I recently rewatched the Justice masterclass on Mix With The Masters — and one detail really stood out.
They used upward compression on their percussions in Neverender to bring up quiet transients and make the drums feel more alive.
🎧 I’ve actually used this trick in some of my own sample pack creations — especially on kicks, snares, and layered drum loops — to give them more energy and texture.
In their session, they used ADPTR SCULPT for that kind of control. But to make it more accessible, I built a FabFilter Pro-MB preset that gives a similar effect — and works great in parallel.
💡 What is upward compression?
It lifts the quietest parts of your audio without touching the peaks — perfect for drums, reverb tails, or soft textures.
PS: There’s no preview available because it’s a FabFilter Pro-MB preset — the file format doesn’t support audio previews. You’ll need to download it and load it directly into the plugin.
How to load it:
In Pro-MB, go to Options > Open other preset, or drop it directly in your default Pro-MB preset folder.
This setting works great on:
- Drum buses
- Reverb sends (especially vocals)
- Any soft transient-heavy material
🖼️ (see screenshot below for settings)
Take care,
Jocelyn from Justesse Sounds
You can download our new sample pack inspired by Justice (Cross, Hyperdrama) & Daft Punk (Discovery).
Photo credit @MixWithTheMasters & Screenshot from YouTube Channel of MixWithTheMasters