New York, NY (August 26, 2022)—The Czech Republic-based Audified recently released its third incarnation of the U73b, a plug-in emulation of the revered German vari-mu broadcast compressor/limiter of the same name. The original hardware was used heavily in European mastering studios during the analog era and is also a powerful mixing tool.
Audified released its original U73b plug-in in 2015 as a circuit-by-circuit model of the hardware unit. Version 2.0 added Input and Output gain controls that were not on the hardware but provided additional convenience. It also redesigned the GUI. The highlight of U73b 3.0 (Mac/Windows) is the addition of a Compressor Amount control.
The plug-in offers subtle to heavy compression based on the settings of the Input Gain knob and the Compression Amount.
Other controls include a six-position Release Time knob that offers three preset release times and three program-dependent settings. A High-Pass Filter features a cutoff frequency of approximately 100Hz and a mild, 6dB/octave slope.
The Key Input control provides five different signal choices to send to the detector. The default is the Left and Right channels. But you can also select Left (only), Right (only), and Left+Right, which uses a sum of the Left and Right channels. The final option is to use an External Sidechain signal.
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You can set the analog-style meter to show either Input, Output or Gain Reduction. If you switch the output into Auto mode, the Output knob automatically moves in the inverse to compensate for changes in Input gain.
A Calibration control allows you to adjust the operating level and thus the headroom of the compressor.
The plug-in comes with a handy selection of presets, arranged by type, including settings for Drums, Bass, Guitar, Vocals and Mastering. Pressing the Store button allows you to save custom settings.
The U73b is available for an introductory price of $79 until August 8th, after which it rises to its regular $149 price. Find out more from Audified.
