MHB Red

MHB Red is a virtual analog compressor/saturator plugin developed by Kazrog in close collaboration with Grammy-winning mix engineer Michael H. Brauer (Coldplay, John Mayer, Florence and the Machine), based on his rare Fairchild 666 compressor.

The Fairchild 666 is a hybrid opto-compressor — distinct from the delta-mu topology of the better-known Fairchild 660 and 670. It pairs 12BH7 and 12AX7 vacuum tubes in the audio signal path with solid-state control circuitry, producing a compression character and tube saturation profile unique within the Fairchild lineage. MHB Red captures the tone and behavior of Brauer's personal unit, with modernized controls for a plugin workflow.

Main Controls:

• Attack (10ms to 200ms).
• Ratio (2:1 to 8:1).
• Threshold (0dB to -40dB).
• Release (30ms to 3s).
• Makeup Gain (0dB to 20dB).
• THD — adjustable total harmonic distortion, calibrating the clipping point of the virtual tube stages from subtle warmth to heavy saturation.
• VU meter displaying gain reduction in dB.

Additional Features:

• Sidechain high-pass and low-pass filters.
• Stereo Link (dual mono by default, linkable for stereo bus use).
• Wet/Dry mix control for parallel compression.
• Analog Entropy — adjustable component tolerance variation modeling for realistic stereo width without phase issues.
• A/B preset comparison with copy function.
• Copper and Black UI themes based on alternate faceplates from the original hardware.
• Adaptive oversampling with independent online/offline quality settings.
• Resizable interface.

Formats: VST2, VST3, AAX, Audio Units, LV2.

Platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux.

Authorization: None required. Demo and full versions are separate downloads. Demo is time-unlimited with periodic silent output and preset save disabled.

MHB Red is the second plugin in the Kazrog/Brauer collaboration series, following MHB Green (based on Brauer's custom modified AWA G7201 Limiting Amplifier).