Overstayer M-A-S

Shape, sculpt, & saturate—in high-fidelity

Handmade in Los Angeles by Jeff Turzo, Overstayer is something of an underground phenomenon. Turzo started out making gear for his personal use, but word of his exceptional designs spread like gossip down Sunset, and in 2009, Turzo gave the people what they wanted. Overstayer Recording Equipment was born and created a near-fanatical following amongst the in-the-know pro audio crowd.

Softube Overstayer M-A-S plug-ins offer the same saturation and peak-bending capabilities as the hardware in two new, enhanced versions: the do-it-all guru M-A-S and the tone-sculpting Svengali M-A-S Extended. Masterfully modelled, the harmonic shaping duo is a professional mix engineer’s secret weapon for adding energy to tracks, glueing buses, and enhancing mixes. Find faith in high-fidelity. Join the cult of M-A-S

Designed by experts, built on legacy

Softube’s history of emulating professional audio gear is long. After nearly two decades collaborating with premium brands like Weiss Engineering, Tube-Tech, Solid State Logic, Chandler Limited®, and Trident, their track record of recreating classics in software form that sound exactly like their analog counterparts speaks for itself.

The Overstayer M-A-S plug-ins and modules are built on this legacy. Softube precisely modeled, fine-tuned, and A/B tested M-A-S against its hardware counterpart to ensure emulation perfection. The result is the same paramount harmonic shaping as the original hardware with superior Softube-quality sound. Nothing less.

Versatile harmonic shaping

Ever wonder how your favourite modern productions shine without artefacts? With M-A-S, you can increase the apparent volume without getting the timing artefacts associated with compression. It smooths harsh transients and enhances the character and detail of any sound source, bringing it forward—in addition to reducing brittleness in peaks and other unevenness. Designed for ease of use, M-A-S can take the place of compression, limiting, and bus compression on individual tracks and buses by effortlessly balancing mixes.

Authentic emphasis

An exacting replica of the analog unit, Overstayer M-A-S produces harmonics that are as sweet as a large-format console but with exceptional versatility, vim, and vigour. While the hardware offered one emphasis type, Softube expanded that to six.  The original emphasis type—dubbed Classic M-A-S—keeps the fundamental frequencies clean and focuses on the mid to upper ranges. Low Bandwidth concentrates on high and low frequencies and leaves the mids alone. Low Presence homes in on vocal frequencies in the upper mid-range for increased clarity, while High Presence also deals with the vocal frequencies on the lower high-range, adding shimmer and air. Bass Distortion will thin the bass without touching the highs for a transformer-like sound. And Treble Distortion gives an almost tape-like quality that smooths harshness and rounds out the rough edges.

M-A-S Extended Emphasis

Types have their time and place, and the ease of use they offer is undeniable. But sometimes you really want to go soul-deep into harmonic shaping. Enter M-A-S Extended. Instead of Emphasis Types, it offers resonant high- and lowpass filters and a fully flexible 4-band emphasis EQ that gives you added command over the emphasis and allows you to sculpt completely new distortion types. 

Dual and 2ND

For mixes with energy and coherence, both M-A-S and M-A-S Extended feature Dual and 2ND modes. Dual adds a second discrete stage in series to the signal path, spreading the load amongst both stages and creating a more convincingly complex and lively harmonic character. This is clutch when the vocals get dull after the distortion/saturation stage. The 2ND feature shifts the response of the circuitry toward stronger secondary harmonic content to brighten and invigorate the distorted sound.

Amp Room and Modular

In addition to M-A-S and M-A-S Extended, Overstayer M-A-S comes with modules for Amp Room and Modular. In Amp Room, you can play with the M-A-S module as a boost pedal before a guitar amp or as a finalizer to get your guitar track to sit in the mix. Rocking with M-A-S for Amp Room, you can feel it pushing back a bit, almost amp-like. As the final stage before input, M-A-S for Modular will thicken your synth sections. By incorporating the high-fidelity saturation of M-A-S in the sound creation process within Amp Room and Modular, you can produce truly hypnotizing synth, guitar, and bass sounds.

