Brainworx and Shadow Hills have lifted the lid on the brand new Shadow Hills OptoMax, a brand new optical compressor which takes the optical part from the favored Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor and reworks it right into a “new and thrilling beast”.
Brainworx says it has used its “industry-leading analogue modelling experience” to seize “each nuance” of the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor’s optical circuits.
“The result’s a musical, characterful compressor with a number of transformer colourations and highly effective new modes that make it adaptable for every part from clear levelling to aggressive, saturated compression,” says Brainworx.
For anybody in want of a historical past lesson, the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plugin recreated the long-lasting {hardware} compressor utilized by the likes of Muse, Inexperienced Day, Gnarls Barkley and plenty of extra.
The brand new OptoMax plugin options an expanded set of controls; ratio and velocity controls (sluggish, med, quick) open the realm of recent sonic prospects, however whereas retaining the “important bloom and smoothness of optical compression”.
There’s additionally a Push mode, which permits the consumer to faucet into an “ultra-fast” timing mode for “aggressive fashionable sounds”.
Three distinct harmonic flavours are on faucet, too, courtesy of Shadow Hills’ Nickel, Iron and Metal transformer circuits from the unique Mastering Compressor.
Different modern-thinking options embrace a devoted Tone management, with which the consumer can swap between Air for “silky brilliance” or Easy to rein in high finish.
There’s additionally superior sidechain routing choices, and the GUI window is resizable for the optimum artistic workflow.
“Analogue optical compressors remodel the non-linear traits of sunshine glowing and fading into easy, musical compression,” the corporate says.
“Nonetheless, on account of this important mechanism, they’re typically restricted to slower assault and launch instances. OptoMax preserves that basic, bloom-without-bite really feel, however makes use of the ability of digital processing so as to add deeper timing management and a strong sidechain part for contemporary engineers.”
Shadow Hills OptoMax is on the market now for an introductory worth of $69 till 24 December, after which it is going to rise to $150.
Get yours at Plugin Alliance.
Sam is the Affiliate Information Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Totally immersed in music tradition for almost all of his life, Sam has performed guitar for 20 years, studied music expertise and manufacturing at college, and in addition written for the likes of MusicRadar, Guitar World, Complete Guitar and Metallic Hammer.
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