Jeroen Breebaart has released PC-2, a freeware compressor VST effect plug-in.
From breebaart.com:
Conventional compressors are based on peak or rms-level estimation to compute their time-variant gain or attenuation. This property of most compressors often causes undesirable intermodulation distortion and pumping/breathing artifacts.
JB PC-2 features a ‘psycho-acoustic relevance’ mode. Instead of using a peak or rms-level estimation, this mode employs a perceptual loudness model to compute the loudness of the input signal. This perceptual loudness model is combined with advanced attack and release stages that model peripheral adaptation of the human auditory nerve. The result is a very transparent compression characteristic, even with very short attack and release times.
On the other hand, the simple, classic compression behavior can be engaged too by simply switching off the complex loudness model.
Visit Jeroen Breebaart‘s website to download PC-2.
Make sure to check out the other VST plug-ins as well (TapeIt is now called Ferox).