We've had this under wraps for a couple of weeks, Greg Scott of UBK Kush fame, has announced 3 new plug-ins under the Sly-Fi Digital name. Here is what Greg says about all three plug-ins. With AAX plug-in versions coming soon.
Deflector
There seem to be two types of mix engineers: those who own a pair of the original units this plug is modeled after, and those who want to.
I own the hardware, and I tweaked its distortions to make them fuzzier, because I like grime. I added a 250Hz sidechain HPF option which leaves all bass frequencies uncompressed, as well as a 6kHz sidechain push to smooth out harsh, aggressive stuff.
Some compressors press sounds down, this one pushes them forward. It's in almost every million dollar studio, now it can be in yours.
Axis
There's a reason this eq has endured 45 years of musical fashion & trends: it does all the right things to sound. But even a classic can be improved, especially with the power of today's DAW.
On my hardware I replaced the 2520 op-amps with Scott Lieber 'Red Dots', and added a Saturation knob to overdrive them. That knob generates a very creamy, lush distortion, I'll often use the Sat on its own, no EQ'ing. It's fat!
Stepped/fixed controls sometimes get in my way, so I added a UBK mode where all freq and gain knobs sweep freely; I love being able to point this magical eq in between the factory frequencies.
Last, I put both the classic 'A' and modern 'B' EQ models on the UBK switch, so you can choose whichever mode works best for each track. Oh, the 'A' model now has an extra mid-band... because it deserved one.
Kaya
There's only one Kaya... literally. S. Husky Hoskulds made it by taking an old Ampex tube tape deck and hardwiring the preamp directly to the tape head. He calls his unit 'Pa', a minimal box with swampy distortion and a very heavy bottom.
I started with Pa's dirt, then added controls to make it more flexible. An assymetric Treble control can rebalance the sound towards the top, or tilt it down into murky darkness. An Abuse knob does exactly what you'd expect it to do. Blend allows you to tuck in the overall effect for subtler applications.
What I love about Kaya is it never harshes out, it's always warm even when it's gone nuclear. A one-trick pony, but what a trick it is.
We've had them for a week or so and we have to say they are original and sound great - reviews to follow soon.
Right now they are only available in AU and VST format with AAX coming in the Autumn - but Greg assures us that they play nice in the various hosts and wrappers out there for Pro Tools.