Black Box Analog Design HG-2MS

Add Colorful, Frequency-Selective Tube Saturation With M/S Processing

Made by Brainworx

Meet Your mix Bus’ Best Friend

Celebrated mix engineers like Dave Pensado, Bob Horn, and Jack Douglas rely on the sweet tubes and creamy-sounding transformers of the Black Box HG-2 to help their mixes sound louder, bigger and punchier at the same peak level. Now, the HG-2 MS version offers mid-side processing,  advanced filters and more for even greater sonic refinement.

“MS” In More Ways Than One

The HG-2 MS is a Mid/Side version of the acclaimed HG-2. But it’s more than that. It also includes dedicated Mono mixing and Stereo buss versions, and now delivers More Saturation options and a wider variety of colors than ever before thanks to its new filter section. Select from highpass, lowpass, bandpass and bandstop filters to tailor your saturation separately for each channel.

Sweeten Your Audio In Mono, Stereo Or Mid-Side Modes

For the first time, process your audio with the rich, brilliant sound of the Black Box using mid-side processing for more sophisticated control over your sound. Saturate the sides, while keeping the center clean and punchy, or use more edgy odd-order saturation on the side and more warm even-order saturation on the center—or vice versa.

Paint Your Tracks with a Whole Palette of Tube Colors

HG-2 emulates four different vacuum tube stages combined in series and parallel circuits to color your mix and individual tracks with a wide range of rich and varied harmonics. Separate gain controls for emulated 6U8A pentode and triode tubes are placed in series between buttery virtual transformers warming the plugin’s input and output.
 
Dial In The Perfect Blend Of Pentode And Triode Tube Sweetness

...then adjust the Density control to drive both tubes harder without changing their relative balance or the plugin’s output level, adding more girth and mass. The Calibration menu emulates the effect of an internal trim adjustment in the original hardware unit, instantly modifying the HG-2’s high-frequency response to produce Dark, Normal or Bright coloration.
 
Sprinkle, Punch, And Tube Softness

An added Air knob lets you control how much high-frequency fairy dust you sprinkle on vocal tracks, string instruments, piano and full mixes. Turning down the Mix control adds back dry signal at the plugin’s output, combining HG-2’s beautiful tube softness and luster with your mix’s perfectly preserved detail and punch.

Features

• The MS version of the Black Box offers Mid-Side, Mono/Stereo and More Saturation options 
• TMT — Brainworx patent-registered “Tolerance Modeling Technology” (US Patent No. 10,725,727)
• Additional digital-only controls like Input Gain, Density, Calibration, Air and Mix
• Separate gain controls for virtual 6U8A pentode and triode tubes 
• Parallel Saturation circuit selects one of two modeled 12AX7 tubes—one voiced more aggressively than the other
• Saturation Frequency selector to add generated 12AX7 harmonics
• Calibration menu to mimic internal trim adjustment 
• Variable Density control to boost gain equally for virtual pentode and triode tubes
• Variable Air control to add silvery sparkle and sweetness above 10 kHz
• Added Mix control to adjust wet/dry balance

System Requirements

Mac

• macOS 13 down to macOS 10.11
• Intel, or Apple Silicon 

PC

• Windows 11 down to Windows 8
• x64-compatible CPU

Display resolution: 1440 × 900px or 1280 × 960px or higher

Memory: 2 GB RAM

AAX DSP, AAX Native, AU, VST2, VST3