Mixing Month Bundle (Exclusive)

In the plugin world, there are very few brands who can claim to have consistently held the same commitment to quality as Baby Audio. Their catalogue is absolutely vast and completely filled with some of the most well-respected and loved plugins around.

That's why, even in a market with a seemingly endless variety reverb, compression, and delay plugins available, the below offerings from the Baby Audio camp have remained firmly rooted in the studios of many a professional audio engineer the world over.

Combining the algorithmic reverb Crystalline, the brilliantly redesigned compression unit IHNY-2, and the endlessly creative delay plugin Comeback Kid, this clear and immediate upgrade for your studio is available for a limited time only, and available exclusively through our website.

Bundle Contents

• Crystalline
• IHNY-2
• Comeback Kid

---

Crystalline

Next Generation Algorithmic Reverb

A studio reverb for the current era

A ‘perfect algorithmic reverb’ is often considered the holy grail of digital audio effects. In fact, the idea can be traced all the way back to research papers from the 1960s.

Throughout the 20th century, algorithmic reverbs evolved thanks to companies like EMT and Lexicon. But limited computing power forced manufacturers back then to work within narrow constraints.

Fast forward, and we now have the resources to do things that couldn’t be done during the golden age of studio reverbs. Both in terms of sheer sound quality. But also in terms of adding creative features that weren’t possible in the hardware days.

Crystalline stands on the shoulders of 60 years of chasing ‘the holy grail of DSP’. We’ve asked ourselves what the pioneers of legendary digital reverbs would have done if they had the resources we have today – and then we’ve made exactly that plugin. With all the bells and whistles a modern engineer would need.

Unrealistic expectations allowed

When we’re talking reverbs, there are two fundamental philosophies: One tries to mimic the sound of real physical space – while the other seeks to create an artificial space from an algorithm, free from the constraints of the natural world. The idea of an algorithmic reverb was first conceived in the 1960s – and evolved over the following decades, redefining the sound of modern music with every new technology leap (and improved memory chip!).

Crystalline follows the tradition of the classic algorithmic reverbs but adds new features and higher fidelity thanks to modern computer power. It is meant to sound unreal – in the most positive sense of the word. Its rooms and halls won’t sound anything like those in your house – but closer to those of your dreams!

Make space for Lushness

• Crystalline is a new, state-of-the-art, reverb plugin with a pristine and modern sound
• It gives you unprecedented creative control to shape your reflections
• You can sync reverb start and decay times to your song’s tempo
• An evolution of classic 20th-century studio reverbs – fully upgraded for today

Presets

Crystalline comes loaded with more than 300 presets created by BABY Audio and friends of the house - including:

• Damian Taylor (Bjork, The Prodigy, The Killers, Arcade Fire)
• Michele Canova (John Legend, Alicia Keys, Olly Murs)
• Eric J Dubowsky (Flume, St. Vincent, Chet Faker, Kygo)
• Matt Sim (Nicki Minaj, Big Sean, Gucci Mane)
• M-Phazes (Eminem, Madonna, Demi Lovato)

Features

BPM-Synced Start And End Times

Crystalline lets you hard-sync the reverb attack and decay time to your DAW’s tempo. This will generally result in cleaner mixes where the reflections are naturally in sync with the music. Prefer the classic way? Just hit the “Sync/MS” switch and Crystalline lets you set pre-delay and decay times in milliseconds instead.

Reflections Section

• “Size” lets you set the room size from tiny to large. This control is detached from the “Length” control, meaning you can get any size/length combination you want, including esoteric settings like huge spaces with very short tails or tiny spaces with very long tails.
• “Sparkle” emphasizes high frequencies inside the reverb algorithm. This generates reflections that are naturally brighter, which will help you achieve that extra shine on vocals or snares.
• “Width” lets you set the stereo image of the reverb from mono to wide – and even further to extra wide.

