Elysia

Nothing to report. Or, yeah, by the way... the user's manual is very well done, it covers and analyses the settings of each factory preset, so as to better understand how it all works. Very useful to learn how to tame this beast, which may look unnecessarily complicated and intimidating to new users (espacially those not used to M/S compressors). EFFICIENCY & PERFORMANCE The plugin works perfectly in both VST2 and VST3. Regarding its value-for-CPU use, it is one of the best plugins on the market right now. Very well programmed and modelled. OVERALL I personally use it on a regular basis on the master buss for compression, sometimes in M/S mode, sometimes on busses, less often on single instrument tracks - and when I do it's most often for spatial enhancement, playing with the EQ and M/S phase. If I want something with more sonic character, more vintage-sounding but with almost the same settings, then I go for the Artacoustic Clms-1-X1. Pros: the comp, M/S treatment, transparency and subtle character emulation of the original hardware. Cons: none that I can think of.

The Elysia mpressor is a unique compression plug-in with a lot of control and a great sound. The plug-in is available in just about all plug-in formats, including in RTAS, VST, AU, and TDM formats for both Windows and Mac. This is modeled after the hardware mpressor from Elysia, and while it isn't a match in terms of sound, it's as close as you're going to come and has the same exact make up. I wasn't involved with installing this plug-in as I've used on at the studio where I work only and don't own it. Even if you haven't used a hardware mpressor, the interface of this plug-in should be easy enough to figure out on your own, but it did take me a little bit of messing with it to get totally familiar with what all of the parameters will do for you. Like the hardware version, this plug-in has traditional compression parameters like threshold, ratio, attack, release, and gain, but also has a single band equalizer with a frequency selection and gain parameter, as well as a parameter for a gain reduction limiter, which is what makes this a unique plug-in. I haven't looked at a manual for this plug-in... SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE The recording studio that I work at is currently running the Elysia mpressor in our Pro Tools HD based system, which runs with a Mac Pro desk top computer consisting of a 2.6 dual Intel Xeon processor and 10 GB of RAM. We rarely if ever have performance problems, so this configuration is definitely not a good judge of how well this plug-in might run. I'd recommend trying the demo to see how well it will run if you think you've got a borderline system. OVERALL OPINION If you could only have a single compression plug-in, the Elysia mpressor would definitely not be a bad choice. It's versatile enough where you can use it on almost everything, and the built in EQ is a huge plus for doing simple tone color adjustments. While it has flexibility and options, it's also really easy to use and isn't convoluted at all. The sound is really impressive for a plug-in, but again having used the hardware mpressor, it isn't going to give you the same exact sound as no plug-in will be able to truly emulate hardware. If you're looking for a go to compressor plug-in that is more versatile than most, the Elysia mpressor is definitely one to check out.

The Elysia Niveau Filter is a free equalizer plug-in that comes in RTAS, Audio Units, and VST plug-in formats. I'm pretty sure you can get it for either PC or Mac operating systems, but I've only used it on a Mac. The entire process of downloading and installing the plug-in should only take a matter of minutes, as I was personally able to have the plug-in up and running in Pro Tools very soon after deciding to download it. As far as the make up of the plug-in is concerned, it's a very simple interface. It's only a one band equalizer, so you'll need to stack them if you want to use more than one band. It's got just two knobs for gain and for frequency, as well as buttons for bypassing and for multiplying the frequency by ten times. That's really everything you need to know about the plug-in, but there is a short manual available for this plug-in if you want it, although I personally haven't had a need to look at it. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE Right now I'm running the Elysia Niveau Filter on my Mac Book Pro that has a 2.2 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of RAM. I've been running it in Pro Tools LE 8 that I run with a Digidesign Digi 002R audio interface, and within this configuration I can't say that I've had any issues at all running this plug-in. It won't take up much of your processing power at all, and since it's free there is certainly no harm in trying if you think you're system might be on the fence. OVERALL OPINION I don't have too many complaints about the Elysia Niveau Filter, as even though it's a simple, one band equalizer, it's still free and has a pretty clean sound. I like using this for really simple EQ jobs when I know exactly what I want to do with it. Of course there isn't much flexibility since it's only one band, but you can always stack them if you want more. I like the simplicity of this plug-in and would absolutely recommend it for all DAW users who would be interested in a free plug-in (which should be everyone). Definitely do yourself a favor and add the Niveau Filter to your plug-in suite today...