BABY AUDIO Essentials Bundle

This Essentials Bundle from Baby Audio Includes six plugins: Atoms, Transit 2, BA-1, Crystalline, Smooth Operator, and IHNY-2. The bundle includes four creative mix effects and two unique synthesizers. Supporting VST, VST3, AU, AAX(64-bit), the Essentials bundle is compatible with all major DAWs, including Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Cubase, Studio One, Bitwig, Reaper, and Reason. These plugins run natively on Apple Silicon M/M2, as well as Windows 10 and newer.

BABY AUDIO Audio Atoms

The Sound

In keeping with BABY AUDIO's motto "it’s an evolution, not an emulation", the company modeled the hardware with the greatest possible accuracy, before carefully upgrading it with new and useful features. A second analog-modeled oscillator, FM, polyphony, and more, help to vastly expand the sonic palette of the original. All while keeping the original signature sound unspoiled.

Additionally, BA-1 lets you drain the battery, bend the circuits, and use the built-in speaker—for an authentic lo-fi aesthetic that you could normally only get with hardware.

The Effects

BA-1 features an FX section worthy of its own plug-in. The effects chain is inspired by budget 1980s rack hardware and captures the lo-fi charm of the home studio scene of the era.

The overdrive is modeled after a guitar pedal, while the delay, reverb and chorus effects are based on cheap, but amazing, digital rack units.

The Sidechain feature can work in External or Internal mode and can be placed either before or after the FX section.

In BA-1, the effects are not an afterthought but an ingrained part of the sonic signature. So tweak, use, and abuse them.

The Simplicity

BA-1 is simple to use, but surprisingly tweakable. BABY AUDIO has put great effort into tuning all parameters to be in the perfect sweet spot. This results in a rewarding programming workflow where tweaking BA-1 is a lot of fun and you’ll create new patches on repeat.

And if a simple interface is not fast enough, you can always use the smart Re-Gen feature. Hit Re-Gen and BA-1 will automatically create new and musically tuned patches with every click.

Included Preset Packs

BA-1 Factory Presets

Sami Rabia 90s Nostalgia Pack

Michael Oakley Synthwave Pack

Pegboard Nerds Bass Music Pack

BPM-Synced Start and End Times

Crystalline lets you hard-sync the reverb attack and decay time to your DAW's tempo. This generally results in cleaner mixes, where the reflections are naturally in sync with the music. Prefer the classic way? Just hit the Sync/MS switch, and Crystalline lets you set predelay and decay times in milliseconds instead.

Reflection Section

Size lets you set the room size from tiny to large. This control is detached from the Length control, meaning you can get any size/length combination you want, including esoteric settings like huge spaces with very short tails or tiny spaces with very long tails.

Sparkle emphasizes high frequencies inside the reverb algorithm. This generates reflections that are naturally brighter, which will help you achieve that extra shine on vocals or snares.

Width lets you set the stereo image of the reverb from mono, to wide, to extra wide.

Depth Section

Resolution sets the complexity of the algorithm from basic to pristine. More complex settings will give you an ultraclean reverb response, free of metallic artifacts; while the Basic setting will give you an efficient CPU performance at normal fidelity.

Modulation creates pitch variations inside the reverb algorithm. This results in a richer sound that works especially well to fatten up synths, guitars, and vocals.

Shimmer makes the high frequencies of the reverb tail decay slower than the rest of the spectrum, giving the reflections an angelic halo effect. You can set the frequency-cutoff point as well as the multiplier effect, which controls how much longer it takes for the higher frequencies to decay. Please note that if Shimmer is active, the high frequencies will decay later than your specified reverb End Time (either at 2x, 4x, or 6x the length).

Clean-Up Section

Damping is a dual filter control that lets you remove high and low frequency content from the reverb reflections. This control offers a fast way to get rid of clutter and muddiness in your mixes.

Sides is a high-pass filter that removes stereo information from the low end of the reverb, while keeping the mono information intact. This is especially helpful for creating wide vocal or lead instrument reflections without muddying your low end.

Gate lets you instantly recreate the classic 1980s gated reverb sound. The gate offers threshold and release controls and makes it fast and intuitive to make your snares sound like Phil Collins.

Shape Section

Tone is a tilt EQ that lets you quickly shift the frequency balance of the reverb to brighter or darker.

Smoothing gradually applies an EQ curve, custom designed to address the frequency areas that tend to get resonant and sharp. It mellows out harshness and gives Crystalline a more subtle feel. This allows you to add a little more reverb without drenching your mix.

Transients lets you shift the reverb algorithm’s emphasis to either the attack or sustain part of the incoming signal. Emphasizing the sustain more than the transients will make the reverb feel airy and light, while emphasizing the attack stage is a great way to get a splashy and dense sound. The Transients feature works especially well for controlling reflections on percussive material.

