CarbonDSP Launches Carbon CL-610 Compressor/Limiter

CarbonDSP Announces First Four Plugins

CarbonDSP has released its initial lineup of audio plugins. The collection includes two free tools and two paid processors. All plugins are VST3 and standalone for Windows 64-bit. macOS versions are on the way.

The flagship paid plugin is the Carbon CL-610. It models the classic Spectra Sonics 610 compressor/limiter. This plugin combines a compressor and a peak limiter on a single threshold. There is no threshold control. You drive material into a fixed knee. Changing the ratio does not alter the drive point. This makes A/B testing ratios easy.

Carbon CL-610 Features

The CL-610 uses two detectors sharing one gain cell. One detector handles slow musical level changes. The other catches transients in sub-microseconds. The release is program-dependent, ranging from 50 ms to 10 seconds. Oversampling goes up to 32x for high-frequency clarity. Parallel compression is built in with a blend control. The output amplifier sits downstream. There are 32 presets that are level-matched by measurement.

Features

Fixed knee with 0.008 dB movement across ratios
Dual detectors for level and transients
Program-dependent release from 50 ms to 10 s
Up to 32x oversampling
Parallel compression with blend control
32 level-matched presets

Other Plugins in the Lineup

Vellum is a vocal reverb with a ducking feature. It lowers the wet signal while the vocal plays. The tail remains unchanged. Biased is a free tube preamp with component-level modeling. It includes dynamic bias and transformer saturation. Black Ion 76 is a FET limiter based on the UREI 1176. It offers true feedback topology and a NUKE mode.

Pricing and Availability

The Carbon CL-610 is available at an introductory price. The regular price will be higher. Similarly, the Black Ion 76 has a discounted intro price. Vellum and Biased are free. All paid plugins have a 7-day demo without an account. You can download everything from the CarbonDSP website after creating a free account.

Price
Intro: $49.00 (USD)
Regular: $89.00 (USD)

CarbonDSP focuses on circuit-level DSP modeling. Their plugins are verified with pluginval strictness 10. The company also plans hardware synths in the future. Therefore, this initial release shows promise. The CL-610 stands out with its fixed knee and dual detectors. It offers a transparent yet characterful compression. The free plugins are also valuable additions. Overall, CarbonDSP enters the market with solid, well-engineered tools.