Woodstock Audio has released Waveform Compressor, a free feedforward compressor featuring a high-resolution dynamic waveform visualiser and switchable VCA (Regular) and Optical modes. It’s designed to let you both hear and see what compression is doing in real time.
See What Compression Is Actually Doing
Waveform Compressor’s standout feature is its GPU-powered visualiser. You can view the waveform before and after compression, track gain reduction with a dedicated line, zoom in/out, pause the display, and enable beat/bar overlays. It’s a genuinely practical way to understand how attack, release, and knee settings shape transients.
Under the hood, it runs a feedforward design with peak detection, leaning into VCA-style versatility, while offering an Optical mode for smoother, adaptive compression with a memory-style release behavior.
Watch the official walkthrough video:
Features
- Feedforward compressor with peak detection (VCA-style response)
- Regular (VCA) and Optical modes
- Threshold, Ratio (1:1–24:1), Attack (20µs–250ms), Release (25ms–5s), Knee (0–18dB)
- Detector HPF for shaping low-end response
- External sidechain with HPF, LPF, and Lookahead
- Delta Solo (listen to the difference signal)
- GPU-powered waveform visualiser (before/after, gain reduction, threshold)
- Zoom, pause, and beat/bar overlays
- 10 included presets + built-in preset manager
- Dynamic window resizing
- Low CPU usage (optimized performance)
- No license or activation required
- Formats: VST3, AU, AAX (Windows & macOS)
How to Use Waveform Compressor
Use Regular mode for drums, buses, and punchy material where you want tight transient control. Switch to Optical mode on vocals or bass for smoother, adaptive leveling. Delta Solo is especially useful when fine-tuning attack times, listening to what’s being removed, not just what remains. The detector HPF helps keep kick drums from over-triggering compression on mix buses.
Free Download
Waveform Compressor is available as a free download for Windows and macOS (VST3/AU/AAX) at Woodstock Audio. No license or activation required.
