Here’s a new product, and one I don’t have a license for, but it is definitely moving to the top of my software want-list, the FabFilter Pro-C.

While I’m trying to stay clear of demos, and pare my software down to my essentials, I’ve been looking for a high-quality compressor, versatile and free of overkill copy protection. But I have also been having a hard time justifying purchasing a tool when I already more or less have this ground covered. I have a collection of compressor plugins that have a good reputation: digitalfishphones, Cakewalk Sonitus:Compressor & VintageChannel64, the db-audioware mixing plugins, Jeroen Breebaart’s plugs. Nevertheless, I find myself reading about some of these top-tier compressor plugins and wondering what I am missing.

A couple of things to note: Since I’ve never spent any significant time in hardware-centric studios, I’m not a hugely experienced compressor user. Nor do I have golden ears. So a lot of the subtle nuances between brands are frankly lost on me. I’m trying to educate myself, and I’m trying hear what I’m doing with a compressor rather than just dialing in what I think it should be set to. But as you can see my frame of reference is limited.

I read the glowing review of the Pro-C in the current/last issue of Computer Music and was curious – not sold, mind you, as CM can be, god love ‘em, a little enthusiastic. It’s got all the bells and whistles, and a lot of cool tricks most standard compressors don’t have, and according to them it sounds great. So, I thought I’d give it a whirl.

And, my god, is this thing slick. First of all, the GUI is really, really well done. On-screen contextual help, really cool visual feedback, and a clean, ergonomic interface. It’s modern and easy to read without being so, erm, creative it’s useless. And it sounds, at least to my tin ears, just amazing. Throw it on your two-bus in Mid/Side compression mode – nice.

And, indeed, there’s a holiday sale currently on, so, yes the getting is good: 35% off for a whopping $159. So, I’m hoping I’ll get a little financial leeway before the end of the month and I’ll be able to add this to my “rack.”