The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor can be very transparent, or it can be pushed to get a huge, modern, in-your-face sound.

Unique feature: There are many unique features on this one, but I’d have to go with the Nickel, Iron and Steel Transformer Types. Nickel is clean, Iron is subtly saturated, and Steel adds a pretty noticeable low end bump to your material. The Glue is my favorite of the SSL-style compressors because it has a wet/dry blend knob. The Glue lives up to its name and really helps your material subtly breathe and “sit” within the same context. The original SSL Bus Compressor has a very simple and functional layout, making it easy to quickly dial in a sound. You’ll find other emulations of this classic compressor from Waves and UAD. Unique feature: As mentioned, The Glue has a wet/dry blend, so if I want to really push it and go for more than 3dB of gain reduction - add some subtle pumping - this allows me to dial back the entire mix for a more transparent sound while still boosting perceived loudness. Here’s another extremely versatile compressor with a lot of controls. It’s also specifically designed for mastering. PSP MasterComp is mostly transparent as long as it’s not pushed too hard, which is honestly what I’m looking for in a compressor most of the time.

It does a fine job of adding intensity without unwanted pumping. The metering is also great and includes more detail than most other mastering compressors. Unique feature: It has a mix knob (wet/dry control), which as I’ve established, I really love.

Additionally, it has unique side-chaining options, allowing you to compress more subtly by preventing extreme high and low frequencies from driving the compressor. It even has an external side-chain option, which is somewhat rare for a mastering compressor. This is definitely the compressor on the list with the most tone.

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