Plugin Alliance Shadow Hills OptoMax: A Streamlined Version of the Legendary Compressor
A stripped-down version of the Shadow Hills MC for a faster workflow.
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Plugin Alliance Shadow Hills OptoMax: A Streamlined Version of the Legendary Compressor · Source: Plugin Alliance
Plugin Alliance Shadow Hills OptoMax · Source: Plugin Alliance
Developed by Brainworx, Plugin Alliance Shadow Hills OptoMax is modelled on the optical circuitry from the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor.
The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor is one of the most coveted compressors ever designed, with VCA and optical compression circuits, and a choice of different output transformer circuits for adding different flavours. This made the Shadow Hills MC useful for more than just mastering, as you can use it to process individual instruments, channel groups, or your mix bus.
Plugin Alliance Shadow Hills OptoMax
The OptoMax plugin gives you access to the optical compressor circuit from the Shadow Hills MC, which is where most of its sonic character comes from. What’s more, you have a choice of nickel, iron, and steel output transformer stages, just like the original. This makes the OptoMax less of a mastering beast and more of a versatile opto compressor for processing any element in your mix.
You can use it for subtle transient shaping, as you would use a leveling amplifier during tracking, or you can go all out and slam drums and guitars with more severe, saturated compression. Meanwhile, the mix control allows you to do parallel processing, so you can dial back aggressive settings to preserve the integrity of the input signal.
The workflow is quite simple, so you can quickly work out your favourite settings for vocals, bass, guitars, synths, and drums. There are three speed settings, three ratio settings, and three tone settings, which provide you with a nice range to work within, while the Push feature gives you access to a faster, more modern limiter.
There is also a variable internal sidechain filter (up to 4 kHz) with an emphasis control, an external sidechain input, and a sidechain link feature. This gives you precise control over what the compressor is reacting to, so you can target specific areas of the frequency range if you need to.
Meanwhile, you can add character with the Harmonics and TX Drive controls, which, overall, make the OptoMax a well-rounded compressor plugin for any style of music production.
Pricing and Availability:
The Plugin Alliance Shadow Hills OptoMax is currently available at an intro price of $70 until 24 December; the regular price is $150. Get it at Plugin Boutique.*
More about the Plugin Alliance Shadow Hills OptoMax:
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