I've been trying Jun Murakami's ZeroComp for a few days. It's a compressor that lives up to its name by adding zero latency. That's the thing I keep coming back to with this whole line of his plugins. You can stick it on a bus mid-session and nothing drifts out of time.
What sets this one apart from the limiter is the mode switch. You get four operating modes: VCA, Opt, FET, and Vari-Mu. Flipping between them on the same loop is genuinely fun, since each one reshapes the attack and release in its own way. The big curve display makes it obvious what your threshold and ratio are doing before you even hear it, and there are sliders for knee, attack, release, plus an auto makeup button. The gain-reduction meter sits right between the input and output meters, so you can see exactly how hard it is working.
Version 1.1.7 supports VST3, AU, AAX, LV2, and CLAP across macOS, Windows, and Linux, with an installer for each on the page. There's also a web demo that runs right in the browser if you want to poke at it before installing anything. If you need a comp that doesn't fight your workflow, this one earns its spot.
Product page: https://jun-murakami.web.app/apps/zerocomp
Flipping between the VCA, Opt, FET, and Vari-Mu modes on the same loop to hear how each reshapes the envelope is the fastest way to learn what each compressor type actually does.
Running the same loop through all four modes really is the fastest way to hear what each one does.
That loop-swap method is how I learned compressors too, hearing all four on the same drum break makes the differences impossible to miss.
The web demo that runs right in the browser is the smartest part, letting anyone poke at the knee and attack sliders before committing to an install.
Letting people poke at the sliders before installing anything is a smart move.
Browser demos should be standard at this point, installing a compressor blind is how you end up with a plugins folder full of regret.