Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor Class A | New from Brainworx and Plugin Alliance 

Just bought the class A today upon recommendation from a producer friend and very excited to dive in ! Thanks for making this video to give me quick overview !!

Both are great

Thank you for the review!!!

These are both excellent tools; but I really love the class A sound.....big!!!..I will use it on my master buss for sure...also the green model does some awesome stuff on guitars...I really like Plugin Alliance.

Nice comparison! I`m, about to hit the trigger on the SH Class A and the Lindell 80. I know the songs in both of your videos from PLAP very well, cause I mixed them, too ;-)

this is the 3rd or 4th video of yours Ive checked out, and the music in all of them is pretty darned cool. Is it your music, or stuff you work on for other folks?

I like the classic best. Better glue in the mid range I'm hearing. But maybe I'm just tripping. I own the class A though. Will probably buy the classic too!

I've tried both for a couple of days. I'll go for the class A but I sometimes miss a kind of 'dirt' grit that the classic had. Nice demo!

Thank you for this video. I see on the right that you have Slate Digital plugins. While not sure if you have all of them, but did you ever find the Shadow Hills comparable to Slate's FG-X Mastering Processor?

Hi! Nice video. Question: How do you compensate for the HIGH CUT which starts at 15000kHz and goes down to 22000kHz on the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor Class A? This high cut is only active when the First OPTO Compressor is turned on. It really knocks me off my feet every time - when I'm Mastering an already well balanced mix in frequency response. How do you deal with this "problem" - CUT? In the old version (green) - we know that this "problem" is not present.

Dude what strings were used on the track and do you have a link to the track you are mixing it sounds amazing? Are the strings a vst you can buy?

Stereo image is different but one is in dual mono mode and the Class-A is on stereo mode (hence the difference) ;-)

Thanks for putting this out so quickly! I appreciate it and was really curious about the differences as well. I agree. The Class A has more depth to it, and more HD type of sound. Everything is more identifiable, each instrument in it's own space on the Class A. On the OG it's all smeared together. Which might be good on certain things, but certainly not for the mix buss/master IMO. Gotta figure too that the tech between 2010 when they made the OG version and 2019 when they made the Class A version has varied as well, so that very well could impact the final outcome too! I know that when I run a mix from ProTools 2019 on a Focusrite Scarlet tabletop converter and then through my heavily modded 192 the differences are very drastic! More 3d depth, more stero spread, deep lows, clearer highs, sheen in the highs, and a mid punch on the 192 vs the Focusrite is all washy and has a film over it or something like that. So if they used better equipment in the 2019 version it will result in a better plugin, even if the process of collecting the information from the source stays the same....which it most likely won't either. But I hope they continue to upgrade and change as better sounding plugins are always welcome on my studio computer! No matter what! Well unless they up the price where I can't afford them that is. Then it doesn't matter.... I"ll be using the old outdated plugins anyway! No way in hell am I paying $500-$1000 for single plugin! Hell I won't even pay more than $50 for a single plugin! If it don't go on sale, I don't own it! Period! Gotta figure on a average rock song it's about 50 tracks give or take a few. On each track your using a minimum of 2 plugins and a maximum of 10. So on average, per song, your using 150 instances of plugins. So that averages out to about 33 different plugins per song on a minimum. If each plugin averages out to $200 per plugin that's $6,600 worth of plugins per song. Well I know for a fact that number is very low on average, and you can most likely in reality bump that right up to a real world average of $10,500 per song. And that's just 1 song, not a full album! That's some ridiculous money right there on something that in reality is a bunch of 1's and 0's! You keep paying a shit ton of money for 1's and 0's in a different order...but still their all just 1's and 0's! Think about that!

I have both, I would not say class A is better. It’s got more features yes and It’s got more depth... but it’s softer sounding and not as good on drums. I feel like depending on the material both can have their uses.

I think Class A is Awesome ... very close to Original shadow hills (i did not hear a real class a anyway)... deep - punchy ... a big win for digital mastering.

Thank you for this. theyre on sale now and I'm doubting if the class A is worth it since I already have the 'green version' . What is your opinion?

What is the reason behind PA Alliance recommending the original for Drums? Just to keep it viable? I'm hearing the snare pop more (clarity and punch) in the Class A. Toms as well. Also clearer bass and strings. If you have both, why would you use the Original?

If you compares dual mono with stereo settings you're gonna get a different stereo image. Not a great comparison IMHO but still thanks for the vid interesting stuff

Do you happen to know how to access the presets within Ableton? I don't see a menu.

i noticed you have the limiter before the compressor. Any reason for that?

Hey could you share the name of the song? I really loved it and I couldn't find it anywhere

I own both. The Class A is leagues better in my opinion. Much more ”open” sounding with hardware-like sonics. More life-like transients and depth. The old version screams “plugin” to my ears comparatively, much more 2 dimensional. Just my 2 cents...

The class A , to me gives a little more depth and compression than the classic to me.

The Class A is PUNCHIER, and CLEANER!!!

Why is the Mastering Discrete Steel preset using the Nickel Transformer and not the Steel???? What are you trying to pull here????

like them both, though still sounds absolutely plain and digital. I guess compression in the mastering chain is one of those things u simply cannot find a substitute for... :( Better save money for at least a decent analog compressor for dealing with the mixbus. Nice video though!

RED means better....Green doesnt hold a candle... Good review

You really should have gain matched...

Now $29.9

都不错

you did not let us hear the before-after compression and the gain reduction barely moving. how is it a comparison when you barely hear anything ? Waste of time.

The class a is bigger more wider more 3d more deeper

Comparison sucks. Look at the gain reductions meters 🤦‍♂️

After 3 times watching, I'm not sure if I can here anything, I'm just using cellphone headphones, but still.

I literally heard no difference at any point through the entire comparison....

これはソフトウェアであって、わざわざ別の製品としてリリースする必要があったのか甚だ疑問だ。プラグイン開発は技術者の良心を捨てなければ出来ない仕事なのかもしれない。

they have our money - holding it like a treasure, and refuse to update the Green one? No GUI resize? No M/S..come on now...do your work , hehe.