In this week's Friday Free Plug-in, we are featuring Smasher from Pulsar, a plug-in version of the 1176 which, rather than trying to be 100% authentic to the hardware, concentrates on a single application - the infamous “all buttons in” mode. Get it while it’s free. The regular price is $54.
What Is All Buttons In Mode?
The 1176 is possibly the piece of hardware which is the most emulated as a plug in and almost all of those plug-ins offer some way to push in all four of the ratio buttons at once, a trick often used on the hardware. The buttons on the hardware are what are known as “Radio Buttons” a phase perhaps lost on younger readers who might be too young to have used the clunky, mechanical, station-preset buttons found on car radios until the 80s. When one button was pushed in, the previously depressed button would pop out, meaning that only one station could be selected at a time. In software UI design a control button which offers an “exclusive or” logic (i.e. you can have this, or that, but you can have both) is still referred to as a “Radio Button”
Back to the 1176. Engineers quickly realised that by holding in all 4 buttons at once they would stay engaged and all sorts of wild compression would happen. Lots of distortion and aggression, it was great fun on drum overheads and when mixed in with the original uncompressed audio it offered a way to add instant excitement to drum tracks.
What Is Smasher?
Smasher is a plug-in version of the original blue stripe 1176, known for its more aggressive character and is less frequently modelled than the more common, black 1176. It has no Attack and Release controls and no ratio buttons, it only offers the input knob, used in place of a threshold control in this fixed threshold design, just dial in more input to get more compression, and an output control. There is however an essential extra control not available on the original: a mix control allowing quick setup of the parallel compression for this this “all buttons in” mode is invariably used
How Do I Get This Plug-in?
This plug-in uses iLok, you’ll need to sign up for a free account and to download the iLok manager software but you don’t need an iLok dongle.
Go to the Pulsar Audio Website, choose your OS, supply your name, address, phone number and an email address, make a $0 purchase and you will receive a download link and an activation code which you will need to use before 11/03/20. Download and install. You will have to use your activation code for the iLok authorisation.
Smasher is available for Mac and Windows in VST, Audio Units, and AAX formats. Compatible for Pro Tools, Logic Pro, Studio One, Cubase and any DAW that supports AU, VST or AAX. An iLok account is required though no physical iLok is necessary.