Universal Audio has announced the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor Plug-In for the UAD Powered Plug-Ins platform and Apollo Audio Interface. Created by UAD Direct Development partner Brainworx and Shadow Hills Industries founder Peter Reardon.

As the go-to compressor on recordings by Muse, Gnarls Barkley, Coldplay, John Mayer, Regina Spektor, and more, the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor is designed to feature a world-class signal path, controlling music dynamics in two stages — first with an Optical section, then with a Discrete (VCA) section. Both sections can be bypassed, providing a variety of compression sounds (Optical, Discrete, and combined) from a velvet touch to an iron fist.

Like the hardware version, the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in offers selection of three distinct output transformers (Nickel, Iron, and Steel) — taking the signal from "clean" to "colored" and "dirty" — as if selecting from the output stages of three distinct classic analog consoles.

Features:

• Emulation of the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor, licensed and endorsed by Peter Reardon.
• Created by Brainworx, developed exclusively for the UAD Powered Plug-Ins platform.
• Separate Optical and Discrete (VCA) dynamics sections for two-stage serial dynamics control.
• Transformer matrix switches between Nickel, Iron, and Steel output transformers — like selecting between 3 distinct vintage console outputs.
• 90Hz sidechain filtering for musical compression of low-frequency program material.
• Large VU meters provide Optical, Discrete, or Output gain views.
• Custom presets created by Shadow Hills founder and designer Peter Reardon.

Price: $299 US from UA's Online Store. Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor will be available as part of the upcoming UAD Software v6.3.2 release, scheduled for early November.