Overview
Outboard-C is a studio compressor built around four voicings and four directions — precise when the mix needs surgery, musical when it needs to glue. A continuous Auto-Threshold servo rides the gain reduction toward a musical target, Headroom trims the whole engine colder or hotter, and the ballistics are calibrated so the knob value is the measured attack and release time. A complete sidechain section — detector tone, an 8-band sidechain EQ, stereo linking — makes ducking and frequency-aware triggering native, not a workaround.
Windows & macOS · VST3, AU & CLAP
01/Outboard-C
Clean is the neutral, precise feed-forward compressor for mix bus and mastering. Classic and Optical switch to a feedback detector topology — the smoother, self-limiting gait of classic studio and opto hardware. Vocal is the precise, voice-tuned setting. Your own knobs stay live under every voicing — they colour additively, never override.
02/Outboard-C
A continuous servo rides the threshold so the average gain reduction settles on a musical target — level-independent, with a silence gate, without chasing the programme. The Threshold knob and the transfer curve follow live; switch it off and the value it found is kept.
03/Outboard-C
A bipolar trim right at the Threshold knob, inspired by classic console headroom calibration. "+" runs the compressor and saturation colder — less reach, more reserve; "−" runs it hotter — denser, more colour — with the output level compensated either way.
04/Outboard-C
Attack and Release are calibrated to measured transition times: dial in 20 ms, measure 20 ms — verified against leading reference compressors. Add an RMS detector, Hold, Smooth (crossfades into a decoupled detector for springy, click-free releases), Pump (programme-dependent release) and Curve, one control that shapes knee hardness and level-dependent ratio together.
05/Outboard-C
The saturation stage runs antiderivative anti-aliasing plus optional 2×–32× oversampling, linear-phase and sample-accurate in its latency compensation — aliasing measured below −140 dB. From a barely-there fattening to a fully committed clip, without digital edge.
06/Outboard-C
Ext SC listens to the host's sidechain input for real ducking; SC Listen makes the detector itself audible — the built-in diagnostic for any routing. Stereo detection runs L/R or M/S, with a Max-linked variant, plus stepless Link, Swap and separate Wet-1/Wet-2 amounts per detector branch.
07/Outboard-C
A fully parametric EQ for the detector only: eight bands, each with type, slope, frequency, gain and Q, draggable straight on a frequency curve, with band solo to listen in. De-essing, frequency-aware ducking, multiband triggers — no second plugin.
Also inside
08
Four broad, resonance-free bands tilt only what the compressor hears — pull out the bass so the kick doesn't pump, dial in the highs so sibilance triggers reliably.
09
A large transfer curve with a live operating point, scrolling input/output/gain-reduction history, GR and output meters with peak-hold, and a running LUFS readout.
10
76 factory presets across ten categories, a personal default slot, machine-wide favorites synced across every instance, and full A/B between two complete plugin states.
Outboard-C
Four voicings, a servo that listens, and a sidechain section built to be used — try it free for 14 days.
Windows & macOS · VST3, AU & CLAP
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