Plugin Alliance has introduced a new optical compressor plugin in collaboration with Brainworx and Shadow Hills Industries.
Taking the much-loved optical section from the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor as a starting point, Shadow Hills OptoMax reworks it into a whole new and exciting beast.
Building on the official partnership that produced the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor and Class A plugins, now a staple with top engineers, Brainworx has used their industry-leading analog modeling expertise to capture every nuance of the Shadow Hills optical circuits, and taken them beyond what’s practical in the analog domain.
The result is a musical, characterful compressor with multiple transformer colorations and powerful new modes that make it adaptable for everything from transparent leveling to aggressive, saturated compression.
OptoMax features
- Expanded control: Creatively limited ratio and speed controls (slow, med, fast) unlock new sonic possibilities, but still retain the essential bloom and smoothness of optical compression.
- Push mode: Limiter-style, ultra-fast timing mode for aggressive modern sounds.
- Signature transformer color: Instantly switch between Shadow Hills’ Nickel, Iron, and Steel transformer circuits from the original Mastering Compressor for three distinct flavors of harmonic character.
- Tone sculpting: A dedicated Tone control offers Air for silky brilliance or Smooth to gently tame edgy top-end.
- Modern workflow: Advanced sidechain (highpass and bell options, SC Listen, external SC, and stereo link), parallel Mix, and a resizable GUI keep the creative flow fast and flexible.
Available for Windows and Mac (VST/VST3, AU and AAX), Shadow Hills OptoMax is on sale for the intro price of $69 USD through December 24th, 2025 (MSRP $150 USD). Shadow Hills OptoMax has been added to the Plugin Alliance MEGA Bundle at no extra cost.
More information: Plugin Alliance / Shadow Hills OptoMax
