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  • Customer Reviews
  • 3.9/5
    (65)
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3.9/5
(65)

Get the legendary tube compressor from Capitol Studios.

Capitol Mastering Compressor gives you the rich sound of the CM5511 — a legendary handbuilt tube mastering compressor designed and used by Capitol Studios on historic catalogs and thousands of hit records. Exclusively modeled by UA, now you can get the same professional finishing touch previously only available at Capitol Studios.

Included Version

UAD Native
Runs on your Mac or PC without UA hardware.

UAD Native plug-ins run on both macOS 10.15 Catalina or newer and Windows 10 and 11. Go to our UA Support page for system requirements.

  • Give your tracks the velvet touch of Capitol's handbuilt mastering compressor, the CM5511
  • Get the pro sonics of the same hardware used on catalogs from Capitol, Blue Note, Motown, Verve, and more
  • Easily increase perceived loudness and texture in your productions with Saturator, Mix, and Headroom controls
  • Tighten your low end and expand your stereo width using simple Mono Fold and Mid/Side features

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Use this plug-in free for 14 days and find out if it's right for you.

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TAKE A LISTEN

Get the Exclusive Sound of Capitol Mastering

Get the Exclusive Sound of Capitol Mastering

The CM5511 compressor has mastered entire catalogs from Capitol, Motown, Geffen, Blue Note, Def Jam, and dozens more, as well as modern records by Black Sabbath, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez.* Inspired by vintage Fairchild 670 and Gates Sta‑Level tube limiters — and designed for consistent results across Capitol's four mastering rooms — Capitol Mastering Compressor is an exacting emulation of this "spare no expense" hardware, giving you the modern tube-based sound of this custom-made dynamics masterpiece.

Expanded Controls for Complete In‑The‑Box Mastering

Expanded Controls for Complete In‑The‑Box Mastering

Easily tighten low end, add subtle saturation, and tweak the stereo field with easy‑to‑use "plug‑in only" controls. Plus, comprehensive dBFS and LUFS metering and sidechain filter means you have a full-featured, modern mastering tool at your fingertips.

Add Expensive Sound to your Instrument Groups

Add Expensive Sound to your Instrument Groups

Not just for the 2‑bus, Capitol Mastering Compressor will add its tube‑based magic to your drum bus, synths, background vocals, and more, giving you the gorgeous dynamics control only achievable with this one‑of‑a‑kind, hit‑proven hardware.

*Use of artist names does not constitute official endorsement of Capitol Mastering Compressor software.

Customer Reviews

Capitol Mastering Compressor

Overall Rating

3.9/5
(65)

k. T

September 28, 2023

Universal compressor

This is the simplest and easiest bus compressor I have ever used.

J. Frýbert

September 16, 2023

Capitol Mastering Compressor

A versatile, great-sounding compressor that can be used on individual tracks, mix buses, the main mix bus and as a mastering compressor. I enjoy working with him. No project of mine is complete without the Capitol Mastering Compressor. Thanks for him, great job.

R. Graterol

September 15, 2023

Beautiful compressor and finisher

I don’t get why people are upset with this not being offered for dsp. Why would you track on a mastering compressor when there are many other options already? This plugin imparts a nice width, color and sheen to your mixes in a very natural way. Controls are fiddly, headroom knob will be your friend. Love it! Another plugin I didn’t know I needed (and I probably don’t need it) but it sounds like a record

M. Zorn

September 2, 2023

Capital Mastering Compressor

Took advantage of the Labor Day Sale yesterday and bought the Capitol Mastering Compressor, and was able to spend much of the day fooling with it.
To begin with, it is very smooth, light and nicely gluey with some natural warmth and a little tone that dials in or out nicely.
I will often run through different sub busses at some point when mixing, looking for whatever. This compressor when placed on a track with a Pultec and/or one of the Eqs with an "air band" or some such feature for boosting at the extreme high end will very nicely rein in the harsh or nasty that sometimes can show up using those tools.
I like it and will use it. Built a strip that I saved with it kind of sitting there in the middle, just touching stuff.
It improves things.
It sounds strangely LA to me, but that is likely just the power of suggestion emanating from the name.

