VladG Molot

Molot by Vladislav Goncharov (VladG) is the original character compressor from the early 2010s, with a GUI styled after a Soviet military instrument and a sound to match. It’s not an emulation of any specific hardware. Goncharov compares its character to a Neve 33609 on drums, a Tube-Tech CL 1B on vocals, and a Fairchild 670 on the master bus. But in my experience, it really does its own thing. The signal can be pushed through even-harmonic saturation, dithering for “air,” and a non-linear-phase oversampling filter for low-end weight.

All of those can be switched off if you want a cleaner response. There’s also a built-in limiter section and a mid-color stage that lets you brighten the midrange. I love using this one on a drum bus, because it grinds in a way that few free compressors can. It can also work as a subtle saturator on the master bus. I highly recommend reading the manual at least once. The controls aren’t standard, and a lot of what makes Molot special is hidden in non-obvious places.

A note for Mac users. The original Molot only has a 32-bit Mac build, which is effectively unusable in modern macOS DAWs. If you’re on Mac, go straight to TDR Molotok below. Windows users have full 32/64-bit VST support and can keep using the original Molot in 2026.