McDSP - 4030 Retro Compressor HD

The McDSP 4030 Retro Compressor is a simple, vintage-styled compressor built on an original McDSP design rather than an emulation. It's for anyone who wants a few knobs, a mix control and a compressor that sounds good quickly.

How it works

Threshold, ratio, attack and release, plus a wet/dry mix control so parallel compression is built in. Side chain support covers ducking and keyed compression, and the anti-clip output stage keeps peaks under control when you drive it.

The sound

Warm and a little thick, in the way old gear tends to be. It's a natural fit for drums, bass and vocals where you want character as well as control, and the mix knob makes it easy to keep the transients while bringing up the body.

HD or Native?

HD adds AAX DSP, so it runs on Pro Tools HDX cards and Avid VENUE S6L live consoles as well as natively on your computer. If you don't have HDX hardware, 4030 Retro Compressor Native does the same job for less.

Features

• Original McDSP compressor design
• Mix control for parallel compression
• Side chain support
• Anti-clip output stage
• Analogue saturation modelling
• Double precision processing, ultra low latency
• Mono and stereo versions

System requirements

• Version: 7.3
• Mac: macOS 10.13 High Sierra to macOS 26 Tahoe. AAX DSP, AAX Native, AU and VST3. Native on Apple Silicon and Intel
• Windows: Windows 10 and 11. AAX DSP, AAX Native and VST3
• RAM: not specified by McDSP
• Licence: iLok, on an iLok2 or iLok3 USB key, your computer or iLok Cloud (a free iLok account is needed). Two activations per licence

SOUND7 is an authorised McDSP reseller. Digital delivery: licence activation code sent by email.

Demo