New Music Gear Monday: HoRNet SyncPressor Compressor Plugin
One of the secrets of the great engineers is how they set up their compressors, especially the attack and release parameters. The idea is to get the compressor to breathe with the tempo of the track, but there’s a lot of leeway in the setup since it’s normally all done by ear. The days of “ears-only” setup may be over however, with the introduction of the SyncPressor plugin by HoRNet, a master buss compressor that can automatically sync those controls to your DAW.
SyncPressor is a totally unique compressor in that you won’t find the usual attack and release knobs. Instead there are two dropdowns that have note values instead, which can be changed to dotted and triplet values by the D and T controls underneath, just like on a delay. This allows you to set those parameters by either syncing to the tempo of the track, manually inputting the tempo, or automatically detecting the tempo from the audio.
You do get the normal Threshold and Release controls as well as the familiar input, output and gain reduction meters, plus a number of other cool parameter controls. There’s an RMS selection, which allows SyncPressor to work off average signal values rather than peak for a smoother response. There’s also a Feedback selection, which basically picks off the detector signal at the output rather than the input stage to lessen any pumping that might occur.
You’ll also find a Sidechain, which can be triggered from an external signal or via the S/C Filter on the plugin. A Knee control controls how fast the compression is applied to the signal once it surpasses the threshold. Then there’s the Unlink L/R selector to switch to dual mono operation for a wider mix, and a Wet/Dry control for a little parallel compression.
Finally, a Tempo Mult control allows you to multiply the internal tempo by the value specified in the dropdown to double or halve the attack and release times. This means that you can quickly test faster or slower time constants.
SyncPressor is a 64 bit processor that works on either Mac or Windows platforms (including the new M1 Macs). It works in VST, VST3 and AAX plugin formats.
The plugin is $49 USD, and a free demo is available. You can find out more about it here.