Output Section

Ducker lowers the reverb signal when the dry/incoming track is playing. This gives you a cleaner mix, where you can turn up the reverb more without compromising the dry track.

Ducker Gentle mode offers a slow and natural ducker setting, while the standard ducker mode has a more pumpy feel.

Reverse reverses the reverb playback, giving you some radical sound-design possibilities.

Freeze is another creative effect that takes a granular snapshot of the reverb when clicked and holds this snapshot continuously until the button is clicked again. It can be a powerful effect for creating interesting transitions in a mix.

Dry/Wet sets the global mix balance between the dry/incoming signal and the reverb signal.

Clicking the Wet Lock button lets you browse presets while keeping your preferred wet/dry balance, for easier comparison.

Top Panel

Color lets you change between light and dark background colors.

Eco Mode lets you run Crystalline in a low-CPU mode by setting the resolution to Basic and disabling the shimmer effect.

Save As Default lets you save your own default preset that will appear when the plugin initializes or you hit the reset button. That way, you can save your preferred color+size settings.

Reset resets the plug-in’s state to your default preset.

Tool Tips gives you help texts explaining each plug-in parameter when hovering your mouse over a parameter.

Preset Creators

Crystalline comes loaded with more than 300 presets created by BABY Audio and friends of the house including:

Damian Taylor (Bjork, The Prodigy, The killers, Arcade Fire)

Michele Canova (John Legend, Alicia Keys, Olly Murs)

Eric J Dubowsky (Flume, St. Vincent, Chet Faker, Kygo)

Mat Sim (Nicki Minaj, Big Sean, Gucci Mane)

M-Phases (Eminem, Madonna, Demi Lovato)

Compatibility

Plug-In Formats: VST, VST3, AU, AAX

Platforms Supported: Mac OS 10.7 and up, including M1 native compatibility. Windows 7 and up.

DAW Supported: All major DAWs, including Ableton Live, Pro Tools, Logic Pro, FL Studio, Cubase, Nuendo, Studio One, Bitwig, Reaper, Reason, etc.

At a Glance

Intelligent algorithm that adapts to your audio in real time and automatically attacks resonances.

Brings out clarity and smoothness across instruments, vocals, drums, and mix buses.

High-Res Mode: Eliminates spectral harmonics at high threshold levels.

Switch between three color modes (pink/green/blue).

Plug-in window is fully resizable.

Presets

Presets 01-03: Created by Neenah

Presets 04-08: Created by David Nakaji

Presets 09-14: Created by Giandre Diaz

Presets 15-27: Created by Rob Kleiner

Presets 28-33: Created by Preston Reid

Presets 34-37: Created by Kill$hot

Presets 38-42: Created by Zardonic

Presets 43-45: Created by Skyler Gibbons

Presets 46-48: Created by Sam Sherbin

Presets 49-52: Created by Van Boied

Preset 53: Created by Steven Holness

Presets 54-63: Created by BABY Audio's in-house team

Preset 64: Created by Damien Lewis

Plug-and-Play Parallel Compression

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 has to offer (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 plug-in in just one motion and find sweet spots fast.

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 you find that the makeup gain is too loud or too quiet, you can use the Autogain slider to nudge its behavior.

It's All About the Sound

IHNY-2 comes with a range of new features to surgically tweak the compression behavior. Its style of compression is clinical and aggressive, combining the precision of a digital algorithm with a touch of analog-inspired nonlinearity. It can even go into full-on saturation mode as you apply the Harmonics control.

The plug-in is specially designed with modern genres in mind, optimized for loudness and impact, without a loss of clarity.

Tweak Panel

IHNY-2 is meant to be fast and intuitive. But if you need to go deeper, the Tweak Panel gives you full control over the compressor.

Attack + Release: Sets how fast the compressor engages and disengages.

Ratio: Sets the compression intensity from mild to aggressive.

Punch: 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.

Harmonics: Imagine a saturator that behaves like a compressor—that’s Harmonics. This feature introduces harmonic saturation controlled by the amount of gain-reduction, meaning more compressed parts get saturated harder.

Shape: Adds a custom smiley EQ curve to bring out the lows and highs and make the compressed signal more present. (The smiley EQ curve is what sets New York Compression apart from regular parallel compression. IHNY-2 can do both).

Tilt: Makes the compressor work harder on either the low or high end of your signal, which can be useful for controlling bass-heavy material and letting the high end breathe (or vice versa).

Lo + Hi Preserve: 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.

Preset Creators

IHNY-2 comes loaded with 156 presets created by BABY Audio and friends of the house including:

Delbert Bowers (Lizzo, Icona Pop, 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)