I agree. That's the "old trick" with UAD Fairchild - just running the signal through it gives nice & pleasant sound.

 

TR-670 had a crunch when pushed that i really like on piano and guitars, recently i'd a/b between midnight.
alternatively I Vari-mu for cleaner compression when i really just need the curves i'd a/b that with Kolin (A.O) or MJUC

 

Personally I use 4 of them, 2 of which are quite recurrent to glue rhythm buses or give a specific color to certain elements during mixing!

In order of recurring to least recurring use:

Overloud 670 gemcomp, which is in my eyes I think the best I have it offers a real range of possibilities and has great flexibility between the stereo/MS functions and the fact of being able to make the knee hard or to push reduce the harmonics , + the Dry/wet function which also allows you to have sufficient recoil and just the right balance depending on the situation, it is my favorite especially for kick buses and/or voices that need a bit of color and presence in the mix! It is particularly interesting for working on fx which spatializes enormously to control or drive the side crazy even if it creates the desired out-of-phase ^^!!

Firechild from Tone empire, a color, not very typical particular colors, generally I turn to him when I have not managed to concretely use the 670 overloud with the sources that I have and or to support the grain after or before VCA compression. The sidechain and hpf/lpf filter function is very interesting on it although quickly confusing depending on the mode chosen on the left! It peaks quite quickly too and has a tendency, I find, to enormously inflate the odd harmonics, which makes it an interesting tool but to be gauged sparingly.

Firechainer from Antress, a small free plugin box with a GUI that doesn't look like much, but damn what does it sound like, it's damn light on the CPU! Personally the firechainer and the deathcore of antress never disappointed me very good compression as a very good limiter it has a tendency to enormously inflate the spatialization of the elements for vocals or fx feedback it is perfect for me and it gives a real presence what passes through in the mix, it is little colored according to the desired threshold but it has a real thing for me, I really like the quality and ease of use of a product like this!

Finally the last one that I use the few times I used it is Midnight by AA in compression nothing suits me in limitation either it is only in the use of saturation that it brings a real thing for me but tends to modify the peak rms levels too much for my fine taste I don't really know what else to think of it since I used it it is interesting but don't break a duck's three legs !

Finally the ultramarine I was a legitimate user and now R2R and nothing helps I don't like this compressor I don't know what I don't like but I have the impression either of not succeeding in m 'use it correctly, do not enter the right sources or everything that comes out of it sounds soft or too behind the scenes for me, unlike these predecessors cited above if someone has good or bad feedback I would be very curious to see your use of the ultramarine!

 

Personal preference - UAD though - The GEM version is good too but more CPU intensive.