Depth Section

• “Resolution” sets the complexity of the algorithm from ‘basic’ to ‘pristine’. More complex settings will give you an ultra-clean reverb response, free of metallic artefacts – while the ‘Basic’ setting will give you an efficient CPU performance at a normal fidelity.
• “Modulation” creates pitch variations inside the reverb algorithm. This results in a richer sound that works especially well to fatten up synths, guitars and vocals.
• “Shimmer” makes the high frequencies of the reverb tail decay slower than the rest of the spectrum, giving the reflections an ‘angelic halo’ effect. You can set the frequency cutoff point as well as the multiplier effect, which controls how much longer it takes for the higher frequencies to decay. Please note that if Shimmer is active, the high frequencies will decay later than your specified reverb “End Time” (either at 2x, 4x or 6x the length).

Clean-Up Section

• “Damping” is a dual filter control that lets you remove high and low-frequency content from the reverb reflections. This control offers a fast way to get rid of clutter and muddiness in your mixes.
• “Sides” is a high-pass filter that removes stereo information from the low end of the reverb, while keeping the mono information intact. This is especially helpful for creating wide vocal or lead instrument reflections without muddying up your low end.
• “Gate” lets you instantly recreate the classic 1980s gated reverb sound. The gate offers ‘threshold’ and ‘release’ controls and makes it fast and intuitive to make your snares go ‘Phil Collins’.

Shape Section

• “Tone” is a tilt EQ that lets you quickly shift the frequency balance of the reverb to brighter or darker.
• “Smoothing” gradually applies an EQ-curve custom-designed to address the frequency areas that tend to get resonant and sharp. It mellows out the harshness and gives Crystalline a more subtle feel. This allows you to add a little more reverb without drenching your mix.
• “Transients” lets you shift the reverb algorithm’s emphasis to either the attack or sustain part of the incoming signal. Emphasizing the sustain more than the transients will make the reverb feel airy and light while emphasizing the attack stage is a great way to get a splashy and dense sound. The Transients feature works especially well for controlling reflections on percussive material.

Output Section

• “Ducker” lowers the reverb signal when the dry/incoming track is playing. This gives you a cleaner mix, where you can turn up the reverb more without compromising the dry track. “Ducker Gentle” mode offers a slow and natural ducker setting, while the standard ducker mode has a more pumpy feel.
• ”Reverse” reverses the reverb playback, giving you some radical sound design possibilities.
• “Freeze” is another creative effect that takes a granular snapshot of the reverb when clicked and holds this snapshot continuously until the button is un-clicked again. It can be a powerful effect for creating interesting transitions in a mix.
• “Dry/Wet” sets the global mix balance between the dry/incoming signal and the reverb signal. Clicking the “Wet Lock” button lets you browse presets while keeping your preferred wet/dry balance - for easier comparison.

Top Panel

• “Color” lets you change between light and dark background colours.
• “Eco Mode” lets you run Crystalline in a low-CPU mode by setting the resolution to “Basic” and disabling the shimmer effect.
• “Save As Default” lets you save your own default preset that will appear when the plugin initializes or you hit the reset button. That way, you can save your preferred color+size settings.
• “Reset” resets the plugin’s state to your default preset.
• “Tool Tips” gives you help texts explaining each plugin parameter during mouse hover-over.

Resizability

• The plugin window is fully resizable (click+drag bottom right icon).

Learn more about Crystalline.

IHNY-2

Slaps So Good

Baby Audio set out to make the hardest hitting compressor in the industry. The kind that makes your tracks slam and sing. To achieve that extra edge, IHNY-2 works in parallel. This allows you to compress more while retaining the dynamics of your dry track.

• Engineered for a modern and ultra-aggressive compression sound, perfect for adding power to your tracks
• Hosts parallel signal chain internally for a fast and obstacle-free parallel compression workflow
• Majorly upgraded V2 of Baby Audio's first ever plugin (I Heart NY) – offering surgical control and a range of new features

Mix Harder

Contemporary mixes need punch. And to achieve maximum impact, without killing a track's dynamics, engineers turn to parallel compression (a technique that blends a dry track with a heavily compressed duplicate). IHNY-2 hosts a plug-and-play parallel configuration so you don’t have to set up any extra routing in your DAW. 

The plugin is purpose-designed for slamming your tracks in parallel and will hit harder than your typical go-to compressors. It is not subtle, but a dedicated tool for adding energy and “slap” to drums, mix buses or even the master bus (if you dare!)

