Developer Nextlight has released Next OXX, a free OTT-style multi-band compressor plugin for Windows.
It’s been almost two decades since the original OTT Multiband Dynamics preset came on the scene with Ableton Live 8.
Although presets are meant to be inspiring, and a lot of effort goes into designing them, this particular preset, designed by Claes Johansson, who went on to develop Bitwig Studio, has had a journey that most people probably never expected.
This over-the-top combination of upward and downward compression became the signature sound of in-your-face electronic music, most notably in genres like dubstep and drum & bass, with artists like Skrillex.
The OTT sound works well in other genres, including hip-hop variants and even sound design, but it helped establish Ableton Live as the preferred DAW for many EDM producers.
Now we can add Next OXX by Nextlight to that list.
Nextlight is a Tokyo-based electronic music label, while Next OXX is a free OTT-inspired plugin, available in 64-bit VST3 format for Windows 11.
The developer talks about maintaining the same up-front, aggressive character of the original OTT, while suppressing unnecessary noise/roughness.
Nextlight also talks about building Next OXX specifically for modern music production with an optimized engine and intuitive interface.
One of the problems with OTT compression in general is the temptation to go too far over the top, and slapping it on everything rarely ends well.
It seems that Next OXX is offering a slightly more refined version of OTT without straying too far from the original by adding many new features.
I’m not sure if a macOS version is on the cards, which rules me out for the time being. For now, if you’re on Windows, feel free to share your thoughts on Next OXX in the comments, and let us know if it’s worth adding to your OTT collection.
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Last Updated on July 8, 2026 by Tomislav Zlatic.
