SoundToys has revealed a new plug-in: Devil-Loc - Audio Level Destroyer. With a bit of effort, you may be able to get it free for a limited time (till the end of March, 2011).

Devil-Loc and Devil-Loc Deluxe are a SoundToys twist inspired by the classic Shure Level-Loc. These plug-ins add huge sucking compression, grit, dirt, distortion, and take drums (but try it anywhere) to a wonderful hellish nightmare. It's not for the faint of heart.

Devil-Loc is essentially a distorting compressor but so much more, it's really quite simple but also a bit supernatural. Because the release time of the compression is effected by the input level (like the Level-Loc) it's a bit hard to predict exactly what will happen the first time you work with it. Luckily with just two knobs, you can find the magic spot for your track fairly quickly and you'll be going for that sound more and more.

Don't be fooled by its simple front panel, this plug-in has a lot more cool sounds than you'd expect out of two knobs. Get crushing kick drums, to almost rhythmic level sweeps with the crazing sucking compression, to blitzed out blasting beat loops. Drive it hard and you get straight hardware sounding break-up and drive. It's a devil in disguise, and the devil's in the details, and the devil made us do it and all those other devil references.

Devil-Loc Deluxe. Coming April 2011
To take things beyond the hardware that inspired it and give you even more creative flexibility, Devil-Loc Deluxe adds a "Darkness" control for tone, switchable slow or fast release times and the ability to mix the original back in right on the front panel. The addition of these controls opens up the sonic palette immensely. Dark thundering drums, to driven lo-fi loops, and more, and the mix control saves all that tedious routing and lets you automate mix to keep the Devil from taking over the soul of your tracks. This time, evil is good.

A Bit of History
The Shure M62 Level-Loc was designed by Shure to be a leveling amplifier mostly for mics. The concept was it would keep an even level (locked level) once it hit a certain input so you wouldn't get "fade outs or blasting". It was super simple with only a switch for three "distance" settings based on how far from the mic you were. The M62V upped the control a bit by adding an input level knob. However, the reason it became famous was not because it did a good job of leveling, it may have, but largely thanks to SoundToys user Tchad Blake and his desire to push, abuse, and do deliciously evil things to his tracks. He discovered that pushing the Level-Loc gave you gritty, dirty, unusual compression that made drums gigantic and nasty. Both of which are good things. So SoundToys has taken that concept and dropped it in the simple two control Devil-Loc. Then they've taken it further than the original hardware with the Devil-Loc Deluxe.