Rivet: A Free FET Compressor With Five Analog Personalities
Five compressor revisions, harmonic drive, advanced sidechain control and up to 8x oversampling inside one completely free plugin.
Rivet by GANUE Audio is a free FET-style compressor built around an unusual concept: instead of modelling one specific compressor revision, it places five different personalities inside the same plugin.
The workflow remains intentionally hardware-inspired. There is no traditional threshold control. You push the signal into the compressor using the Input control, then compensate with Output. The harder the signal hits the circuit, the stronger the compression and harmonic character become.
For producers who enjoy fast, characterful dynamics processing on vocals, drums, bass and buses, Rivet offers a surprising amount of control for a completely free plugin.
Five FET Compressor Revisions in One Plugin
The central Revision selector changes more than simple coloration. Each mode modifies the compression ratios, knee behaviour, detector response and harmonic character.
The five available revisions are:
- A: gritty and aggressive with stronger odd-harmonic bite.
- AE: the most colourful version, with richer even-harmonic character.
- LN: warmer and smoother with broader compression knees.
- F: tighter and more modern with harder knees.
- H: clean and neutral, designed as the reference setting.
This makes Rivet much more flexible than a compressor offering one fixed tonal profile.
Input-Driven Compression
Rivet does not use a conventional threshold knob.
Instead, Input determines how hard the audio drives the compressor circuit. Increase the level and both compression and character become progressively stronger.
This approach is particularly intuitive on drums and vocals because you can quickly push the signal until the desired amount of movement appears, then use Output to restore the final level.
Classic Ratios and All-Buttons Mode
The compressor provides fixed ratio settings inspired by classic FET hardware.
Most revisions offer:
- 4:1
- 8:1
- 12:1
- 20:1
- ALL mode
The AE revision also includes a 2:1 setting.
ALL recreates the aggressive behaviour associated with pressing all ratio buttons simultaneously, making it particularly effective for parallel drums, room microphones and more extreme vocal compression.
Hear Rivet in Action
This demonstration explores Rivet on different sources and shows how its five revisions change the compression character.
Fast Attack and Release
Like the classic compressor family that inspired it, Rivet is designed for fast dynamics control.
Attack operates from approximately 0.1 to 17 milliseconds, while Release covers roughly 71 to 573 milliseconds.
The controls use the reversed behaviour associated with this type of hardware, where turning the knob toward the faster end produces increasingly rapid processing.
This makes Rivet especially effective when controlling sharp vocal peaks, bass transients and aggressive drum material.
Built-In Harmonic Drive
A dedicated Drive stage adds harmonic colour independently from the main compression behaviour.
The processor is oversampled and anti-aliased, allowing Rivet to move from relatively transparent dynamics control toward a more saturated analog-style tone.
This is particularly useful when a vocal, bass or drum bus needs more density without loading an additional saturation plugin after the compressor.
Advanced Sidechain Section
Rivet goes considerably further than the typical free compressor when it comes to detector control.
The sidechain section includes a high-pass filter and a four-band detector EQ with adjustable Q.
This allows specific frequency areas to influence the compressor more or less strongly without changing the audible tonal balance of the original signal.
External sidechain input is also supported, and the detector can be soloed while adjusting the filtering.
Look-Ahead and Look-Behind Detection
Rivet includes adjustable detector timing that can move both ahead of and behind the incoming signal.
Look-ahead can help catch fast peaks before they pass through, while look-behind allows intentionally later detector behaviour for a different transient response.
This is an unusual feature for a free compressor and gives producers another way to shape the relationship between transients and gain reduction.
GR Limit and AMP Mode
The GR Limit parameter places a ceiling on the maximum amount of gain reduction.
This can prevent the compressor from reacting too aggressively when unexpected peaks arrive.
At its extreme AMP setting, gain reduction can be disabled entirely while the harmonic character of the selected revision remains active.
Rivet can therefore double as a colour processor even when compression itself is not required.
Stereo, Dual Mono and Mid/Side Processing
Three stereo processing modes are available:
- Linked Stereo
- Dual Mono
- Mid/Side
Linked Stereo provides conventional stereo compression, while Dual Mono allows both channels to react more independently.
Mid/Side mode opens additional possibilities for bus and mastering work by allowing centre and stereo information to be treated differently.
Up to 8x Oversampling
Rivet supports up to 8x oversampling, with separate quality settings for real-time playback and offline rendering.
This allows producers to work at a lighter CPU setting while mixing, then use higher oversampling quality when exporting the final track.
The interface can also be scaled between 100% and 200% for high-resolution displays.
31 Factory Presets
Rivet includes 31 factory presets covering a broad range of production situations.
- Vocals
- Drums
- Bass
- Guitar
- Mix buses
- Mastering
- Creative effects
- Sidechain processing
Because the selected compressor revision is stored with each preset, presets can recall both processing settings and the overall tonal personality of the compressor.
Rivet at a Glance
Developer: GANUE Audio
Version: 1.0.0
Type: FET-style compressor
Compressor revisions: 5
Ratios: ALL / 20 / 12 / 8 / 4, plus 2:1 on AE
Attack: Approximately 0.1 – 17 ms
Release: Approximately 71 – 573 ms
Sidechain EQ: 4-band + HPF
External sidechain: Yes
Parallel Mix: Yes
Oversampling: Up to 8x
Stereo modes: Stereo / Dual Mono / M/S
Factory presets: 31
Windows: Windows 10+ 64-bit, VST3
macOS: macOS 11+, VST3 / AU
Apple Silicon: Native support
Price: Free / Pay What You Want from €0
No iLok, No Activation, No Locked Features
GANUE Audio distributes Rivet completely free of charge through a pay-what-you-want download.
The minimum price is zero. There is no iLok requirement, online activation system or paid feature unlock.
An email address is required through Gumroad to receive the download links, and a complete PDF manual is included.
Download Rivet for Free
Rivet is available directly from GANUE Audio for Windows and macOS.
Final Thoughts
Rivet is unusually ambitious for a free compressor. The five selectable revisions alone provide several different tonal personalities, but GANUE Audio also adds advanced sidechain filtering, harmonic drive, gain-reduction limiting, Mid/Side processing and up to 8x oversampling. Whether you need fast vocal control, aggressive drum compression or subtle bus colour, Rivet offers enough flexibility to become much more than another free plugin sitting unused in the effects folder.
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