The Levels suite
The Stig Compressor
A compressor that saturates hard and distorts harder. The drive hits the detector, not just the tone - so it changes how it grabs, not only how it sounds.
A clean, modern VCA compressor with real character stages - not an emulation of one classic box. Transparent when you want it; but the *pre-drive saturates into the detector (so drive changes how the compressor grabs, not just the tone), and the post-stage adds Drive / Bitcrush / Wavefolder* after it - from subtle harmonic thickening to full destruction.
Early-bird pricing
These are launch prices and they will go up as the suite fills out. What you buy now is yours at that price for good: every future update is included, including the versions that cost more later. There is no subscription and no upgrade fee.
demo
See it work.
Demo coming soon
what's in it
Every control, and what it's for.
Controls marked Brain are the ones the Analyser can set for you on an ANALYSE pass.
Compressor core
Where compression starts. Lower = more. Watch the GR meter.
How hard, 1:1 (off) to 20:1 (limiting).
0 dB (hard, punchy) to 24 dB (soft, gentle).
0.1–100 ms. Slow lets transients through (keeps beater/pluck); fast grabs everything.
10–1000 ms, with optional Auto Release that adapts to the material (good on vocals and bus).
Adds back the level lost to compression.
Sidechain high-pass 20–500 Hz - stops low end driving the detector. Essential on bass and full mixes so they don’t pump on every low note.
Peak (follows transients - drums, percussion) or RMS (averages level - vocals and bus, so it rides the body of the sound, not the spikes).
Sum L+R / Max L+R / Dual Mono - how the two channels are detected. Keep stereo sources linked so the image doesn’t wander.
Character
Saturation into the compressor so drive and detection interact. Harmonics switch: Odd (symmetric tanh, aggressive), Even (asymmetric bias, warm tube-style, DC-blocked), Both (blend). Bias scales with drive, so all three are identical at zero drive.
Colour after the compressor: Drive (harmonic warmth→grit), Bitcrush (bit-depth + sample-rate reduction, lo-fi/digital), Wavefolder (fold distortion with symmetry, synth-like, extreme).
How much of the post-stage.
Output & suite integration
Wet/dry blend. 100% = straight compressor; pull back for parallel compression (smash hard, blend under the dry) with no second bus.
Signal invert and active/bypass.
When on, applies the factory preset matching the track type the moment it’s known, and adopts the master ANALYSE broadcast. Brain-controlled set: threshold, ratio, knee, attack, release, makeup (+ drive character per type). The first knob you touch turns AUTO off; press AUTO again to re-apply.
Categories Drums, Bass, Guitars, Keys, Vocals, Bus, Mastering, Character, browsable as sub-menus, steppable with < >. Remembered by name with the session.
quick start
Four steps to a sound.
- Put it after Analyser in the chain.
- In the suite, leave AUTO on - the Stig loads a starting setting for the track type (kick, vocal, bass…).
- Set Threshold for the gain reduction you want (watch the GR meter), then taste with Ratio, Attack, Release.
- Bring level back with Makeup, or pull Mix back for parallel compression.
Not currently suitable for Pro Tools
These are AU and VST3 plugins. Pro Tools only loads AAX, which these aren't built as - so none of the suite will appear in it. Please check your DAW before you buy - once you download, the sale is final.
Get The Stig Compressor
AU · VST3 · Standalone - macOS 10.15 Catalina or later, Windows (VST3). Installers are not yet notarised, so there's one extra click on first install; the install guide walks through it.
Where it's confirmed to work
Honest version: this is a one-person operation, so it has been properly tested in the DAWs below and not yet in the others. Not tested yet means exactly that - not that it fails.
| DAW | System | Plugins load | They share with each other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Logic Pro | macOS | Yes | Yes |
| GarageBand | macOS | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| Ableton Live | Mac/Win | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| Cubase / Nuendo | Mac/Win | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| Studio One Confirmed on Windows (VST3). The sharing side is still to be checked. | Mac/Win | Yes | Not tested yet |
| Reaper Confirmed on Intel Mac - both AU and VST3, and the plugins share with each other. Not yet tested on Windows. | Mac/Win | Yes | Yes |
| FL Studio | Mac/Win | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| Bitwig Studio | Mac/Win | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| Digital Performer | Mac/Win | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| Pro Tools Pro Tools only loads AAX plugins. These are AU and VST3. | Mac/Win | No | No |
| System | Confirmed | |
|---|---|---|
| macOS on Intel | Yes | Confirmed working from 10.15 Catalina upwards. |
| macOS on Apple Silicon | Yes | Confirmed on an M4 Mac in Logic Pro. The installers are universal binaries, so they run natively - no Rosetta needed. |
| Windows 10 / 11 | Yes | VST3 only - there is no AU on Windows. Confirmed in Studio One. |
"They share with each other" is the ANALYSE pass, the clash matrix and the AUTO settings. Where a DAW keeps plugins apart, every plugin still works perfectly on its own - they just can't pass measurements between them, and nothing breaks. Ten-second check in any DAW: put Analyser on two tracks, turn one to master, and see whether the second track appears in its overview. Tell me what you find and this list gets updated.
Part of The Levels suite - see also: