eaReckon has announced the release of the ANALOG87 series, which is a collection of five VST effect plug-ins for Windows. eaReckon says they have been designed and fine tuned "by human ears" and you will not get a lot of visual feedback from them... just good sound. They have been thought with this idea in mind: "your ears deserve trust".

The ANALOG87 series is available as separate plug-ins or as a bundle. An introductory price is currently in effect (until September 30th):

• SD-COMP 87: €19 (instead of €29).
• SD-GATE 87: €19 (instead of €29).
• BW-LIMIT 87: €19 (instead of €29).
• PR-EQUA 87: €19 (instead of €29).
• CS-STRIP 87: €39 (normal price).
• ANALOG87 Bundle (5 plugins): €79 (instead of €99).

The ANALOG87 Series Plug-ins

SD-COMP 87 is a "real" sidechain compressor featuring 2 inputs pairs. It can also be used as a classic 1 stereo input + 1 stereo output effect. In this case, its "reference" section will let you tweak the response of the compressor. SD-COMP 87 also features an integrated brickwall limiter (0dB) based on BW-LIMIT 87. You can be sure its output will not exceed 0dB with this limiter enabled.

Whether you want to get a subtle compression or some burning drums in your mix, SD-COMP 87 will suit your needs in most situations.

SD-GATE 87 is a "real" sidechain gate/duck effect. As SD-COMP 87, it features 2 inputs pairs, but can also be used as a classic 1 stereo input + 1 stereo output effect while keeping the advantage of a "reference" section. In "Duck" mode, the gate is open when reference level goes below threshold (it works the opposite way). With "Tail" set to off, there is a good chance to get this gate open for a very short period once reference is fed again until it reaches Threshold value, producing an unwanted audio click. The "Tail" function helps you to get this gate opening only when reference level goes from high to low and not the opposite.

Whether you want to slightly polish a track or get your own special creative gate effects, SD-GATE 87 will do its job.

BW-LIMIT 87 is a Brickwall Limiter and Maximizer. It has a tested fixed attack time combined to a hard-coded "look-ahead" capability which preserves its "brickwall" specification while avoiding unwanted distortion. The delay introduced by its "look-ahead" function is very short (12 samples = 0.27 ms @ 44100 Hz) but it is enough to make BW-LIMIT 87 work as expected.

PR-EQUA 87 is a full-featured 4-band parametric equalizer. It is the only plug-in of the series to overcome the idea of a limited visual feedback. During the testing phase in real situations, it was decided to integrate a useful but optional frequency analyzer.

PR-EQUA 87 is made of 4 EQ sections: LF, LMF, HMF, HF. Each section features the classic gain, frequency and Q parameters. LF and HF respectively feature a high-pass filter and a low-pass filter. Both of these have a "shelf" option. PR-EQUA 87 also features an integrated brickwall limiter (0dB) based on BW-LIMIT 87.

CS-STRIP 87 is equivalent to a channel strip coming from a high grade mixing console. It is made of condensed versions of the 4 other plugins of the ANALOG87 series. Integrated effects and the way they are linked to each other provide an all-in-one tool that should suit most mixing situations. The four effects are commutable, which helps to keep control on CPU usage.