Auburn Sounds has introduced Couture, a level-independent dynamics plugin (VST/AU/AAX) that offers six types of saturation.

Couture’s Sharpen control lets you emphasize transients to increase a signal’s dynamic range or ‘turn it down’ to get additional headroom.

The Saturation section can be an alternative to transient shaping or a separate stage after it. Couture’s six distortion algorithms can add anything from subtle tape-style warmth to ‘all-out digital destruction’.

Couture’s transient shaping and distortion are level-independent, so you can change the gain of a signal before it hits Couture, and it won’t make a difference to the transient-shaping or the distortion processing.

Features:

• Sharpen or dull transients, and weight the effect by a factor of 1x, 2x or 3x.
• Visualize changes to the signal in the main display, and see Input and Output waveforms
• Front/Back and Speed controls affect the transient response and timing intuitively
• Set detection type: Flat frequency spectrum, Human speech, Sibilance reduction
• Six dynamic waveshaping distortion flavours: Bitcrush, Rectify, Fuzz, Sin, Bass and Tube
• VST2/AU/AAX plugin for PC/Mac, runs in all major DAWs

Couture can be used in a variety of ways:

• Balance a sound’s transient attack and body with the Sharpen control
• By reducing the Sharpen control, you can use Couture like a compressor, bringing a volatile signal under more control and allowing for extra make-up gain using the Output control.
• De-ess and de-click overly harsh percussion: set a fast Speed control, process the Front and reduce Sharpen
• Simulate gated drums with more extreme Sharpening
• Reduce the Mood control by 25% and lower the cutoff to emulate a nostalgic tape-style sound
• Make buses, groups or an entire mix punchier or smoother using a fast settings and a gentle change of the Sharpen parameter. Roll off the bass in the detector amount for better results

Pricing and Availability

Couture is available now with an intro price of 39.20€ EUR (normally 49.00€).