Dynamics Plugins. Plugin Alliance. Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor Plugin When you buy products through links across our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in for UAD-2 and Apollo interfaces provides everything from a velvet touch to an iron fist — making it a go-to on records by Muse, Green Day, Gnarls Barkley, and more. Designed by Brainworx, the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in is a thorough emulation of the high-end hardware.

Two compressors, three switchable transformers and the plugin weighs considerably less than the 35 lb. (about 16 kg) hardware unit.

The people at Shadow Hills must have a sense of humor, based on the manual for this hardware (and carried over into the plugin version). Following the metaphor of “military-grade”, they carry the idea of victory into using the compressor.

Brainworx developed the UAD software, and it matches their own version of it. Changing the output transformer settings—steel, nickel or iron—has an effect on the frequency response, not so much the harmonics.

Hints:

You can set up the meters to show the gain reduction of each compressors instead of left/right. Very handy.
Try it on a drum bus. Slam the discrete compressor with a 10ms attack and ‘Flood’ ratio. It will pound.

What Is UAD?

UAD(Universal Audio) are the pioneers at audio recording. This company was found back in 1958 and is still rocking today. They are known due to their dedication to analog audio gear and stunning quality. This brand provides leading quality products. UAD Plugins were winning over audio engineers and been a standard gear in professional studios for over 15+ years.

The Best UAD Plugins

Fender 55 Tweed Deluxe Plug-in
UA 175B & 176 Tube Compressor Collection
Capitol Chambers
Neve Preamp
Moog Multimode Filter Collection
Pure Plate Reverb
API 2500 Bus Compressor
Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
Dbx160
SSL 4000 Series Console Bundle

Fender 55 Tweed Deluxe Plug-in

One of the greatest guitar amplifiers on the market for a reasonable price. UAD developed this plugin for a few years and this vst is promoted by Fender Musical Instruments .

Fender 55 Tweed Deluxe features:

Authentic simulation of a 1955 Fender Amplifier with zero latency
Adjust the amp tones with different microphones and placements without having any phase issues

Price: 99,00 €

UA 175B & 176 Tube Compressor Collection

The 176 tube compressor was first released in the 1960s. This is an upgraded version by UAD. This compressor collection gives warmness and richness to the sound. Furthermore, it is a tube type compressor, thus it can give a similar sound as a fairchild compressor does.

UA 175B & 176 Tube Compressor features

Mix with Bill Putnam style compressor
Control dynamics with 2:1, 4:1, 8:1, 12:1 ratios
Gives vintage tube character to the sound
Dry/Wet parallel processing + customizable headroom
Tube amplifier has rich harmonics
Artist presets included(U2, Bruce Springsteen, Kings of Leon and many others)

Price: 149,00 €

Capitol Chambers

UAD did a really good job modeling Capitol Studios echo chambers, which are one of the best sounding echo chambers studios in the world.

Capitol Chambers features

Authentic and the only one simulation of Capitol Studios echo chambers sound.
Special chambers configurations created by Steve Genewick
Incredibly intense and natural sounding reverb that fits perfectly to most of the instruments.
Modify the sound by changing position of microphones using Dynamic Room Modeling
Presets that was created by grammy winners Al Schmitt, Darrell Thorp, Frank Filipetti and many more

Price: 174,00 €

Plugin Alliance Shadow Hills Torrent

Neve Preamp

Amazing mic preamplifier, that reproduces thick sound and provides rich harmonics.

Neve Preamp features

Simulation of classic class-A preamp
Rich saturation that gives colour to the sound
Record in real time with low digital signal processing usage

Price: 74,00 €

Moog Multimode Filter Collection

This multimode collection provides moog filter and sequencer. The main reason why this moog filter stands out from other regular moogs is that it sounds much more phatter, dirtier, punchier and richer.

Moog Multimode Filter features

Add organic taste to your instruments with Moog Ladder filters
Widen your sound spectrum and stereo with LFOs
Ability to sequence filter sounds with four lane step sequencer
Famous producer presets included such as Glitch Mob, Crystal Method and more

Price: 124,00 €

Pure Plate Reverb

High quality UAD plate reverb simulation. Very easy to use and sounds fantastic. It gives an organic texture to the sound.

Pure plate reverb features:

Natural depth recreation
Adjust reverb tone by controlling low and high end frequencies
Famous artist presets included: Black Eyed Peas, Prince, The Time and many others

Price: 74,00 €

API 2500 Bus Compressor

Chances are you already heard that this is the one of the most popular compressors out today. The main reason behind this is that there is any other punchier compressor than this. And it fits for the most styles, whether you produce hip hop, r&b, electronic or any other genre. API 2500 bus compressor gives that effect which feels like sound is jumping out of the speakers.

API 2500 Bus Compressor features:

Mix together stereo tracks using one of the most precise emulations of API 2500 compressor
Thrust technology. Gives a punchy boost to low end frequencies
Famous musician presets included(Red hot chilli peppers, Jack White and more)

Price: 149,00 €

Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor

Introduced back in 2012 and was quickly adopted by professional engineers and was a go-to compressor for all of the major studios. Besides that it looks fantastic and pleasing to work with, it is also famous due to its processing. It has two types of compression: optical and discrete that gives much more control over dynamics control.

Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor features:

Various characteristics and tones of distortion
2-Stage compression: optical and discrete
90Hz low end frequencies sidechain filtering

Price: 149,00 €

DBX 160 Compressor / Limiter

Dbx 160 compressor is one of the most popular compressors due to the fact that it simply sounds great and is very easy to use. Dbx 160 is usually used with lower frequency instruments such as kick, snare and bass.

Dbx 160 compressor / limiter features

Plugin Alliance Shadow Hills

Spice up the track with solid-state VCA compressor
Provides unique texture and character to the sound
Fat and punchy compressor which fits perfectly for bass or drums
Creates “In your face” effect

Price: 99,00 €

SSL 4000 Series Console Bundle

SSL(Solid State Logic) was presented back in 1979. And this console brought more platinum records than any other.

UAD SSL 4000 Series Console Bundle includes 2 main collections:

SSL 4000 E Series Channel Strip Collection. It gives that punch to your drums or bass instrument. Also it has intuitive low, high frequencies cut filters.

Second plugin in this console bundle is SSL 4000 G Bus Compressor Collection. It is often used to glue tracks together or to give an extra punch to the sound.

SSL 4000 Series Console Bundle features:

G Bus Aut