HotPressor

HotPressor is a live vocal compressor built as two plugins from one engine.
HotPressor FOH goes on the house vocal channel; HotPressor Monitor goes on
wedge and IEM sends. FOH squashes harder and adds saturation and stage
ordering, while Monitor keeps its feedback protection aggressive and its
dynamics gentler, because singers need to hear movement. They are separate
plugins so the wrong one cannot end up on a monitor rig by accident. One
license covers both.

There is no threshold on the compressor. Input Trim sets the drive, Peak
Control catches short transients such as a shouted syllable or a hand on the
capsule, Level Control rides the performer as they work on and off the
microphone, and the two Response knobs scale how quickly each stage moves.
Max Squash is a budget rather than a ratio: it caps the total reduction the
plugin is ever allowed to apply, and sustained over-budget squash makes the
whole engine back off slowly.

Three guards run alongside the dynamics. Feedback Guard watches for sustained
rings and deploys narrow adaptive notches that release when the ring stops,
with a falsification rule so a held sung note is not mistaken for feedback.
Bleed Guard is a downward expander rather than a gate, opening fast and
closing slow, because a chopped word is worse than a moment of spill. The
Vocal Gate keys on harmonic structure instead of level, so a voice reads
roughly 9 dB louder to the gate than bleed sitting at the same actual level,
and it needs no soundcheck calibration.

Window Start and Window End set the band the plugin treats as vocal. Nothing
outside that window can drive gain reduction, and nothing outside it gets
lifted, so makeup gain can never raise an out-of-window noise floor. Lock is
on by default and disables Bypass, Null, Input Trim, and Output, which is the
mid-show mis-click guard; host automation is never blocked. The optional RTA
reference mic input only sharpens feedback and bleed decisions, and the
plugin is fully functional with nothing connected to it.

HotPressor is built for a live signal path, not for polishing a studio vocal.
Both variants start with their dynamics inactive, so inserting one mid-show
changes nothing until you raise Peak Control or Level Control.

FEATURES

- HotPressor FOH and HotPressor Monitor included as one product
- No compressor threshold: Input Trim, Peak Control, Level Control, Max Squash
- Peak and Level stages with independent 0.25x to 4x Response scaling
- Max Squash reduction budget with slow backed-off behaviour
- Feedback Guard adaptive notch bank with a not-feedback falsification rule
- Feedback Aggression control for how readily a ring is confirmed
- Bleed Guard downward expander for open-microphone spill
- Vocal Gate with harmonic-structure detection and Voice Boost sidechain bias
- Window Start and Window End confine all detection and all positive gain
- Grit, Collapse, and stage Order on the FOH variant
- Per-band spectrum display with stage-attribution colouring and GR metering
- Live-safety Lock over Bypass, Null, Input Trim, and Output
- Optional RTA reference mic input, analysis only and never required
- Zero added latency, with Bypass and Null Test for auditing the result
- Offline license activation, no dongle required

AAX DSP FOR VENUE AND HDX

Your license also covers the AAX DSP build, which runs on the DSP cards in
Avid VENUE S6L, VENUE S3L-X, and Pro Tools HDX. It is a smaller plugin than
the native version, because it runs on a fixed-point DSP chip rather than on
the host CPU.

The DSP build carries the full dynamics engine, Feedback Guard with Feedback
Aggression, Bleed Guard, the Vocal Gate, the vocal window controls, and Grit,
Collapse, and Order on FOH. It is mono in and mono out, with three-row input,
gain reduction, and output metering plus a gate sidechain bar and threshold
tick, and console page tables for S6L and S3L-X.

It does not include Input Trim, the per-band spectrum display and Resolution
control, the RTA reference mic input, Lock, Null Test, Multiband Guard, or
stereo operation. Its Vocal Gate analyses 128 bands rather than 256 and does
not do the harmonic-versus-inharmonic test the native version does, so it
discriminates slightly less finely. If those features matter to you, plan on
the native version.

FORMATS AND PLATFORMS

- Windows: VST3, CLAP, AAX, Standalone
- macOS: VST3, AU, CLAP, AAX, Standalone
- Linux: VST3, CLAP
- Avid VENUE S6L, VENUE S3L-X, and Pro Tools HDX: AAX DSP

One license covers HotPressor FOH and HotPressor Monitor in every format
above, including the AAX DSP build.

DEMO AND DOWNLOAD

https://brucejames.studio/downloads/hotpressor