Mercurial Tones

Vanguard

Bus Compressor · Tube Saturation · Reactive Spectral Engine

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The Interface

Three compressor characters. A pre-stage tube. RSX, our reactive spectral engine that adapts the saturation character to your audio in real time. Not just another bus compressor, a complete glue and color workstation built around the way real records sound.

01 · RSX · Reactive Spectral Engine

Saturation That Adapts

RSX is our own technology, the next step in the evolution of tube saturation. Most saturators apply the same character to every input. Vanguard listens to what you feed it and reshapes the saturation to match the source. The result feels alive instead of static, and it sits right on every kind of material without you reaching for a knob.

Listens In Real Time

RSX continuously reads your audio and adjusts the saturation character on the fly. The tube responds to your source instead of fighting it.

Bass That Stays Clean

Heavy low end automatically pulls a fuller, warmer character from the tube. Big bass sounds bigger, never muddy.

Tames Harshness

Loud, bright material gets gentle adaptive control so cymbals shimmer and vocals breathe. The hotter it gets, the more carefully RSX responds.

Manual Override

Want to drive RSX yourself? Bypass the live detection and dial in exactly the response you want. Full control whenever you need it.

02 · Compressor Engine

Three Characters. One Bus.

Vintage is the slow, gluey response of a classic bus compressor that has been holding records together for decades. Modern is clean, fast, and transparent. Bass is custom-tuned for low-end glue. Switch in real time, watch the same VU needle settle, and hear the difference instantly.

Vintage Mode

Classic bus glue with the warmth and forgiveness of analog hardware. The sound that has been holding mixes together for decades.

Modern Mode

Clean, fast, and pristine. Surgical control when you need transparency and precision over color.

Bass Mode

Custom-tuned for the low end. Glues kick and bass into a single, punchy unit without smearing the rest of the mix.

Auto Release

Hit AUTO and the compressor breathes with the song instead of fighting it. Set it once, let it follow the music.

03 · Tube Saturation

Color Before Compression

A full tube saturation stage sits before the compressor, not as an afterthought. Three voiced characters, harmonic shaping per mode, transient-aware drive, and a parallel mix knob. Add weight, edge, or shimmer before the bus comp ever sees the signal. RSX runs underneath it all, adapting the harmonic response to your audio in real time.

Three Tube Voicings

TIGHT keeps the low end controlled and focused. HOT pushes warmth and weight. CAL is the balanced reference, voiced to flatter any source.

SMACK Transient Drive

Transient-aware saturation that hits attacks harder than sustains. Adds punch and presence without smearing the body of the source.

Pre-Compression Position

Tube saturation hits before the compressor sees the signal. Drive into the tube to add weight and harmonics, let the bus comp glue the result. The classic chain, in one plugin.

Parallel Drive

Internal mix knob lets you blend dry and saturated signal inside the tube stage. Push drive hard and dial in the perfect amount of color without losing transparency.

04 · Detection & Sidechain

Built For The Bus

Bus compression lives or dies on what triggers it. Vanguard gives you a sweepable sidechain HPF, lookahead detection, and a stereo link control that scales from independent dual-mono to fully linked stereo, so kick drums never pump the vocal bus and stereo information stays exactly where you want it.

Sidechain HPF

Sweepable from off to high cut. Stops bass and kick from triggering compression on a busy mix bus, lets the vocal and snare drive the gain reduction the way they should.

Lookahead

Adjustable lookahead lets the compressor see transients before they hit the detector. Perfect for taming peaks without fast attack artifacts on softer material.

Stereo Link

Continuous from 0% to 100%. Dual-mono for surgical work on individual channels, fully linked for classic bus glue, and everything in between for stereo image control.

Auto Makeup

One-touch automatic makeup gain that tracks threshold and ratio. A/B different compression amounts at constant loudness so you choose with your ears, not your meters.

05 · Output & Clipper

Finish The Signal

A post-compression clipper sits at the output stage with selectable modes, drive, and ceiling. Push extra loudness without ugly limiter pumping. Delta listen lets you hear exactly what the plugin is doing, in solo, at any time. Mix blend ties it all together for parallel processing.

Selectable Clipper Modes

Off, soft, hard, and shaped clipping. Soft for transparent peak control, hard for aggressive limiting, shaped for color. Drive and ceiling controls across all modes.

Delta Listen

Solo the difference between input and output. Hear exactly what the compressor and tube stage are doing to your signal, in isolation, at any time. Gold-standard mix calibration.

Mix Blend

Parallel compression in one knob. 100% for full processing, 50% for classic New York, anywhere in between for transparent glue with attitude. No extra routing required.

Makeup Gain

Smoothed makeup on both manual and auto paths. Drive the bus harder without hitting digital ceiling, match input and output for honest A/B comparisons.

Technical

Compressor Modes

Tube Voicings

Spectral Bands

Full Chain

Tube + Comp + Clipper

Formats VST3 · AU

Platforms macOS · Windows

Sample Rate Up to 192kHz

Compressor Modes Vintage · Modern · Bass

Reactive Spectral Engine Real-Time Adaptive Saturation

Tube Voicings Tight · Hot · Cal

Launch Discount

$49€39,00

One-time · Free updates

or try free for 7 days