S. B

August 31, 2023

Love it

Amazing plugin, just what I needed to complete my master chain. I don't even care that it is native. .

D. Hill

August 29, 2023

If no uad , then that's some bullshyt

Yeh I said ,
Please keep the support for UAD-2, we bought the hardware so that the plug ins run off the cards and apollo interfaces. Put out a 16 core card or something

B. Carruthers

August 15, 2023

Native Only

WTF

D. Warren

July 28, 2023

travesty

I wanted to purchase and demo product and it wasn't showing up in my Apollo plugin list...After researching I see that this plugin in native only...huh wth???? what's up with that??? UA thats not acceptable

K. Thura

July 20, 2023

Good For Mastering and mix bus.

I Really Like This Plugin.

R. Williams

July 18, 2023

Nice sounding compressor but...

Sounds great, love the vibe it gives, but I was expecting it to work with my appollo x16 not just Native, I thought I could save on CPU and was one of the reasons I bought it, shocking, will be more careful in future now UAD seem to be favouring NATIVE.... :O

B. Luyben

July 16, 2023

Wonderfull plugin (UAD-2 is not a thing anymore)

Did demo the Plugin and liked it although it could have used some modern features and a more readable interface. We all know UA does not care about readable interfaces (customers begging for the resizeable GUI for a decade almost. UA also don't bother to make a UAD-2 version and don't want to disclose anything about the intentions of keeping AUD-2 alive. It's horrible to read all these people asking for the same. Why is UADx up to date and does UAD-2 feel abandoned.

S. Potts

July 15, 2023

confusion of it all

I would love to buy this but I gotta tell you man the process of what runs on what and why has really slowed my purchasing of UAD plug ins. I just used to buy a plug-in and it worked on my system now with all the varieties and subscription plans etc. it's just way to complicated. 5 Years ago this would already be in my cart.

R. Studio

July 13, 2023

Nice musical feeling

I've only had time to use it on backing vocals bus, but I feel like I'll use this often in the future .

D. Marais

July 13, 2023

Gorgeous, but please make this for Apollo too

This plug-in deserves five stars for its beautiful, velvety analog punch, but UA should really make this - and all future plug-ins - for both the Apollo hardware and native platforms.

It doesn’t seem fair that longtime loyal customers who invested in the Apollo units, at great expense, are suddenly seeing UA plug-ins not being supported by the Apollo hardware. The fact that we cannot use these native-only plug-ins in Console just seems like a major oversight. Please do the right thing and make your plug-ins fully functional on both platforms.

G. Merino

July 12, 2023

Almost perfect…

This plugin surprised me a lot. Honestly, I can say it’s my new favorite compressor for almost any use in mixing and mastering. Absolutely incredible.
I’m only giving it four stars because it can’t be used with DSP on my Apollo. I have no idea why UAD did that, I really hope that it could be solved soon.

C. Jenkins

July 9, 2023

Great sound! Great product!

Tried it one mix. Exactly the sound I was looking for. Kept the musical sound of my song - but made it bigger.

E. ARRUDA

July 6, 2023

Beautiful!

Very natural when inserted in Pianos and Strings. Great glue on the battery. Perfect on the MixBus.

M. TRAP

July 2, 2023

At the moment ....great sound

I think it's premature give an evaluation clear but until now i've found that this plugin is real good. Great sound.
I don't know if it's real plyvalent ....see later.....great work!

J. Lowery

July 1, 2023

Unbelievable!! The saturation and harmonics are unprecedented!!

this thing brings out incredible harmonics that you weren't aware was even there. going on every mix & mastering bus!!

H. Toapanta

June 29, 2023

POR FAVOR UAD

Soy de España y como muchos de los compañeros esperamos que UAD saque la Version Apolo ya que hemos invertido mucho dinero en equipos como para que nos dejen aun lado, UAD LEA Y DE UNA VEZ POR TODAS SAQUEN LA VERSION APOLO no solo Nativa.