SKnote has announced the release of Q796, the first in its new series of plug-ins modeled on classic hardware devices. It is a stereo device with stereo sidechain. Built for mastering but great on single instruments. A look-ahead function (up to 10ms) and full graphics have been added to the analog emulation.

Features:

• Expander: includes a pump-up mode (compresses LOW levels, makes sound full).
• Compressor:
  • Feed-forward (the modern way) and feed-back (the vintage way) modes.
  • Sidechain.
  • Negative ratio.
  • Continuous Peak-RMS set.
  • Gain reduction limit (great for invisible squashing).
  • Distortion (static and dynamic; starts over the threshold and increases with gain).
  • Long time integration (an additional very slow time constant).
• Limiter: a very fast limiter (with brickwall mode to 0dB).

The "analog" interface, modeled on the hardware, is integrated in a "digital" frame, for a better control. Three separate graphs show in realtime:

• Input waveform.
• Output waveform.
• Control signal (from Peak to RMS).
• Gain reduction.

Q796 is available for Windows as a VST effect plug-in priced at €129. A fully functional demo version is now available for download (a short burst of noise is added every 20 seconds).