithms, the plugin does not provide independent attack and release settings. Instead, its dynamic character is configured through a range of pre-tuned profiles, representing varying levels of sensitivity towards transients in the incoming signal.
• Auto-compensation (also called automatic makeup gain) can assist in auditioning different settings by automatically maintaining the same overall perceived loudness as the original input signal. Optional "Suggest" mode visualizes the estimated compensation value through a secondary "ghost" handle on the compressor's output slider, without applying it.
• The compressor stage is followed by a specialized limiter including true-peak metering (internally applying 4x oversampling). Aside from its -1 dBTP “hard” ceiling, the limiter also provides a configurable “soft” ceiling for allowing some amount of headroom to be smoothly maintained, which helps minimizing abrupt level drops when unexpected peaks are encountered.
• Near-zero added latency: The compressor stage is zero latency. The limiter requires 5 samples for its internal oversampling (equivalent to about 0.1ms at 48kHz sampling rate).
• User interface is functional in its design. Layout is optimized to maximize usability and feedback visibility. Every level setting is paired with one or more meters that directly monitor and assist its configuration. Meters are all linearly scaled and provide a large monitoring range and adequate adjustment headroom. Every stage can be individually toggled on and off and relevant metrics are provided to monitor the overall impact of the plugin.
• Sidechain inputs are supported. When connected, their loudness is monitored through the compressor stage input level meter (titled "Threshold").
• Expander mode can be toggled using the double-sided arrow icon on the top-right corner of the compressor panel, replacing the compressor stage with a fully-featured expander based on the same core algorithms.
• Auto-bypass on silence: CPU usage is minimized by only activating processing when an audibly loud input signal is detected. When an abrupt silence occurs in the incoming audio, the compressor state is frozen. This is especially useful for tracks characterized with "bursts" of audio, like vocals, reducing audible attack artifacts.

Download links (only Windows x64 VST3 is available at this time)

Installation steps

1. Download the zip file and unzip its content to your VST3 plugin folder (usually C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 on windows).
2. Ensure your host has DPI awareness mode enabled. In Ableton you'll need to disable the "Auto-Scale" option for the plugin to display correctly.

Licensing

The plugin is free. Enjoy!