New Software Review: Magnum-K Compressor by Plugin Alliance

Although Mäag Audio may not necessarily be a household name in pro audio, they have been making high end recording equipment for the discerning engineer for decades.

Plugin Alliance, developers and distributors of professional audio software, is known for that same level of quality, and they have teamed up with Mäag and brainworx to deliver the Magnum-K compressor.

Plugin Alliance teams up with Mäag Audio to deliver a powerful emulation of the storied Magnum-K compressor—can it find a home in your plugin arsenal?

This plugin’s unique design features two main sections: one for compression, and the other for parallel EQ. With the “K” in its name short for “kilohertz”, there’s plenty that sets this plugin apart from the rest. Let’s dig in and see what the Magnum-K is all about.

Features

When it comes to features, the Magnum-K is rich. You can process as much or as little as you’d like, and then adjust the wet/dry mix. The unit has an internal reference of -18dBu=0dBFS. There are separate controls allowing for input attenuation and input gain, both by 12dB. There is a green signal LED that illuminates at -48dBFS and becomes clearly visible at -30dBFS. The red LED indicates having reached 0dBFS.

The Magnum compressor section includes the standard ratio, threshold, attack, and release settings, but adds some interesting and valuable features as well. There is a sidechain that can be switched on/off, and offers 4 different high pass filters and an external setting. Very handy! The really interesting addition is the Comp Range knob, which allows you to set the maximum compression range in 4dB steps (4-16 dB). These settings can all be run in a feed-back or a feed-forward configuration.

In the next section we find the mysterious “K” compressor. This is a separately-designed compressor centered around 3k so that harsh midrange frequencies are compressed as needed. It can be switched on/off, and there is a threshold control.

The parallel EQ is based on Mäag’s EQ2 unit. You will find an LMF section which can be switched on/off, indicated by an LED. There is a frequency selector, as well as a “Q” switch for toggling between Wide (W) and Tight (T) Q settings. The Gain knob is affected by the Q setting, offering 15dB of gain under the Wide setting and 12dB of gain with the Tight setting. The Q setting also changes the center frequency options of the bell curve. This is followed by the “Air band” which provides shelving EQ, an in/out switch, and a variable Gain knob that can provide up to 20dB of gain. There are green LED indicators for both the LMF and Air band sections.

At the output there is a gain makeup control providing from 0-15dB of gain after the compressor stage. There is also a red LED that indicates peaks over 0dBFS. There is a soft limit circuit with an on/off switch and LED which goes from green to pink and finally to red (at +17dBu), acting as a reference for metering. There is a threshold setting which emulates the internal jumper options of the hardware unit at -3, -7, -11, and -15dBFS. Finally, there is an ”Engage” button which serves as a true bypass switch, and this too has a green LED.

The plugin itself adds a Parameter link, as well as an M/S matrix with the top unit handling the Mid (sum) and the bottom handling the Sides (difference). Additionally, there is a sidechain link which sums both sidechain signals and feeds the key input to both units. This would make both compressors react the same, regardless of which side crossed the threshold.

Like the Magnum-K, many of Plugin Alliance’s designs include the company’s TMT feature, short for “Tolerance Modeling Technology”. Given that components in analog hardware age differently in the real world, each may be within some variable tolerance from the original design specification. This means that no two console channels or pieces of hardware will sound exactly alike.

Plugin Alliance gives you 20 different instances to choose from with regard to these components. Within the TMT section, you will find a switch to toggle from the analog mode to the digital. In digital, both units will be from the same TMT channel, while they will be from different channels in the analog mode. The channel buttons allow you to scroll through the various instances. When stereo mode is selected, the TMT channels will be adjacent channels. There is also a random selector which would select the next available channel that is not currently being used in the session.

In the “BX” section, you will see a switch labeled Mono Maker. This, accompanied by the frequency selector, will make all frequencies below the set number mono. There is also an in/out switch and green indicator LED. A width adjustment control allows you to fold your image down or expand the width up to 400% without losing center. You can crank the mix knob to 100% to hear only your parallel (wet) signal as it suits your taste. To top things off, there is a HPF with selectable frequencies of 40, 80, 120, and 220Hz. This filter can be set to “Pre”, placing it right after the input section, or “Post” which would appear just before the soft limiter. In addition, the metering section provides information on input, output, and gain reduction, with all meters represented in dBFS.

One often-overlooked feature is the “Headroom” dial in the top toolbar; by adjusting this control you can vary the amount of compression. The manual describes the this control as “[an adjustment for] the internal operating level so that the plugin produces more or less gain reduction. Rotating the control clockwise will allow signals at the input to be pushed higher before they compress; this will result in less compression overall. By rotating counter-clockwise headroom is decreased, resulting in a greater amount of gain reduction and more colour and compression being added to the signal. This parameter is perfect for fine-tuning the effects produced, and also for accurate level matching.”

In Use

While the Magnum-K is packed with tons of features, each section is relatively straightforward. The vocals I ran through the Mäag compressor were recorded at a relatively quiet level, so having a gain stage at the input was helpful. After bringing the level up, the result was a more solid sounding vocal with added warmth in the low end.

A view of the Magnum-K at home in Ableton Live.

After setting up my compression, I auditioned several different Comp Range settings. I was happy with a range of 4dB, but at 8dB I was missing the sparkle in the top end. I was able to easily bring this back using the Air band. The vocal style bordered on screaming at times and was overall not very dynamic. While I did not necessarily need to compress it that much, the Magnum-K brought a nice warm color to the track. With the K compressor added to the Mäag compressor, I was able to dial back the extreme edginess of the vocal, with the result being a much more musical sounding track.

While checking out the LMF section, I was curious as to why the frequency selection would change between Wide and Tight. By providing eight different frequencies between Wide (at 2 octaves) and Tight (at 1 octave), you have more options to choose the sweet spot from. The Air section truly is just that; I was able to quickly replace that sparkle and air which I had lost while compressing the signal.

I also found that I could really play with color using this EQ. Notably, there are no mid-band frequencies available here for boosting, as this would work in direct conflict with the K compressor unit which aims to tame those frequencies.

While placing the Magnum-K on a stereo track, I was able to add both punch and color to a mix. The soft limit helped here to smooth the track out, but added little change to the color I had dialed in—which is a good thing. When using the BX width control, be sure to check your results in mono for phase issues if you try to go wider.

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