What is it?

Everybody who has ever had a chance to listen to a MagicDeathEye compressor has been blown away by its sound. Carefully designed by Mr. Ian Sefchick (mastering engineer at Capitol Records), this tube compressor’s circuit is loosely based on a Fairchild 660. It’s a variable gain compressor that sounds just as great on your mastering bus as on your individual tracks. Nothing is smashed here, everything breathes and shines while the MagicDeathEye will smoothly glue your audio signal together in that warm and almost elegant way only expensive tube compressors can.

Already now a legendary piece of hardware, the MagicDeathEye compressor is just too good to be exclusively available only to some of the greatest studios in the world. After almost a year of careful circuit and signal analysis, DDMF and Ian Sefchick are extremely proud to present the official plugin version of this lovely beast! Staying extremely close to its hardware role model while still keeping the CPU load at a very reasonable level, we sincerely believe that the answer to the ever-old question “Do I really need another compressor plugin” is a resounding yes for this one!

Important: while this plugin models the mono hardware compressor, the software offers both mono and stereo operation (with identical gain reduction for both channels)! So don’t be confused by the other MagicDeathEye emulation being called “MagicDeathEyeStereo”, that simply refers to the original hardware… this plugin can do stereo too!

We could go on and on here, telling you all about the extremely interesting technical details like the eight(!) tubes that are being used, the handwound transformers and so on, but we think it’s about time you simply give this fantastic tool a spin and hear for yourself what the buzz is all about. We hope you’ll enjoy the ride!

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The second product of the ongoing and very fruitful collaboration with MagicDeathEye is a faithful emulation of their stereo master buss compressor & equalizer. From the description of the hardware: “The stereo compressor is two mono compressor circuits with some extras designed for mastering and buss compression duties. This new version has an added EQ section. There are two (boost only) bands with two frequency selections each. The EQ is worked into the Variable Mu tube gain structure. This means it is not before or after the compression section, it is within it! The EQ circuit is inductor based and has wide curves for giving program material that “little something”. There is also a two frequency low cut for tightening up out of control bass. The boost of the bands can be 5dB or 3dB split between 5 steps. I spent a lot of time shaping this EQ mastering everyday and fine tuning the components on the weekends. It sounds absolutely fabulous!”

So apart from the second channel, which, unlike in its hardware role model, has already been added in the “mono” MDE plugin, we have an added EQ section here, and the compression curve is actually quite different from the mono version. If one would ask about the difference in purpose of the two, the mono compressor would usually go on individual tracks, while the stereo compressor, with its noticeably more gentle compression curve and the additional EQ options, would go on the master buss.

Of course, while trying to stay as close to the hardware as possible sound-wise, we have again taken the liberty to implement some additional goodies in the software plugin: the high frequency EQ can be applied to the full stereo field, the mid or the side signal only. Conversely, for the low frequency range, an optional elliptical filter on the side signal will be very helpful when mastering for vinyl. The amount of harmonic distortion can be varied from 0 to 100 percent, where 50 percent corresponds to the level of the hardware unit. In- and output gain can be linked. Finally, there is an option for 2- or even 4-fold oversampling within the plugin!

Clearly, this magnificent tube compressor is not just a slight variation of the mono model: while effortlessly demonstrating that smooth and musical MagicDeathEye signature sound, it has a different feel to it. The few fortunate people who were already able to score their own build of both the mono and the stereo version (they are hard to come by as Ian is building each and everyone of them by hand) will know what I’m talking about! For the rest of you, now is your chance to compare the two masterpieces in the box!

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Available as a VST, VST3, AU and AAX plugin in 32 and 64 bit format for Windows and Mac OSX (10.7 and higher). Intel & Apple Silicon supported.