IHNY-2 is an evolution of Baby Audio's very first plugin, I Heart NY. The original was a favorite with many users and was picked for the SOS Awards by Sound On Sound Magazine. V2 ships with new features, surgical control – and improvements in sound.

Features

IHNY-2 splits the incoming audio into two duplicates. One remains untouched by the plugin (Dry track), the other is subjected to all the goodness IHNY-2 has to offer (Wet track). You balance the two signals on the vertical axis of the XY pad, while setting the compression amount of the Wet track on the horizontal axis. This allows you to operate the most important controls of the plugin in just one motion. 

IHNY-2 has an autogain algorithm working under the hood to give you a consistent output as you move the node around the XY pad – but if you find that it's too loud or too quiet you can use the Autogain slider on the front panel to nudge the behavior. 

While moving the node around the XY pad, you'll see a value displayed under the "AGR" abbreviation (Adjusted Gain Reduction). This number takes into account the current Gain Reduction and Dry/Wet balance to give you a value for the compression intensity. For a good starting point, Baby Audio recommend you aim for AGR levels between -10 and -20.

Tweak Panel

HNY-2 is meant to be as fast and intuitive as its predecessor. But if you need to go deeper, the Tweak Panel gives you full control over the compressor. Here, you’ll find a number of new features that weren’t included in V1.

Attack + Release

Sets how fast the compressor engages and disengages. 

Ratio

Sets the compression intensity from mild to aggressive.

Punch

Heavy compression tends to suck the transients out of a signal. The Punch control works to emphasize attack transients in the compressed track, helping it cut through even at very high compression levels.

Harmonics

Imagine a saturator that behaves like a compressor – that’s Harmonics. This feature introduces harmonic saturation controlled by the gain-reduction, meaning more compressed parts get saturated harder.

Shape

Adds the custom ‘smiley EQ curve’ to bring out the lows and highs and make the compressed signal more present. (The smiley EQ curve is what sets “New York Compression” apart from regular parallel compression. IHNY-2 can do both).

Tilt

Makes the compressor work harder on either the low or high end of your signal – which can be useful for controlling bass heavy material and letting the high end breathe (or vice versa).

Lo + Hi Preserve

Prevents the low and high frequencies from being compressed above/below the cutoff points. This is a great way to preserve the kick while squashing the rest of your drum bus.

Other Features

• Oversampling: Run the plugin in 1x, 2x or 4x oversampling modes. (1x recommended for better CPU performance).
• Solo: Monitor the wet signal in solo. Useful for finetuning – or for using IHNY-2 as a regular insert compressor.
• Tooltips: Turn on to get explanations of each parameter as you use the plugin.
• Save As Default: Save your own default preset, which will load whenever you open a new instance of IHNY-2.
• Reset To Default: Reset the plugin to your default preset.
• Baby Audio Logo: Bypass the plugin.
• Resize Icon: Resize the plugin.
• Mouse Controls: 
  • Cmd+Click: Slows down mouse movement in the Tweak Panel for finetuning purposes.
  • Ctrl+Click on XY Pad Node: Horizontal movement only.
  • Alt (Cmd) + Click on XY Pad Node: Vertical movement only.
  • Double Click: Resets any parameter to its default value.

It’s All About The Sound

IHNY-2 comes with a range of new features to surgically tweak the compression behavior. But a compressor should not be judged on its features (or ability to run in parallel) as much as it should be judged on its sound. Let’s get into that.

Just like its predecessor, IHNY-2 offers its own, unique sonic signature: Its style of compression is clinical and aggressive, combining the precision of a digital algorithm with a touch of analog-inspired non-linearity. It can even go into full-on saturation mode as you apply the ‘Harmonics’ control.

The plugin is designed especially with modern genres in mind – i.e. optimized for loudness and impact, without a loss of clarity.

However, some of Baby Audio's inspiration actually goes back in time as well. Particularly to the affordable DBX units of the 80s and 90s. You can call them basic, but these compressors had a brutal and hard-hitting nature that their more sophisticated counterparts just couldn’t muster. They are loved and used for that to this day!

