A plug-in just bottled the crunch of a compressor that stamped countless 90s records. Shy Audio recreated a VCA-based rackmount unit that landed on piles of techno, house, and hip hop tracks back then, dubbing it Shy 90s Smack. It can play subtly, but it reportedly shines when pushed harder.
The thing does a lot in one box. It handles compression, expansion, and limiting, and it packs a de-esser with its own detection circuit. Shy Audio say their engineers measured and rebuilt the original's gain-reduction curves, OTA-based VCA distortion, attack and release timing, auto mode, and more.
Heads up on the settings, though. The company points out that the hardware's panel labels didn't always match true parameter values, so nailing the sound might need slightly different dials.
The fresh additions include a Mojo control, which shifts detector behavior from smooth envelope-based action toward the original's harder, faster grab. Crank it to max, and the VCA starts fighting back, spitting out that distorted, grabby character. They also tossed in side-chain filtering with an FFT analyzer.
It runs on Windows 10 or later and macOS 10.13 and up, in VST3, AU, and AAX, priced at €29.
The thing does a lot in one box. It handles compression, expansion, and limiting, and it packs a de-esser with its own detection circuit. Shy Audio say their engineers measured and rebuilt the original's gain-reduction curves, OTA-based VCA distortion, attack and release timing, auto mode, and more.
Heads up on the settings, though. The company points out that the hardware's panel labels didn't always match true parameter values, so nailing the sound might need slightly different dials.
The fresh additions include a Mojo control, which shifts detector behavior from smooth envelope-based action toward the original's harder, faster grab. Crank it to max, and the VCA starts fighting back, spitting out that distorted, grabby character. They also tossed in side-chain filtering with an FFT analyzer.
It runs on Windows 10 or later and macOS 10.13 and up, in VST3, AU, and AAX, priced at €29.
