Quick TDR Molot GE review of the reworked classic “Hammer”

Another new compressor has hit the market from Tokyo Dawn. I love the stuff these guys produce so will always be excited to hear about a new plugin from them. Take a look at my TDR Molot GE review to see how it performs.

I got my hands on their latest offering. A compressor plugin called Molot (which apparently is Russian for “Hammer”. I’m test driving the GE or “Gentlemans Edition” which are the full blown versions of their product ranges.

This is a revamped version of the previous VladG Molot Compressor but with clear instructions to take over by being modern, flexible as well as adding a generous dose of rock ‘n roll. So let us do a TDR Molot GE review

So does it do that? Hell yes.

First impressions of TDR Molot GE

My initial thoughts from the first visual look of the product was “military”. This looked as though it means business and won’t take any you know what from anyone. The green army look and feel with the contrasting white writing and red/orange display make it stand out.

I feel confident before even using the product that it will be very intuitive. Everything looks to be in place and the left to right flow of signal with a nice big monitoring needle gives me good vibes that I will know what’s going on when processing my audio.

The big knobs are the important ones for a compressor – Input, Threshold, Makeup. The others all look to be where I would expect them to be and the dry mix knob also in situ near the bottom so as to dial in and out signal when needed.

How does it perform?

When doing my TDR Molot GE review I opened up one of my new tracks and added this plugin to a few different instruments. I wanted to test functions on drums, bass and highs to cover all areas of the frequency scope.

I was able to get this processing on the drum loop first quite successfully and having a tweak with a few settings, I could vary from a simple compression function to a pumping effect.

Being able to dial this in and out using the ‘dry’ knob allowed automation to be placed easily in different parts of the track.

Presenting Presets

As part of the investigation for the TDR Molot GE review, when looking around the interface I found a particularly useful set of presets.

These covered all aspects of what I was hoping to test too. Variety from required effect (less colourful, more colours) to individual instruments (Drum bus, snare etc) were all there in the preset list. This really helped me see what possibilities were available in the plugin.

Also there were a number of free slots for me to save my own presets in to. A simple right click will allow you to save a state to a preset slot.

An extension of this feature which I really liked, was the copy paste option being available. So if you have some setting and it sounds good, simply Ctrl+C to copy it to memory. Then tweak around some more and if you don’t like it, press Ctrl+V to paste back in the old values.

The copy paste feature was something I’ve seen previously in the Klanghelm range of products (which this plugin actually really reminds me of) so am glad to see it here too. It may be common place with all TDR products I’m not sure – however it is certainly a welcome feature in my eyes when doing this TDR Molot GE review.

Hitting the wall

What’s a compressor if it doesn’t limit. There are no limits here when it comes to limiting. One of it’s notable features is the “Analogue style brickwall limiter”.

Therefore a limiter which will still allow transients – probably better placed for gluing a mix together rather than being a final final limiter in the chain, but this is always topic for debate. For my TDR Molot GE review this was certainly a plus.

Final thoughts?

I like the old school feel of this limiter. When doing the TDR Molot GE review I found it acts like you can put anything through it and because it is so versatile then the sound will get processed beautifully.

I am looking forward to testing this on some vocals and instruments in the mid range. I’ve not tried it yet but I can tell that it will pick something out and give it that little bit extra.

From a price vs features point of view this offers so much bang for the buck. It’s a no brainer to have in your plugin arsenal and as I state in my TDR Molot GE review, I would highly recommend it.

It is certainly going to end up at some point in my top compressor plugin list. You can grab your copy at Plugin Boutique and get the instant download link after purchase. I hope you found this TDR Molot GE review useful and if you want a copy – click the buy now button.