Meridian

Meridian is the plugin that lives on every bus with one view for the full chain. Preamp saturation, surgical EQ, compression, deessing, tonal EQ, stereo control (make subs mono and widen the highs), bus compression, and maximizing. Vintage character where it actually belongs in the chain and modern features for making loud and wide mixes easy.

Signal Chain

Input Gain -> HP/LP Filters -> Preamp (oversampled) -> Pre-Tone EQ -> Compressor + Deesser (oversampled) -> Post-Tone EQ -> Stereo Widener -> Bus Compressor + Limiter (oversampled) -> Output Gain.

The three oversampled blocks share a single oversampling factor set in the header. Off, 2x, 4x, 8x, and 16x are available.

Preamp

Two saturation circuits. Channel uses a CircleMap algorithm -- asymmetric, tape character. Bus uses a Class B algorithm -- symmetric, smoother. Drive, mix, and output trim controls. A tilt EQ sits after saturation for tone shaping without touching the preamp character. Additional toggles for push, crosstalk, low-Z, and polarity invert.

Pre-Tone EQ

4-band parametric using band-shelf filters, positioned before the compressor. Useful for cleaning up problem frequencies before they trigger gain reduction. Each band has a solo button that isolates it with a narrow bandpass so you can hear exactly what you're adjusting. Bands at 80 Hz, 250 Hz, 800 Hz, and 3,500 Hz by default.

Dynamics

VCA compressor with full controls: threshold, ratio, attack, release, knee, sidechain high-pass, makeup, and parallel mix. Deesser uses a Linkwitz-Riley 3-band splitter to isolate and reduce sibilance without touching anything outside the target band. Solo mode on the deesser for tuning before you commit.

Post-Tone EQ

4-band EQ after the compressor. Bands 1 and 4 default to shelves and can be switched to bells. Low Wide and High Wide broaden the Q on bands 2 and 3 for a more musical response. Thump adds an automatic compensating notch that tracks Band 1's frequency to cut buildup in the octave above a low-end boost. Air on Band 4 applies 1.5x the dial gain with a wider Q -- a gentle top shelf without needing large values.

Output Section

3-band mid-side stereo widener using Linkwitz-Riley crossovers. Low and high bands are adjustable independently; the mid-band passes through. Bus compressor with a single Glue knob that drives threshold, ratio, and time constants. Two-stage look-ahead limiter followed by a hard clip at 0 dBFS. Peak, RMS, and LUFS metering on input and output.

Other

• Preset A/B comparison slots.
• Bus presets (full plugin state) and local presets (per-section).
• Mid/Side routing in the header.
• Scalable UI from 50% to 200%.
• VST3 and AU, Mac and Windows.