23DSP releases Thistressor - Distressor‑inspired compressor plugin with asymmetric diode distortion

23DSP has released Thistressor, a compressor plugin developed by independent developer Marco Allegretti. The plugin takes inspiration from the Distressor and combines flexible compression controls, a dedicated sidechain section, and an analog-style asymmetric distortion engine. Thistressor uses a clean parallel architecture, keeping the dry path untouched while applying input-dependent gain compensation, pre-distortion, compression, and ratio-scaled post-distortion on the processed path. The sidechain includes a variable high-pass filter, high-frequency emphasis, and a subtle mid focus, with RMS, Peak, and Combined detector modes to suit different material. The plugin also offers several character modes that adjust the effective ratio and envelope behavior, along with multiple distortion modes ranging from clean operation to more saturated, harmonically rich textures. A dry/wet control, output gain, and clear gain-reduction metering round out the interface. Thistressor ships with 20 factory presets covering vocals, drums, instruments, buses, and creative use cases. Pricing & Availability Thistressor is available for macOS and Windows in VST3 and AU plugin formats for 10 €. A time-limited trial version is available, with licenses activated via Gumroad. Read More