The Levels suite

Tyson Group

FORMAT AU · VST3 · StandaloneIncluded

Stacked vocals de-essed as one. Twelve BVs stop compounding into a lisp, because the group sets the budget instead of every track guessing alone.

The bus-plugin coordinator for a stack of Tyson de-essers. Put it on the vocal aux, give it and every stacked Tyson the same GROUP name, and it budgets de-essing across the stack so a doubled/tripled BV group isn’t de-essed track-by-track into a lifeless, lispy composite.

Comes with Tyson De-Esser

Tyson Group isn't sold separately - it coordinates a group of Tyson De-Esser instances and does nothing on its own. Buy Tyson De-Esser and this comes with it, and it is in the complete package too.

Tyson Group - the interface
Tyson Group - the interface

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.

01

Grouping & budget

GROUP

Name the stack here. Each stacked Tyson then selects this group from its dropdown - no free-typing on members. Load-order-independent (a Tyson can join before the coordinator exists).

LOW / AIR REDUCE

The composite reduction target per band - the budget R. The levelled target is T = maxSibilance − R; each member gives clamp(sibilance_i − T, 0, ceiling). Louder members give way more; members at/below T keep their ess.

LOW / AIR FREQ

Master band centre. 0 = AUTO (each member keeps its own ANALYSE-detected centre); above 0, pins every member to this centre.

BALANCE / STAGGER

BALANCE = the sibilance-levelling budget on/off (amount). STAGGER = spread members’ detector centres apart by slot (~±6%) to stop stacked sibilance fluttering/combing. Independent - both-on is normal.

02

Analysis & monitoring

ANALYSE

Works like the Analyser's ANALYSE. Confirm, then play the stack for ten seconds while every member listens to where its own sibilance actually sits. At the end each Tyson gets its own band centres - tuned to that voice, not to a shared average - applied in one go. The ongoing levelling keeps riding on top.

Member overview

One row per Tyson: name, per-band sibilance + how far the budget is pulling it back, and a SOLO box (audition that member; ending a solo engages the group DIM, shown as an UNDIM button).

Composite sibilance meter

The summed HF profiles of all members. As the budget levels the stack, the hump over the sibilant region flattens - the visual proof the coordinator is working.

Your audio passes through this untouched - it's a coordinator, not a processor. It hands each Tyson a share of the reduction rather than writing to its controls, so live levelling can never fight a knob you just moved. It runs on its own private connection between the de-essers, separate from the Analyser's brain, and like the brain it works inside a single DAW process.

quick start

Four steps to a sound.

  1. Insert Tyson Group on the vocal aux/bus; type a GROUP name in its field.
  2. On each stacked Tyson, pick that group from its GROUP dropdown (coordinator names, satellites select).
  3. Set the composite LOW / AIR REDUCE targets and (optionally) master FREQ (0 = AUTO per member).
  4. Run ANALYSE to give each member bespoke band centres, then watch the composite meter flatten.

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 Tyson Group

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 compatibility
DAWSystem Plugins load They share with each other
Logic PromacOSYesYes
GarageBandmacOSNot tested yetNot tested yet
Ableton LiveMac/WinNot tested yetNot tested yet
Cubase / NuendoMac/WinNot tested yetNot tested yet
Studio One
Confirmed on Windows (VST3). The sharing side is still to be checked.
Mac/WinYesNot tested yet
Reaper
Confirmed on Intel Mac - both AU and VST3, and the plugins share with each other. Not yet tested on Windows.
Mac/WinYesYes
FL StudioMac/WinNot tested yetNot tested yet
Bitwig StudioMac/WinNot tested yetNot tested yet
Digital PerformerMac/WinNot tested yetNot tested yet
Pro Tools
Pro Tools only loads AAX plugins. These are AU and VST3.
Mac/WinNoNo
Operating system compatibility
SystemConfirmed
macOS on IntelYes
Confirmed working from 10.15 Catalina upwards.
macOS on Apple SiliconYes
Confirmed on an M4 Mac in Logic Pro. The installers are universal binaries, so they run natively - no Rosetta needed.
Windows 10 / 11Yes
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: