Experience the perfect blend of vintage and modern with Salt, Acustica’s latest 5-band Hyper3 equalizer plug-in, distinguished for its exceptional performance and minimal CPU usage.
Salt has been meticulously sampled from three iconic vintage EQ devices that have, since their introduction, set new standards in sound quality and have been used to record and mix some of the greatest records of all time.
Unlike the original units, all of these EQ types/modes feature smoothly adjustable frequencies, and their magic lies in the finely defined curves, closely emulating the original hardware and perfectly preserving transients. This expanded functionality builds upon the original concept envisioned by the manufacturer and is made possible by the inherent advantages of our Hyper technology.
With our Hyper3 equalizers, high frequencies remain identical to the original machine, while low frequencies are significantly improved, offering a level of sound quality that is indistinguishable from the reference analog equalizer.
Designed with speed, precision, and performance in mind, Salt is poised to redefine the essence of your audio mixing.
Key Features.
• Unique EQ Models: The Salt Equalizer offers three distinct Classic EQ models, all powered by Hyper3 technology, providing an exceptional tool for your daily mixing and sound shaping needs.
• Control and Flexibility: Salt offers a wide range of control options to suit various mixing scenarios.
• High-Quality Sound: A focus on sound quality and fidelity of the original models improved thanks to Hyper3 tech, ensuring that equalization does not introduce unwanted artifacts.
• Intuitive User Interface: A well-designed and intuitive user interface that simplifies the equalization process.
• Versatility: The ability to use the plugin on various audio sources, such as musical instruments, vocals, or entire tracks.
• Transient Preservation and Management: The intrinsic ability to preserve, attenuate, or emphasize transient-associated frequencies, improving clarity and separation between instruments in the mix and the option to handle them with three different EQ models, also usable in a hybrid manner, gives you a complete sonic palette that allows you to make the right technical moves for your artistic goal.
• Resource Efficiency: Low computer resource usage ensures smooth operation in complex mixing sessions.
What you get.
Salt offers three distinct Classic EQ models, each powered by Hyper3 technology, allowing you to choose the EQ type that best suits your creative and technical needs.
Salt GUI
The EQ models.
Each included model is inspired by classic hardware equalizers, sampled from scratch for this project.
▸ Gold gives you the sound of the legendary vintage British console equalizers, providing smooth, clean tones with its characteristic signature.
▸ With Sand, you get that instantly recognizable tight but musical British sound that dominated the pop and rock scenes in the 80s and beyond.
▸ Pink emulates a well-known American studio gear from the late 1960s that is still commonly used by pro engineers worldwide. You get a very musical EQ with a lot of character.
In detail.
Thanks to our advanced Hyper 3 technology, each EQ type faithfully reproduces the original hardware's characteristics, taking it a step further.
Unlike the limitations of the original hardware, which only offers fixed frequency positions, we've enhanced the model to provide adjustable frequency points. for all these types; this means that you can freely combine any of these models. with regular EQ types or other modeled types, granting you greater flexibility and ease of use.
Additionally, Salt offers four distinct equalization modes, each catering to specific needs in audio processing:
• Hyper Equalizer: This mode serves as a traditional yet enhanced equalizer, utilizing FIR components to mimic the transient response of vintage machines. It essentially combines classic EQ functionality with Hyper technology.
• Hyper EQ Eco: This mode is a digital option that minimizes power consumption but introduces some phase issues at high frequencies, with less fidelity to the original equalizer. Both this and the "Hyper Equalizer" mode faithfully reproduce sampled frequencies, making them less precise in representing intermediate frequencies.
• Hyper EQ Digital: For a more precise and faithful EQ experience, this mode offers continuous frequency representation and correction of artifacts from the original EQ, ensuring that your gain adjustments accurately reflect the desired values while retaining the original shape. If high-frequency artifacts remain a concern.
• Hyper EQ Digital 2X: Like the previous mode, this one corrects these issues but adds 2X oversampling, which comes at the cost of increased power consumption. These diverse modes give users the flexibility to choose the best-suited equalization approach for their specific audio processing requirements.
For more in-depth information about Salt, please refer to the user's manual. It contains comprehensive details and instructions to help you understand the product better.
"Salt is a hybrid mixing EQ that combines the essence of three historical consoles in a single product, including preamplification. The interesting thing is that, in addition to being extremely fast, lightweight, and highly responsive like all our latest plugin releases, you have full control over each band, allowing for custom management of transients according to your needs. Of course, it's entirely based on the Hyper3 engine, a technology that makes our plugins super high-performance, ultra-lightweight, and absolutely responsive.
The transition from one EQ to another is very smooth, something we've worked on extensively because when it comes to convolution plugins, it's not a straightforward and quick process. Another thing I want to emphasize is that this plugin is unique in its kind since it's known that two of the included consoles do not have band control. So, during the sampling process, we literally disassembled the hardware and physically modified resistors and capacitors to recreate a Q for them as well. The result, as you can imagine, is that this feature minimizes frequency and gain changes".
— Giancarlo Del Sordo, CEO of Acustica Audio.
Acustica Audio Salt | Demo
Technical information & compatibility.
• Supported formats: VST2, VST3, AAX, and AU.
• Available sample rates: 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 kHz.
• Windows 10 and 11 compatible.
• macOS 10.15 (Catalina) to macOS 13 (Ventura) compatible.
• Intel, AMD, and ARM compatible.
• Apple Silicon native (Rosetta not supported).
Price and availability
Salt introductory price: €99* | 57% OFF until November 15, 2023 (reg. price €229) Get it here!
*To express our gratitude to our Loyal Customers, if you purchased any plugin from our lineup (Gold, Sand, or Pink) before October 17, 2023, you should receive a special discount code for Salt via email.
The product is at an introductory period for the first four weeks after release or until the first official version is released; this implies that the product may receive improvements, changes, or fixes available through Aquarius Desktop updates.
Try our FREE 30-Day Trial
Note: Salt trial version includes 44.1 - 48 - 88.2 - 96 kHz sample rates.
Please remember that trials expire 30 days after authorization, and we strongly recommend not using trial products in commercial sessions or any important project.
Salt user's manual
Salt webpage: https://www.acustica-audio.com/shop/products/SALT