Squash
Compression above 80 Hz
A Linkwitz-Riley split at 80 Hz. With Sub at 0 the low band passes untouched: its crest factor stayed at 19.4 dB while the 80–250 Hz band tightened from 20.3 to 18.9 dB. Soft, Hard and Brit set the knee and speed.
Drum bus · VST3 · AU
Visioääni Drum BusGlue without the pump.
The last plugin on the drum group. The compressor only hears what is above 80 Hz, so the kick's sub never pumps the kit, and Sub decides how much of it gets squashed at all.
Tame takes care of the pile-up at 4 kHz that every bright channel adds, Loud raises the level without moving the peaks, and Mono Low centers everything under 120 Hz.
What it does
Tame
The 4 kHz pile-up
Each channel brightens its own drum, and on the bus the 4 kHz area adds up. Tame took the bus from −12.1 to −14.7 dB at 4 kHz; recent American rock and metal records measured −17 to −18.
Loud
Level without the squash
Three band limiters cut each band's own peaks and give the same amount back. At Loud 10 the peak stayed put, RMS rose 2.3 dB and the tone moved less than ±1.5 dB.
Mono Low
The low end in the middle
Everything under 120 Hz goes mono: side over mid at 20–120 Hz went from −12.9 to −25.1 dB, while the width of toms and overheads above 300 Hz stays as it was.
Controls
The front panel, left to right and top to bottom. Every control reads 0–10.
| Module | Controls | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| In | Input | Input trim. |
| Floor | Floor | High-pass at 30 Hz by default, fourth order. |
| Mono Low | Mono Low | Everything under 120 Hz to mono. |
| Squash | Swell · Violence · Sub · Mode | Bus compression above 80 Hz, Soft, Hard or Brit. |
| BD Thru | Off · Half · Full | Lets the kick's feed from the Kick plugin past the compressor. |
| Dist | Dist | Second and third harmonics, oversampled, level-matched. |
| Tame | Tame | Static and dynamic control of the 4 kHz pile-up. |
| Loud | Loud | Three-band peak limiting with the gain given back. |
| America | America | The last tonal stage. |
| Out | Level · Ceiling · Mix | Final limiter and dry/wet without phasing. |
Measured
Loud on a full kit, everything else fixed.
| Loud | Peak | RMS | Crest factor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | −12.78 dBFS | −29.57 dBFS | 16.8 dB |
| 4 (default) | −12.78 dBFS | −28.88 dBFS | 16.1 dB |
| 6 | −12.78 dBFS | −28.17 dBFS | 15.4 dB |
| 10 | −12.66 dBFS | −27.29 dBFS | 14.6 dB |
Specifications
- Formats
- VST3 (Windows, macOS) · AU (macOS)
- Systems
- Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit · macOS 11 or later, Apple silicon and Intel
- Sample rates
- 44.1 to 192 kHz
- Latency
- 192 samples (4.0 ms at 48 kHz), fixed, reported to the host
- CPU
- 1.9 % of one core per instance at 48 kHz
- Version
- 1.4.0
Questions about Drum Bus
Does Mix 50 % cause phasing?
No. The dry path is delayed to match the processing, and the measured difference between Mix 50 % and 100 % with the modules off is −47.8 dB.
What is BD Thru?
The Kick plugin can feed its signal to the bus. BD Thru decides how much of that feed bypasses the bus compressor, so the kick keeps its punch while the rest of the kit is glued.
Works with
01Kick drum channel
Visioääni Kick
Texas-size cut from the muddy area, a beater click built from your own kick, sub that hits and a room that leaves the low end dry.
Texas cut · real click Details02Snare top channel
Visioääni Snare
Florida removes the cardboard without dropping your level. Tune builds the body at the drum's own note, Crack and Air put the top on, and a chamber sits behind it.
Florida shaper · chamber Details06Overhead channel
Visioääni Overhead
The whole kit as one picture with the cymbals tamed. A west-to-east EQ map, Kansas compression in the middle and a Duck that hears the snare and kick.
Coast to coast Details