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Apollo
Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor

Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor

4.7 (546)

Get the world’s most remarkable and revered audio compressor.

  • Mix and master with an emulation of the legendary Shadow Hills Compressor, endorsed by Peter Reardon
  • Harness Nickel, Iron, and Steel transformer types for a wide range of distortion characteristics and transient limiting
  • Use separate Optical and Discrete (VCA) dynamics sections for two-stage serial dynamics control
  • Employ 90 Hz sidechain filtering for musical compression of low-frequency program material

Runs on macOS or Windows. Requires an Apollo audio interface or UAD Accelerator. View full system requirements.

Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor

$299

$299

Hear It In Action

Plug-In:

Hear It In Action

Hear It In Action

Plug-In:

Hear It In Action

Plug-In:

Get the World’s Most Remarkable Stereo Compressor

Few pieces of audio hardware are as revered as the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor. The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in captures the full character of this five-rackspace behemoth — making it a go-to on records by Muse, Green Day, Gnarls Barkley, and more.

Take Complete Control of your Compression

The genius of the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in is its ability to control dynamics in two stages — an Optical and Discrete (VCA). Both sections can be bypassed, effectively providing three compression sounds in a single unit.

Go From Vintage to Modern

The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor’s Optical section features basic Threshold and Gain settings, and a two-stage release time akin to the classic LA-2A. The Discrete section takes over where the Optical section leaves off, provides precise control over gain, threshold, ratio, attack, and release.

Experiment with Switchable Output Transformers

The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in allows you to select between three output transformers — Nickel, Iron, and Steel. By switching the transformer type, you can hear the different frequency response, distortion characteristics, and transient limiting of each transformer — going from clear, to colored, to dirty respectively.

What They Say

What a beauty! The variations in sonic signatures from the [UAD] Shadow Hills Compressor plug-in are astonishing.

Frank Filipetti

James Taylor, Rod Stewart

The Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor plug-in has character and punch that no other plug-in can duplicate!

Adam Hawkins

Twenty One Pilots, Switchfoot, Keith Urban

Whatever you put the [UAD] Shadow Hills compressor plug-in on it just makes it sound better. Great way to warm up and fatten any mix.

Paul Hager

Goo Goo Dolls, Jonas Brothers

Reviews

4.7
Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars
Based on 546 reviews
Total 5 star reviews: 461 Total 4 star reviews: 45 Total 3 star reviews: 18 Total 2 star reviews: 12 Total 1 star reviews: 10
93%would recommend this product
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546 reviews
  • BH
    B. H.
    Verified Buyer
    I recommend this product
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    2 weeks ago
    Great compressor!!

    another great product!!

    Was this helpful?
  • LK
    L. K.
    Verified Buyer
    I recommend this product
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    2 months ago
    THE JUICE!

    Jaycen Joshua use this plugin and now I know why! With one word “the juice”. Love this one.

    Was this helpful?
  • WH
    W. H.
    Verified Buyer
    I recommend this product
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    2 months ago
    Great compressor

    I try different compressors for each application. This one works very well on overall mix. To me it has a clearer sound with fewer tonal artifacts than some of the other UA and Logic compressor plugins. The presets are varied and worth exploring.

    Was this helpful?
  • RG
    R. G.
    Verified Buyer
    I recommend this product
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    2 months ago
    100% my favorite compressor.

    Maybe it's the gorgeous GUI playing tricks on my ears but to me I can swear I can hear real tubes and transformers in it. If you need the vintage vibe this plugin is it. If you apply just a little bit of optical portion of this it makes EVERYTHING sound better. Think of it as plugin that replicates listening to your music though vintage tube amp, hard to describe but it's definitely a thing :). This one you have to own and it grows on you the more you use it. I wish I could afford the real thing.

    Was this helpful?
  • JK
    J. K.
    Verified Buyer
    I recommend this product
    Rated 5 out of 5 stars
    7 months ago
    A whole other animal for tracking or mastering.

    Trust me when I say, this compressor is the LA-2A, the 1176 and the Fairchild 660, and so much more. Used on individual tracks or for a master mix, there's so many options with the different transformer models. Trust and believe.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, you’ll need an Apollo audio interface, UAD-2 Satellite, or UAD-2 PCIe card to run these plug-ins, using the onboard DSP. The plug-ins run on the hardware itself, without adding strain to your computer’s CPU. In an Apollo, onboard DSP processing allows you to run realtime UAD plug-ins with near-zero latency, and even record that processing directly to your DAW.

This refers to the number of SHARC DSP processors in Apollo and UAD-2 hardware. A DUO core system has twice the amount of processing power compared to a SOLO core system. More SHARC DSP cores increases the number of UAD-2 plug-ins you can run on the hardware.

No, Satellites provide DSP to run UAD-2 plug-ins in your DAW.

Yes, you can start a fully functional 14-day demo from any plug-in bundled with the UAD software. Simply click “Start Demo”, and start using it in your DAW.

UAD-2 licenses follow the hardware, it does not matter which computer they are connected to. You can have up to six UAD-2 devices registered to a system in your Universal Audio account, which share those licenses. See UAD-2 Plug-In Licensing Explained for full details. Authorisation of UAD-2 hardware is managed by the UAD Meter & Control Panel Application.

Check our Knowledge Base for additional questions

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