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SUCCESSOR allows creative engineers, musicians, and producers alike to apply colorful, fat, and warm compression to their treasured productions
Prior to its release, only clean and transparent VCA-based processors had been available for performing those duties, and — although adequate for mix bus usage, often — they simply do not possess anything like the energy, mojo, and vitality that Heritage Audio’s SUCCESSOR can clearly offer.
Originally conceived for mix bus usage itself, SUCCESSOR subsequently became a popular choice for all aspects of the music and audio production process. Present in thousands of studios worldwide, it has made its way into tracking sessions, on sub-groups and even at the mastering stage, showing that it works well wherever anyone chooses to use it. Top-tier engineers — such as GRAMMY® Award-winning mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge — have happily integrated SUCCESSOR into their setups, drawn to how it lets them feel how their separate tracks interact and blend together in a way that was previously not possible when master bus compression duties are relegated to the mastering stage.
Saying all that, though, having received dozens of offers from plug-in developers eager to try and capture SUCCESSOR’s sought-after energy, mojo, and vitality, Heritage Audio admirably opted to take on the challenge itself. Indeed, SUCCESSOR successfully recreates all of its industry-changing outboard predecessor’s features as a DAW workflow-friendly plug-in with welcomed additions — after all, as a newly-designed plug-in, its creator could not resist bringing a little extra to the production table. The new NUKE function, for example, will actually apply an extra 20dB to the front end before compression, so SUCCESSOR is working much harder and, therefore, producing more and more of the desired artefacts and characteristics for which its hardware namesake is renowned. It is fair to say that this can sound incredible — well worth trying on most material, in fact, as the results can surely surprise. And an OUTPUT TRIM control offers an additional +20 (dB) of GAIN MAKEUP right before the output stage to compensate for the extreme compression. Combined, those welcomed additions essentially take the compressor into new sonic territory that benefits from its exaggerated response.
Helpfully, Heritage Audio’s goal with its SUCCESSOR plug-in is to create a tool to channel creativity and put the focus firmly back on music production, which is exactly why the vintage-sounding recording equipment developer wants to reach as many users as possible by applying a pricing scheme that is both comprehensive and fair. For instance, all SUCCESSOR hardware owners can complete an online form (https://heritageaudio.com/successor-owners-form/) to redeem a native version of the SUCCESSOR plug-in for free, while that native version of the SUCCESSOR plug-in is also available for free to owners of any i73® PRO family products — offering varying I/O and features as the first ever USB-C audio interfaces with built-in Class A 73-style preamps — from here: https://users.heritageaudio.com. Additionally, a DSP (Digital Signal Processing) version of the SUCCESSOR plug-in will soon be available for those i73® PRO family products via a firmware update. Fortunately for everyone else, a no-nonsense price of €99.00 EUR/$99.00 USD is guaranteed.
The native version of SUCCESSOR is available to purchase — as a 64-bit AAX-, AU-, and VST3-format-compatible effect plug-in for MacOS (10.15.7 and higher, with both INTEL and Native Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3 compatibility) and Windows (10 and 11) — directly from Heritage Audio here: https://users.heritageaudio.com/product/successor/
An iLok account is required for SUCCESSOR activation. (If running SUCCESSOR in trial mode, note that the trial will be fully functional for 14 days after activation.) Watch Heritage Audio’s intriguing introductory video for SUCCESSOR here: https://youtu.be/IUeLgvpkuf8
Become better acquainted with SUCCESSOR while watching Heritage Audio’s walkthrough video here: https://youtu.be/7NtsBP2XpKI
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