Tokyo Dawn Records: Kotelnikov - Mastering compressor

TDR/Fabien have become one of my favorite devs, because a) Fabien really knows his sh*t, and b) the products are being actively developed and improved, despite being freebies. With some further optimization and some tutorial documentation these could easily become successful commercial products. But for $0 I'm willing to accept the extra CPU cycles and having to figure it out for myself.
 
The key to understanding this plugin is that there are two separate detectors, one looking at peaks and the other measuring RMS. With most compressors, you're either looking just at peaks or you have a choice of peaks or RMS. This results in the common practice of using two compressors in series on busses, one to contain peaks and the other for leveling. With Kotelnikov, one plugin handles both. Separate release times for peaks and RMS means you can let transients reset quickly while smoothing the overall volume with slower RMS release times. Or do the opposite for things you want to pump to the beat. Many combinations, but I haven't tried them all yet.
 
The trick is getting the peak and RMS detectors to not fight one another, e.g. when you have large peaks but low overall average values. The "crest factor" knob handles that, by setting the relative influence of the peak and RMS detectors. Turn crest factor down to raise RMS (loudness), turn it up to mainly just control excessive peaks.
 
In this way you are able to decide how much punch you're willing to sacrifice in the name of loudness, or vice versa. Turn it fully counter-clockwise to turn the plugin into a plain peak compressor. Turn it fully clockwise to make it straight RMS compressor. Set it to around 3dB to give peak and RMS equal weight, a good place to start on the master bus.
 
You'll also want to adjust the Knee parameter depending on how the compressor is being used. For leveling, turn it to 12 o'clock or more. For peak limiting, turn it fully counter-clockwise.
 
Even though it's intended as a mastering compressor, the plugin's minimum attack time of 20 microseconds puts it in 1176 territory in terms of ultra-fast clamping/clipping. I haven't explored this aspect yet, not generally being a fan of very fast attacks except for specific remedial situations. But I think it's pretty cool that one plugin covers so many bases.