Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
-
The world’s most remarkable and revered audio compressor — available as a UAD plug-in.
The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in for UAD hardware and UA Audio 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.
Few pieces of audio hardware are as revered as the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor. Created by enigmatic mastermind, Peter Reardon, this five-rackspace behemoth tempers dynamics and tames transients like no other compressor in history. With its serial, two-stage dynamics control and switchable output transformer matrix.Mix and master with an emulation of the legendary Shadow Hills Compressor, endorsed by Peter Reardon
Harness Nickel, Iron, and Steel transformer types for a wide range of distortion characteristics and transient limiting
Use separate Optical and Discrete (VCA) dynamics sections for two-stage serial dynamics control
Employ 90 Hz sidechain filtering for musical compression of low-frequency program material
Three Majestic Compressors in One
The genius of the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in is its ability to control dynamics in two stages — an Optical and Discrete (VCA). Both sections can be bypassed, effectively providing three compression sounds (Optical, Discrete, and combined) in a single unit.
The Optical section is highly program dependent, with basic Threshold and Gain settings, and a two-stage release time akin to the classic LA-2A — perfect for gently taming dynamic range. The Discrete section takes over where the Optical section leaves off, provides precise control over gain, threshold, ratio, attack, and release.
Switchable Output Transformers — Nickel, Iron, and Steel
The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in’s tonal palette is enhanced by a unique matrix which allows selection between three output transformers — Nickel, Iron, and Steel. By switching the selected transformer type in and out of the signal path, you can hear the different frequency response, distortion characteristics, and transient limiting of each transformer — going from “clean” (Nickel), to “colored” (Iron), to “dirty” (Steel).
“The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in is the ultimate last-stop in a mixing chain. It’s punchy, hi-fi, and has lots of options. ”
– Joe Chiccarelli (Jason Mraz, Beck, The Strokes, Morrissey)
“The UAD Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in sounds incredibly accurate and gives me the tone I need — especially on the drum bus!”
– Dean Coleman
“The UAD Shadow Hills plug-in is replacing my 670 on the stereo buss. The two sides allow me to accomplish what I was using multiple compressors to achieve.”
– Mark Needham (The Killers, Neon Trees, P!nk)
“The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in has character and punch that no other plug-in can duplicate! ”
– Adam Hawkins (Twenty One Pilots, Switchfoot, Keith Urban)Customer Reviews
M. Griffo
January 16, 2021
Wow
I love this unit, it really makes things just have a little extra oomph to sound amazing.
Read Morec. antoine
January 12, 2021
Outil très puissant
D'énormes combinaisons et de possibilités a disposition avec ces deux technologies de compresseurs en un surtout pour contenir discrètement et gonfler son mix. Au top...
Read Morec. antoine
January 12, 2021
Outil très puissant
D'énormes combinaisons et de possibilités a disposition avec ces deux technologies de compresseurs en un surtout pour contenir discrètement et gonfler son mix. Au top...
Read Morec. antoine
January 12, 2021
Outil très puissant
D'énormes combinaisons et de possibilités a disposition avec ces deux technologies de compresseurs en un surtout pour contenir discrètement et gonfler son mix. Au top...
Read Morec. antoine
January 12, 2021
Outil très puissant
D'énormes combinaisons et de possibilités a disposition avec ces deux technologies de compresseurs en un surtout pour contenir discrètement et gonfler son mix. Au top...
Read Moreb. zucchetti
January 9, 2021
Top One ! as the original hardware and everything of UAudio !
Legendary.... Must to have ! Top Top ! A great big portable studio in my Mac ! By the time and waiting the right promotion i will buy everything of UAudio!...
