Pulsar Audio Pulsar 1178

Pulsar Audio 1178 is a compressor plugin that delivers a precise emulation of the legendary UREI 1178 FET compressor, known for being cleaner and more versatile than its predecessor, the 1176. This iconic hardware unit was favored by renowned producers such as Chris Lord-Alge (My Chemical Romance), Bob Clearmountain (Rolling Stones, Christina Aguilera), Ivan Bing (Phil Collins), and Nigel Godrich (Radiohead), making it a staple in professional studios worldwide.

The plugin for Mac combines authentic analog character with modern digital functionality, delivering fast and bright compression perfectly suited for both tracking and mixing sessions.

Key Features:

▪︎ FET Topology: Accurate emulation powered by Topology Preservation Technology, which faithfully reproduces the behavior of diodes, transistors, and filters found in the original hardware unit — all without requiring full circuit simulation, resulting in significant CPU savings on your Mac.

▪︎ Fast Compression: Ideal for taming sharp transients (such as drums, vocals, and guitars) with a bright and transparent sonic character that is noticeably cleaner than the 1176. Also supports the classic "all-buttons-in" mode for a more aggressive, heavily compressed sound.

Saturation: Four distinct modes available:

▪︎ Tape: Realistic emulation of analog magnetic tape saturation.

▪︎ Triode: Simulation of a Class A tube amplifier producing characteristic odd harmonics.

▪︎ Warm: Subtle and gentle distortion applied to high frequencies for added smoothness.

▪︎ Clip: Digital clipping designed for hard and aggressive signal processing.

▪︎ Mid/Side and Left/Right Processing: Independent compression of mono and stereo signals with a dedicated solo function for each individual channel, providing full control over the stereo image.

▪︎ Look-ahead/Look-behind: Up to 20 ms of look-ahead for precise transient handling, or up to 10 ms of look-behind to emphasize and bring out attack transients in your audio material.

▪︎ Sidechain EQ: A fully featured equalizer for the sidechain path with five available filter types, including band-pass, high-pass, and a solo function for fine-tuning and precise adjustment of the detection signal.

▪︎ External sidechain support for ducking, de-essing, and a wide variety of other processing tasks on Mac.

Metering: Comprehensive monitoring system included with pulsar audio - 1178:

▪︎ Peak and RMS meters for both input and output signal levels.

▪︎ VU meters providing instant real-time display of gain reduction values.

▪︎ Scrollable gain reduction graph for detailed visualization of attack and release behavior over time.

▪︎ Interface: Fully scalable window that adapts automatically for mono channels (simplified view), and includes professionally crafted presets from industry experts. With pulsar audio 1178 download for Mac, you get a powerful and intuitive compressor ready for any production workflow.