Softube + Overstayer

It’s the classic pandemic story: an email was sent, a reply was made, and the rest, as they say, is history. Fans of Overstayer for some time, it took the solitude of forced confinement for Softube to reach out to the brand. When they did, Softube were jazzed to discover that Overstayer founder and designer Jeff Turzo was equally excited to collaborate. And collaborate they did. Turzo was instrumental in the process of designing the Overstayer M-A-S and M-A-S Extended plug-ins. From the user interface to tuning, the collaborative effort was near total. And totally fun. Creative, cool, and full of mad ideas, Turzo is hip to Softube-style Rock & Roll Science. Softube could not be more proud to bring the first officially licensed Overstayer software into the DAW with their M-A-S plug-ins and modules.

What's included?

Overstayer M-A-S

M-A-S is more than a distortion plug-in. It's a hotshot harmonic shaper. M-A-S's unique Turzo design makes it ideal for use on tracks, buses, mix buses, and masters. The first and only officially licensed Overstayer software, M-A-S's bespoke features and simple interface make for better DAW flexibility and more precise control of emphasis. It gives everything it touches that little bit of edge. 

Overstayer M-A-S Extended

M-A-S Extended is made for delving deeper into harmonic shaping. To get you there, it sports resonant high- and low-pass filters and a fully flexible 4-band emphasis EQ, in addition to the same specs as M-A-S. 

Overstayer M-A-S for Amp Room

M-A-S for Amp Room, the pro audio guitar and bass platform, is straight-up fun. And when you combine it with other studio effects, classic amps, cabs, and pedals, you can easily create studio-quality, record-ready tones. 

Overstayer M-A-S for Modular

M-A-S for Modular, the infinitely expandable modular synthesizer platform, helps you create dazzling synth sounds. Virtually patch it to modules from Doepfer, Buchla, Intellijel, and more to discover new sonic auras.

Features

• Two plug-ins for high fidelity saturation: M-A-S and M-A-S Extended
• Expertly component modelled after the M-A-S hardware unit
• Officially licensed and created in collaboration with Jeff Turzo and Overstayer  
• A total of four versions included: M-A-S, M-A-S Extended, M-A-S for Amp Room, and M-A-S for Modular
• Added auto-compensated levels on the Input (“Auto Gain” and “To Dry”)
• Dual and 2ND modes for increased energy and coherence
• Five new emphasis types for the M-A-S plug-in make a total of six
• 4-band fully flexible parametric emphasis EQ (2x Shelf, 2x Bell) for M-A-S Extended
• 12 dB/octave resonant low and high-pass filters for M-A-S Extended
• Increases the apparent volume without compression timing artefacts, replacing the need for compression or limiting

System Requirements

• macOS Big Sur 11, Monterey 12, Ventura 13
• Windows 10 (64-bit), Windows 11
• Softube account
• iLok account
• Computer with AU, VST, VST3, and/or AAX-compatible DAW host software
• Internet access (for downloading installers and managing licenses)

Supported CPU Families 

• Apple macOS computers with Intel Core i3/i5/i7 or Apple silicon (M1 or newer) CPU. Apple silicon is supported natively. 
• Windows computers with quad-core Intel Core i3/i5/i7 or AMD quad-core processors with SSE 4.2 support.
• Other Intel processors (Celeron, Pentium, and Xeon) are compatible if they support SSE 4.2 instructions. 

Supported Host Software (DAW)  

Any 64-bit VST, VST3, AU, or AAX (Pro Tools 11.0.2 or higher) compatible host application should work. However, due to plug-in host differences between DAWs—and our rigorous standards—Softube only officially test their plug-ins and instruments in the most recent versions of Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton Live, Studio One, and Reaper. Softube plug-ins are not tested regularly in non-listed systems. They will likely work if the system requirements are met. However, the manufacturer cannot guarantee a solution for issues in unsupported systems. 
  
Softube strongly recommend using VST3, as some of their plug-ins have features that are not present in the older VST format. Supported sample rates: 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192 kHz, in both mono and stereo. The most recent maintenance release of your DAW application is recommended. AAX DSP is not currently in active development. TDM/VENUE/RTAS are no longer supported. See Legacy Installers.

Important Note: Make sure that you always use the latest iLok License Manager. It is not included in the Softube installer but can be downloaded from www.ilok.com​