Used at Capitol Studios on countless hit records from Capitol, Motown, Geffen, Blue Note, Def Jam, as well as a more recent recordings from the likes of Black Sabbath, Demi Lovato, and also Selena Gomez. A handbuilt tube mastering compressor, the CM5511 has now been modelled by Universal Audio as a VST3, AU and AAX plug-in.

Inspired by the vintage Fairchild 670 and Gates Sta‑Level tube limiters, there are just four of the original units in existence.The UAD Capitol Mastering Compressor is described as ‘an exacting emulation’ of this ‘spare no-expense’ hardware.

The plug-in hosts controls for Input, Threshold, Attack, Release, Ratio and Output, which are provided independently for the left and right channels. It is capable of operating in dual mono and side-chain link modes, as well as in either a left/right or mid-side configuration.

There is also an expanded set of modern controls to improve upon the hardware, such as a Mono Fold feature which should tighten the low end of a mix, an option to add subtle saturation to the input signal, side-chain filtering and comprehensive dBFS and LUFS metering.

As well as the mastering bus, the Capitol Mastering Compressor can be used to add its tube‑based magic to a drum bus, synths and background vocals, giving the dynamics control only previously achievable with prohibitively expensive classic units.

The Capitol Mastering Compressor plug-in requires PCs running Windows 10 or 11, and Macs running macOS 10.15 or higher. No UAD hardware is required, although an iLok account with either iLok Cloud or an iLok dongle (2nd generation or higher) is necessary for authorisation.

More: www.uaudio.com/uad-plugins/compressors-limiters/capitol-mastering-compressor.html