Baby Audio set out to make the hardest-hitting compressor in the industry. The kind that makes your tracks slam and sing. To achieve that extra edge, IHNY-2 works in parallel. This allows you to compress more while retaining the dynamics of your dry track.
Purchase This Amazing Compressor For The Intro Price Of Just $39
Contemporary mixes need a punch. And to achieve maximum impact without killing a track's dynamics, engineers turn to parallel compression (a technique that blends a dry track with a heavily compressed duplicate). IHNY-2 hosts a plug-and-play parallel configuration so you don’t have to set up any extra routing in your DAW.
The plugin is purpose-designed for slamming your tracks in parallel and will hit harder than your typical go-to compressors. It is not subtle but a dedicated tool for adding energy and “slap” to drums, mix buses or even the master bus (if you dare!)
IHNY-2 is an evolution of our very first plugin, I Heart NY. The original was a favorite with many users and was picked for the SOS Awards by Sound On Sound Magazine. V2 ships with new features, surgical control – and improvements in sound.
Purchase This Amazing Compressor For The Intro Price Of Just $39
IHNY-2 splits the incoming audio into two duplicates. One remains untouched by the plugin (Dry track), the other is subjected to all the goodness IHNY-2 offers (Wet track). You balance the two signals on the vertical axis of the XY pad, while setting the compression amount of the Wet track on the horizontal axis. This allows you to operate the most important controls of the plugin in just one motion.
IHNY-2 has an autogain algorithm working under the hood to give you a consistent output as you move the node around the XY pad – but if it's too loud or too quiet, you can use the Autogain slider on the front panel to nudge the behavior.
While moving the node around the XY pad, you'll see a value displayed under the "AGR" abbreviation (Adjusted Gain Reduction). This number considers the current Gain Reduction and Dry/Wet balance between giving you a value for the compression intensity. For a good starting point, we recommend you aim for AGR levels between -10 and -20.
HNY-2 is meant to be as fast and intuitive as its predecessor. But if you need to go deeper, the Tweak Panel gives you complete control over the compressor. Here, you’ll find several new features that weren’t included in V1.
Sets how fast the compressor engages and disengages.
Sets the compression intensity from mild to aggressive.
Heavy compression tends to suck the transients out of a signal. The Punch control works to emphasize attack transients in the compressed track, helping it cut through even at very high compression levels.
Imagine a saturator that behaves like a compressor – that’s Harmonics. This feature introduces harmonic saturation controlled by the gain-reduction, meaning more compressed parts get saturated harder.
Adds our custom ‘smiley EQ curve’ to bring out the lows and highs and make the compressed signal more present. (The smiley EQ curve sets “New York Compression” apart from regular parallel compression. IHNY-2 can do both).
Makes the compressor work harder on either the low or high end of your signal – which can help control bass-heavy material and let the high end breathe (or vice versa).
It prevents the low and high frequencies from being compressed above/below the cutoff points. This is a great way to preserve the kick while squashing the rest of your drum bus.
Run the plugin in 1x, 2x or 4x oversampling modes. (We recommend 1x for better CPU performance).
Monitor the wet signal in solo. Valid for finetuning – or for using IHNY-2 as a regular insert compressor.
Slows down mouse movement in the Tweak Panel for finetuning purposes.
Resets any parameter to its default value.
IHNY-2 has a range of new features to tweak the compression behavior surgically. But a compressor should not be judged on its features (or ability to run in parallel) as much as it should be judged on its sound. Let’s get into that.
Like its predecessor, IHNY-2 offers its unique sonic signature: Its compression style is clinical and aggressive, combining the precision of a digital algorithm with a touch of analog-inspired non-linearity. It can even go into full-on saturation mode as you apply the ‘Harmonics’ control.
The plugin is designed especially with modern genres in mind – i.e., optimized for loudness and impact without a loss of clarity.
However, some of our inspiration goes back in time as well. Particularly to the affordable DBX units of the 80s and 90s. You can call them essential, but these compressors had a brutal and hard-hitting nature that their more sophisticated counterparts couldn’t muster. They are loved and used for that to this day!
With IHNY-2 we had the ambition to take the “slammy” and “squashy” behavior of our favorite old hardware compressors even further – and make it an intentional feature rather than a byproduct of design limitations. At the same time, we wanted an algorithm that didn’t destroy the signal, even at high compression levels (unlike cheaper hardware compressors).
We’re sure you’ll find that IHNY-2 sounds like none of your other plugins. It’s not designed for “smooth” work. But you’ll have difficulty finding a better companion when you need some power. IHNY-2 is everything I Heart NY was – and so much more!
Purchase This Amazing Compressor For The Intro Price Of Just $39
IHNY-2 comes loaded with 156 presets created by BABY Audio and friends of the house - including:
* Delbert Bowers (Lizzo, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Shawn Mendes)
* Matt Sim (Nicki Minaj, The Chainsmokers, Gucci Mane)
* M-Phazes (Eminem, Madonna, Demi Lovato)
* Preston “Prizzie” Reid (Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Muni Long)
* Rob Kleiner (Cee Lo, SIA, David Guetta, Britney Spears)