With IHNY-2, Baby Audio had an ambition to take the “slammy” and “squashy” behavior of Baby Audio's favorite old hardware compressors even further – and make it an intentional feature rather than a byproduct of design limitations. At the same time we wanted an algorithm that didn’t destroy the signal, even at high compression levels (unlike cheaper hardware compressors). 

Baby Audio are sure you’ll find that IHNY-2 sounds like none of your other plugins. It’s not designed for “smooth” work. But when you need some power, you’ll have a hard time finding a better companion. IHNY-2 is everything I Heart NY was – and so much more!

Presets

IHNY-2 comes loaded with 156 presets created by BABY Audio and friends of the house - including: 

• Delbert Bowers (Lizzo, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Shawn Mendes)
• Matt Sim (Nicki Minaj, The Chainsmokers, Gucci Mane)
• M-Phazes (Eminem, Madonna, Demi Lovato)
• Preston “Prizzie” Reid (Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Muni Long)
• Rob Kleiner (Cee Lo, SIA, David Guetta, Britney Spears)

Learn more about IHNY-2.

Comeback Kid

Hands-on delay with an analogue flavour

A delay worth waiting for.

Of all the essential mix tools, the delay may be the most creatively satisfying. So Baby Audio asked themselves: could they take one of their favourite effects and give it an upgrade?

They set out to develop their vision for a warmer sounding, more inspiring delay plugin: One that lets you design your own delay sounds through a versatile selection of onboard flavouring tools. Easily and intuitively.

Comeback Kid includes everything you'd expect from a new go-to delay — plus some unexpected extras.

Features

Set up your delay:

• BPM-synced modes: Straight, dotted, triplet. Free mode: 0.01 ms - 2500 ms. Ping-Pong option.

Add some character:

• Lo-Cut + Hi-Cut: Tame your delays with analogue-modelled filters.
• Attack + Sustain: Sculpt your delays with flexible transient designers.
• Cheap: Degrade you delays with a custom 11-bit signal path — modelled after vintage digital units.
• Tape: Warm-up your delays with analogue-style tape saturation.
• Swirl: Add movement to your delays with an analogue-modelled phaser.
• Sauce: Add space to your delays with a touch of algorithmic reverb.
• Wider: Widen your delays through L/R time variations.
• Richer: Add dimension to your delays through L/R pitch variations.
• Pan: Place your delays in the stereo image.
• Mono: Turn your delays into mono.
• Ducker: Lower your delays when the dry signal is playing — for a cleaner, more modern sound.
• Destiny: Leave your delays to destiny — for a less robotic, more human and unpredictable vibe.

As with Baby Audio's other effects, each knob is the tip of the iceberg—with plenty of good stuff going on under the hood. This gives you flexible sound design options, while the workflow remains fast.

Delays that work in your flavour.

Want a tape delay vibe for your lead synth, a modern slap on your vocals and a crunchy lofi echo on your guitars? Not a problem. Want to mix and match all of the above to create something new? Also not a problem! Comeback Kid is designed to adapt to your sound — not the other way around. And with no sub-menus or hidden features, everything you need is right in front of you. Even some inspiration.

Comeback Kid comes loaded with 61 presets* created by friends of BABY Audio - including:

• Mick Schultz: Grammy Nominated, Multi-Platinum, producer for Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson, Jeremih etc.
• Anthony Saffery: Billboard #1 producer/engineer for Portugal. The Man, Dirty Vegas, Cornershop etc.

Learn more about Comeback Kid.

---

System Requirements

Mac

• Mac OS X 10.7 or later (64-bit only)
• Intel or Apple Silicon Processor (Native compatibility)
• Formats: AU, VST, VST3 & AAX
• Compatible DAWS: Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Cubase, Nuendo, Reaper, Reason and any other major DAW software on the market

Windows

• Windows 7 or later (32 / 64-bit)
• Formats: VST, VST3 & AAX
• Compatible DAWS: Ableton Live, Pro Tools, FL Studio, Cubase, Nuendo, Reaper, Reason and any other major DAW software on the market

Please Note: an internet connection is required to authorise this software.