The Brainworx company have enhanced their legendary Shadow Hills compressor with External Sidechain, adjustable Internal Sidechain Filters and onboard parallel Mix (Dry/Wet) capabilities.
According to the manufacturer of the plugin, it has been meticulously modeled after the legendary hardware version, and “no details have been spared when crafting the digital version of one of the most musical and versatile compressors out there“. A well known device among music producers and sound engineers, the Shadow Hills compressor tames even the most unruly and chaotic transients with flawless tone and control. It has been the go-to buss compressor on classic records by Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Beck, Green Day, Coldplay and many more.
One of the most important things that can be done with the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor is your signals can be treated with dual-stage compression, dialing in compression through the Optical or the Discrete sections. In the Optical section you will find the traditional Threshold and Gain settings, with a two-stage release time that is similar to the one you find on an LA-2A. With this section, your dynamic range can be shaped and the overall level brought up. In the VCA Discrete section, you have more control over the ratio, attack and release settings, which allows you to fine-tune the compression response.
Further tonal character can be built with the three Output Transformers. A user can toggle between each one to easily shift the tonal balance of the compressor. Choosing between STEEL, NICKEL or IRON will help the compressor add distinct flavors commonly found on a few consoles. NICKEL offers smooth lows with a polished top end and sounds great on more subtle and sparse recordings. IRON has a more coloured sound but still maintains a clear high end with a small boost in the 100Hz range. It operates through a Class-A output stage that applies only even-ordered harmonic distortion, leaving the user with a very musical sound. The STEEL transformer is supposed to have a detailed and fast response with a subtle boost in the 40Hz range.
To complete the features that came straight from the hardware, Brainworx added a Parallel Mix control, a Sidechain Filter and an External Sidechain option in the proprietary toolbar. The Sidechain filter can prevent frequencies below the setting from triggering the compression for ultra-tight sounding mixes.
Product features:
- Exacting emulation of the original Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
- Approved and endorsed by Peter Reardon – the founder of Shadow Hills Industries
- A selection of three different types of output transformers
- Separate Optical and Discrete compression sections for two-stage compression techniques
- Stereo and dual-mono modes
- Additional features: Parallel Mix , Sidechain Filter (20Hz – 666Hz), External Sidechain
Supported Plugin Formats
AAX DSP, AAX Native, AU, AAX AudioSuite, VST2, VST3
Supported Operating Systems
MacOS 10.9 through 10.14
Windows 7 through 10
Mac
Intel CPU only (minimum 2 GHz recommended)
PC
Intel-compatible CPU with SSE2 instruction set (Pentium 4 compatible or higher; minimum 2 GHz recommended)
System Requirements
Display resolution: 1440 × 900px or 1280 × 960px or higher
Memory: 2 GB RAM
The manufacturer offers a 14-day trial to be downloaded HERE
Listen to samples treated with the plugin:
More info under: https://www.plugin-alliance.com/
