Mixland Vac Attack

Vac Attack, Mixland's analog-modeled optical limiter plugin, aims to delicately compress individual tracks and groups. Developed by Grammy-winner Jesse Ray Ernster and coding expert Eddie Lucciola, this plugin is inspired by a rare hardware unit discontinued in 2020. It infuses harmonic warmth into vocals, drums, bass, and the stereo bus through its vacuum tube saturation circuit.

The Gain Link feature ties the Reduction and Gain knobs, ensuring makeup gain adjusts with the applied gain reduction for level-matched comparisons. The optical design uses a digital emulation of a light source and light-dependent resistor, enabling natural non-linear gain reduction controlled by the Knee feature.

Vac Attack provides two-band push EQ with modes J and E for post-compression tone shaping. The LF and HF push filters allow flexibility in adjusting frequencies between 52 Hz and 230 Hz and 4.4 kHz to 10 kHz, respectively. A built-in sidechain EQ prevents unwanted pumping effects by filtering the sidechain signal.

Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) introduces harmonic richness, ideal for enhancing digital recordings. The channel linking feature maintains balance by default, while unlinking channels allows detailed stereo control for varied left and right channel information in stereo files. Overall, Vac Attack offers a comprehensive set of features for nuanced and controlled audio processing.

Features:

• Smooth optical compression.
• Vacuum tubes that deliver warmth, grit, and character.
• Organic non-linear gain reduction.
• A Knee that affects attack and release times.
• Automatic makeup gain.
• Two push EQ modes: J and E.
• Three-band sidechain EQ.
• Total harmonic distortion.
• Left-right channel linking/unlinking.
• Up to 16x oversampling.
• Artist and user preset libraries.
• Scalable user interface.