New Music Gear Monday: FSK Audio Bark24 | Dyn Psychoacoustic Dynamics Plugin

Most dynamics processors split your audio into a handful of frequency bands using arbitrary crossover points. It works well enough, but it’s essentially a mathematical approximation of something our ears do in a much more nuanced way. The new Bark24 | Dyn from FSK Audio takes a fundamentally different approach by basing its band structure on the psychoacoustic Bark scale, the same perceptual model that describes how human hearing actually groups frequencies.

The Bark Scale Difference

The Bark scale divides the audible spectrum into 24 critical bands that correspond to the way our ears perceive distinct frequency regions.

The bands are narrow in the ranges where human hearing has the highest resolution, and wider where it has less.

The practical upshot is that each band carries equal perceptual weight, which makes adjustments easier to hear and faster to dial in compared to a conventional multiband processor. You’re working the way your ears work instead of fighting against it.

Each of those 24 bands gets its own independent dynamics processor with four modes: Limit, Gate, Expand, and Up Comp. Each band includes a Threshold control, up to 48 dB of gain in either direction, and individual Solo, Mute, and Bypass switches.

Global Attack and Release controls plus three selectable linear-phase filter slopes round out the feature set. Real-time visual feedback and a 3D metering display keep you oriented as you work. MIDI control is also included.

What’s New in Version 1.1

The just-released v1.1 update addresses the most common workflow requests from existing users. The biggest addition is multi-band group editing, which lets you select multiple bands and adjust their parameters simultaneously while preserving relative offsets between them. You can drag the entire group across the spectrum, and grouping extends to solo, mute, and bypass controls as well.

Auto Gain automatically compensates for the gain change produced by dynamics processing so your input and output levels stay consistent. Auto Output does similar work on the overall signal to match perceived loudness to the original.

There’s also a new internal output limiter that engages automatically if the signal exceeds +12 dB, which is a handy safety net when you’re pushing things hard in creative territory.

More Than Just a Multiband Compressor

Bark24 | Dyn was developed in collaboration with Mark Jeffery, the original architect of Pro Tools, and it shows in the depth of the design. Whether you’re using it for subtle tonal balancing, transient shaping, transparent limiting, or full-on creative sound design, the perceptual band structure makes it feel more intuitive than anything else in the multiband space.

Bark24 | Dyn is $99 at an introductory price (regular $129.95) and is available for Mac and PC in AAX, VST3, and AU formats. A 14-day free trial is available so you can put it through its paces before committing.

You can find out more here, or watch the video below.