Read More -
Key Features
Meticulous emulation of the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor, licensed and endorsed by Peter Reardon
Created by Brainworx, developed exclusively for the UAD Powered Plug-Ins platform
Separate Optical and Discrete (VCA) dynamics sections for two-stage serial dynamics control
Separate Threshold and makeup Gain for each dynamics section
Fixed Ratio, Attack and Recover settings within the Discrete section
Transformer matrix switches between Nickel, Iron, and Steel output transformers — like selecting between 3 distinct vintage console outputs
90 Hz sidechain filtering for musical compression of low-frequency program material
Large, accurate VU meters provide Optical, Discrete, or Output gain views
Custom presets created by Shadow Hills founder and designer Peter Reardon
Requires UAD-2 DSP Accelerator Card or Apollo Interface, available from authorized dealers worldwide
-
Customer Reviews
Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
M. Griffo
Wow
I love this unit, it really makes things just have a little extra oomph to sound amazing.
c. antoine
Outil très puissant
D'énormes combinaisons et de possibilités a disposition avec ces deux technologies de compresseurs en un surtout pour contenir discrètement et gonfler son mix.
Au topc. antoine
Outil très puissant
D'énormes combinaisons et de possibilités a disposition avec ces deux technologies de compresseurs en un surtout pour contenir discrètement et gonfler son mix.
Au topc. antoine
Outil très puissant
D'énormes combinaisons et de possibilités a disposition avec ces deux technologies de compresseurs en un surtout pour contenir discrètement et gonfler son mix.
Au topc. antoine
Outil très puissant
D'énormes combinaisons et de possibilités a disposition avec ces deux technologies de compresseurs en un surtout pour contenir discrètement et gonfler son mix.
Au topb. zucchetti
Top One ! as the original hardware and everything of UAudio !
Legendary.... Must to have ! Top Top !
A great big portable studio in my Mac !
By the time and waiting the right promotion i will buy everything of UAudio!M. Ramos Jiménez
It's great for mastering.
I love this compressor for mastering. You can use two diferrent compresor and then you can choose between three different ways of coloring the sound.
L. Martella
Great plugin
Great plugin, I use it in mastering and I must say that the audio quality improves considerably
n. binns
A Serious Bit of Emulation
I really like the feel of this Compressor. It was surprising in it's ability to glue a track together on a final mix I was mastering at the time. It's not for every style of music or situation. For hard to heavy sub oriented bass driven music with complex distortion this thing is a serious piece of kit. Something else.
a. lindsey
Extra Sweetness
The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor adds that extra sweetness on your mastering chain. I'm quite happy with all the presets and you certainly can hear the difference.
P. Konbang
Loveit
Helpful for your mid-high freq
M. McClintock
Amazing
This will give you depth and warmth to finalize your mixes in an very professional way, in the box.
.
Surprised
I did try the Acustica Audio version which I think does something strange to the transients in that it meddles with the attack too much making it slappy. Streaky the mastering engineer once said that if the needles move you have gone too far.. this is true because if you listen closely enough to this plugin the compression happens in the circuitry before the needles move... everything sounds better just running through it
M. kaltenbaugh
Just what I needed!
A must have in every studio. This is exactly what I needed to push my mixes further! An amazing tool for anyone making music!
j. julien
Magic
Really good on drum bus and for mastering....H. Cullen
OK for the money
I bought this because the Plug In Alliance version I was using has some problems with Ozone. I do like the plug in a lot especially the Sidechain Filter control, but I found the UAD version to be quite vicious, and its missing the stereo width adjustment of the Class A version. It's good in general and I'm glad I bought it but I don't think I'd buy it again on reflection.
M. Flores
Pure Magic!
I didn’t even wait for my 14 day trial to run out. I bought it as soon as i heard what it did to my stereo track! The 1,2 combo of the optical and vca compressors on it + plus the 90hz side chain just enhances the sound like no other. Perfect!
M. Smith
Beefy!
Throwing this onto mix and/or master busses with very little DSP usage to worry about, and getting a beefy, full, rich sound that punches harder than Kimbo Slice is astonishing to me. Buy it, totally worth the investment.
E. Koch
5.3% / 5.7% DSP Load ? ....are you Serious ?
can you guys double check that?....i have to save my pennies, but if the DSP chart holds the same figures, this might be a solution for me...thanks
S. Adiakov
Amazing comp!!!
It’s really one of the best tools for mixing and mastering! I’m so excited about this purchase!
