A N V I L
BUS COMPRESSOR
Three engine modes. True Mid/Side. ADAA-saturated drive at up to 8x oversampling. A premium bus compressor — free.
Shape time, hold weight.
One plugin. Three personalities.
Anvil's compressor core can be reshaped to match the era your mix wants. Switch instantly — no preset hop-scotching.
MODERN
Clean feed-forward bus comp. Predictable, fast, transparent. The default for surgical mixing and modern productions.
Best for · Mix bus · drums
VARI-MU
Tube/Fairchild-style. Knee narrows progressively as the input gets loud. Recovery is patient and program-dependent — that "expensive" gluey feel.
Best for · Glue · master
OPTO
LA-2A-style optical cell. Slow at low GR, snappier at heavy compression. The classic forgiving vocal/bass compressor in plugin form.
Best for · Vocals · bass
Three live views.
Always honest.
Open any combination and watch exactly what the compressor is doing — in real time, on your own audio.
Transfer curve
The static curve from threshold, ratio, knee and range, with a live dot tracking the operating point as audio flows through.
GR history
A rolling four-second trace of gain reduction. See the compressor breathe and spot pumping at a glance.
Spectrum
Pre and post FFT overlaid and 1/3-octave smoothed. Watch the drive add harmonics and keep the tonal balance in check.
No shortcuts.
ADAA Saturation
Anti-derivative anti-aliasing on the tanh drive stage. Alias-free harmonic colour even at unity oversampling.
Up to 8x Oversampling
Polyphase IIR halfband filters around the drive nonlinearity. 2x is the default for everyday use; 8x for mastering renders.
True Mid/Side
Two independent envelope followers — compress the centre and the sides on their own terms. Mastering-grade stereo control.
Dual Mono Mode
Run L and R through fully independent compressors when you need surgical asymmetric control.
External Sidechain + Listen
Standard SC routing with SC HPF (20-300 Hz, OFF at minimum) and a Listen button to monitor exactly what the detector hears.
5 ms Look-Ahead
Optional transient look-ahead with correctly reported latency. Off by default for tracking; on for mixing and mastering.
Auto Makeup with live readout
Compensates for average gain reduction and displays "+X.X dB" live next to the knob. A/B fairly with bypass any time.
16 Factory Presets
Bus Glue, Drum Bus, Master Polish, plus a dedicated Vintage family: SSL Bus Glue, Distressor 4:1, LA-2A Smoothie, Fairchild Wide.
A/B with Crossfade
Numeric parameters smoothly crossfade between snapshots over 500 ms. Compare without the harsh jump.
MIDI Learn
Right-click any knob, move a hardware controller, done. Mappings persist with the session.
Tap-Tempo Sync
Lock the release time to host BPM and read it as a musical note value: ¼ · ⅛ · ¹⁄₁₆ including dotted and triplet.
Pluginval 10 Verified
Validated at the highest strictness level across 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96 and 192 kHz. Bulletproof state save/load and parameter automation.
Up and running in a minute.
Download
Grab the macOS installer — VST3, AU and Standalone, Universal2. It installs everything to the right place.
Get your key
Enter your email and we send a free unlock key. One email, one key — no account, no card.
Unlock
Open Anvil, click UNLOCK in the header, paste the key and hit Activate. Up to three machines.
Free.
The whole plugin — every engine, every feature — at no cost. Download it, then unlock with a free key we email you. One email, that's the whole deal.
- ✓ VST3 + AU + Standalone for macOS (Universal2)
- ✓ Windows VST3 — coming soon (also free)
- ✓ Free key by email — up to 3 machines
- ✓ Free updates — forever
- ✓ Use it in commercial releases, no restrictions
System requirements
- OS
- macOS 11+ (Intel + Apple Silicon)
Windows 10+ (coming soon) - Formats
- VST3, AU, Standalone
- Sample Rates
- 44.1 - 192 kHz
- DAWs
- Ableton Live 11/12 · Logic Pro · Studio One · Cubase · Reaper · FL Studio · Bitwig Studio · any VST3/AU host
- CPU
- < 3% per instance @ 48 kHz / 256 (M1)
- Price
- Free
Why is it free?
Anvil is Velora Audio's first release. Giving it away is the honest way to earn your trust and build a community before the next plugins arrive. If Anvil makes your mixes better, tell a friend — that's all we ask.