Shy 90s Smack

Shy audio releases Shy 90s Smack — dirty 90s compression with de-esser, limiter & sidechain EQ

This time we went after one of the 90s' finest dirt compressors — a rack unit that ended up on countless techno, house, and hip-hop records, famous for what it did to drums and drum machines.

At its core is a fast VCA-style dynamics section with sharp transients, aggressive gain reduction, quick recovery, and program-dependent auto release. It can be subtle when needed, but it is at its best when pushed — tightening drum buses, pulling loops together, and adding movement and urgency.

Mojo shifts the detector behavior from smoother envelope-based control into the harder, faster action of the original hardware. At maximum, the detector becomes so quick and direct that the VCA starts to fight back, spitting out the distortion and aggressive grab that made this compressor so distinctive.

Shy 90s Smack also features a de-esser with its own detector circuit, expander mode, and a peak limiter with switchable slow response. The hardware mode settings have been replaced with an OLED-style Sidechain EQ touchscreen and gritty built-in FFT analyzer, shaping either the internal detector signal or an external sidechain input.

A lot of bench time went into this one: gain reduction curves, OTA-based VCA distortion, attack and release timing, auto mode behavior, the de-esser detector, and the peak limiter section. Plenty of A/B'ing later, the plugin reacts the way the unit reacts.

One thing to note: the plugin UI values are honest. They mean what they say. The original hardware did not always behave exactly like its printed scale, so matching a hardware setting may sometimes mean using a different number on the plugin.

Features:
– Compressor, limiter, expander, and de-esser in one unit
– Mojo control for detector speed and drive
– Auto Release for program-dependent recovery
– Peak limiter with switchable Slow mode
– External sidechain input
– Sidechain EQ display with FFT analyzer, HP, LP, and peak band control
– Make Up Gain with soft-clipping
– Clean final Output Trim
– Phase-aligned Mix control for parallel processing
– Gain reduction / expansion and output peak metering
– Selectable oversampling: Off, 2x, 4x, Minimum Phase, Linear Phase
– Offline licensing — no iLok required.

See it in action:
{See video at top of page}