Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
Customer Reviews
Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
Only registered users can write reviews. Please, log in or create an account.
P. Womack
Sounds the way records should!
I've had my eye on the Shadow Hills comp for some time and it surpassed all expectations! Smooth, clean, detailed and plenty of color if you want it. The dual compressor circuits and Nickel/Iron/Steel selection allow for an amazing range of sounds.
I know this is a faithful model of the hardware, but I do miss the inclusion of a Wet/Dry control and M/S processing.
All in all though, these are small lackings in an otherwise fantastic sounding compressor.
Paul "Willie Green" Womack
E. Oooka
Presence is very like the heavy feeling！
Since there is no be using the hardware of Shadow HIlls, but do not know, now, that you plan to use to mastering in the production of the new 4 th CD. But there is also when the sound is divided by fairly powerful image, sound in the fine adjustment of the gain is trimmed. So, it would still rely on the preset. It is still deep equipment, but the time it may take to master. I like a sense of presence and a heavy feeling of the appearance is very.
S. Robertson
Shadow HIlls Plug In Vs Analog Unit
Being someone who owns the Shadow HIlls Mastering Compressor and spent 13kaud on it with its power supply, I can't take it everywhere. I've been extremely impressed by the Plug in and its almost identical. The only slight difference is it lacks the stereo width of the real thing. Like all plug ins though they do their best to recreate harmonic content that a transformer would. Definitely happy with this purchase
S. Robertson
Shadow HIlls Plug In Vs Analog Unit
Being someone who owns the Shadow HIlls Mastering Compressor and spent 13kaud on it with its power supply, I can't take it everywhere. I've been extremely impressed by the Plug in and its almost identical. The only slight difference is it lacks the stereo width of the real thing. Like all plug ins though they do their best to recreate harmonic content that a transformer would. Definitely happy with this purchase
.
Great stuff, sound... it's easy
I enjoy it, perfect for bussing rock drums and just recently tried it on a gang vocal and it was amazing. Since I hardly ever write reviews, I think I should be critical... Brainworks was kinda far off from really nailing the bottom end response somewhere in the 260hz, it gets kinda warbly in the bottom end when you really smush it. But the signature "pumping" characteristic from the attack/release is present and actually spot on. Overall so amazingly practical and I intend to put this on every drum bus from here on out.
C. Dowling
Has been just the ticket...
I'm late to the party with this one, but I'm in agreement with C. Allrich --- a light touch will get one far when employing the plug appropriately. It's been one of the secret weapons I'm using to master an ECM-ish guitar trio album. The clients are very happy and so am I. I can't help but thinking that those that are "confused" by the controls haven't taken five minutes to RTFM and understand the signal flow, etc. Agreed it doesn't completely nail the hardware, but it can still work wonders and provide the right sense of depth and dimensionality and glue that will sweeten many a mix or master.
W. Bolton
very nice
not tried the hardware, but i like brainworx stuff, having used it a lot before getting into UAD. i don't squash much with compression but this sounds great on the master fader just to glue sounds together and adds some lovely colour.
T. Friesecke
Great!
Very great sound!
The only "but":
In the beginning not soooo easy to handle with, but when your into it, it´s nice!
D. Wilson
SHMC Sounds BIG
This thing has just parked on my two buss and will be staying for quite a while I feel : )
E. Ramazanoiglu
The Missing Link
This is what I've been after for SO LONG - something to musically catch and sweeten my mix buss by just a hair!! Imparts a silky thickness and musical grab that I am delighted with. In use on most mixes now!!!
M. Indovina
Just having this as an insert without compressing will still sound amazing!
This compressor is amazing. Half of the time I use it, I won't even compress anything with it - I'll use it just for the "sound" of the unit. It adds a really nice warmth to anything it's on. Works great on drums or on a bus. It does take a bit of getting used to due to the design of it having so many sections but once you've got the hang of it, you'll be impressed.
R. Whiting
Very underrated.
Pros:
Versatile, unique, beautiful "color" in nickel mode, glues track excellently, can serve as channel or bus compressor, low dsp usage.
Cons:
Lacks the size and weight of the hardware.
This is a unique and impressive compressor in the box, and definitely worth a look.
C. Cooley
CoolzLab now uses UAD-2 Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor Plug-in
Before owning this compressor, I would compare my masters to commercial released rap/hip/hop music. For example, my master's needed 2-3 clicks more volume when played back via phone. I kept saying to myself, how the hell are they getting this _hit loud. Adding this to my chain made the difference. Be careful, the distortion sounds good. It took me a while to realize I was distorting more than I wanted to.
It looks awesome. The design of the left channel compressors are opposite the right making the workflow awkward at first. This will become a front runner in your plugin chain, that problem will go away soon.
C. Gibbs
Still dialing this guy in
Takes a bit of practice to work with this guy. Still dialing in best way for my to dial it in.
J. Gil
Mix Bus Companion
I use it on the mix bus on mellow stuff and it's amazing. 1 db of gr on the optical, 1-2 dbs on the discrete, sidechain filter on, output tranny to taste.
Never had much luck on harder stuff with it, but maybe it's just me.
It can also help in mastering situations where the material needs some treatment (re-shaping/coloring) before going to my analog chain.
I think it's a good buy. Even with so many cool plugin compressors around, this guy does something others won't.
J. Seabrook
My Secret Weapon
I'm sure glad I have the plugin version, 'cause I'd go broke without how often I'll use this thing in a mix. Drum buss, parallel compression, Master buss, sometimes to squash the crap out of a crazy bass synth, and DEFINITELY on every mastering session. It seems like too many knobs but it's SO simple to use. I just wish the lettering was bigger around the knobs.
L. Puschmann
Nun....
das bisher schwächste Plugin in meiner Uad Sammlung. Wenn ich durch die Presets fahre, höre ich kaum Unterschiede. So ist das wohl bei uns Produzenten Laien. Hier muss man wissen was man tut.
C. Allrich
Why The Hate?
I'm not sure why there's so much hate for this plugin in the reviews, equating it to Izotope? good god, ugh.
Look. There are certain tools for certain jobs, and writing off this compressor because it failed at whatever you attempted it on only shows lack of understanding of your appointed skills as an engineer/mixer.
Do I use this on instrument busses? vocals or guitars? Nope.
Slap this on your two-bus, and forget the presets. Set the thresholds on both compressors as needed to just "tuck" the transients back, flip the side-chain on, and flip between Nickel, Iron, and Steel to find the right "glue" for your mix. Now tell me your mix doesn't feel that bit of extra life brought to it.
This is not a plug in for heavy hands, period.
A. Sutton
I tried not to like this compressor and at first I didn't!
Why did I try not to like it?
1. Because it looks pretty... and usually that means that it doesn't perform well.
2. Peter Reardon just seemed a little obnoxious to me.
3. It is waay to heavy handed for a master bus.
That being said, this compressor shines on vocals. It really does. I think that is its strongest application actually.
If you would like to hear some vocals processed through this then check out https://soundcloud.com/rialety. "Steppin Out" has Shadow Hills all over it.
R. Mead
Great plug in
It is a great plug in until I upgraded to pro tools 11 and now I can't use it. I wished avid had worked with other third party plug ins before they changed the platform so they won't work. I hope that UA is working on a fix so I can use it and my other UA plugins.