BABY Audio – IHNY-2 v1.5.0 for WiN

We set ourselves the goal of creating the most powerful compressor in the industry. One that will make your tracks sound powerful and vibrant. To achieve this effect, IHNY-2 operates in parallel. This allows it to compress more data while preserving the dynamics of the original track.

• Add power and punch with the industry’s most powerful compressor.
  
• Internal signal path optimized for fast parallel compression.
  
• Open the settings panel to set the tone with surgical precision.

About the program

• Designed for modern, ultra-aggressive compression sounds, perfect for adding power to your tracks.
• Features an internal parallel signal chain for fast and seamless parallel compression.
• A significantly improved version 2 of our first plugin (I Heart NY), offering surgically precise control and a number of new features.
  

Mix Harder

Modern mixes need a little edge. To achieve maximum impact without killing the track’s dynamics, engineers resort to parallel compression (a method in which a dry track is mixed with a heavily compressed duplicate). The IHNY-2 features a plug-and-play parallel configuration, eliminating the need to set up additional routing in your DAW.

This plugin is specifically designed to boost your tracks in parallel and performs more powerfully than regular compressors. It’s not just a tool for adding energy and punch to drums, mix buses, or even the master bus (if you dare!).

IHNY-2 is an improved version of our very first plugin, I Heart NY. The original was a favorite among many users. Version 2.0 features new features, precise controls, and improved sound.

CONFIGURATION

The IHNY-2 splits the incoming audio signal into two duplicates. One remains unchanged (the dry signal), while the other receives all the benefits of the IHNY-2 (the wet signal). You balance the two signals along the vertical axis of the XY pad, and adjust the wet signal’s compression ratio along the horizontal axis. This allows you to control the plugin’s most important parameters with a single click, quickly finding the optimal balance.

The IHNY-2 uses an auto-gain algorithm that ensures stable output power as the node moves along the XY pad. However, if you find that the additional gain is too strong or too weak, you can use the auto-gain slider to adjust its behavior.

As you move the node around the XY panel, you’ll see a value displayed under the abbreviation AGR (Adjusted Gain Reduction). This value takes into account the current gain reduction and the dry/wet balance, allowing you to evaluate the compression intensity. We recommend setting the AGR level between -10 and -20 as a starting point.

Settings panel

IHNY-2 is designed to be as fast and intuitive as its predecessor. But if you need something more complex, the settings panel gives you complete control over the compressor. Here you’ll find a number of new features not found in version 1.

• Attack + Release: Determines how quickly the compressor turns on and off.
  
• Ratio: Sets the compression intensity from mild to aggressive.
  
• Punch: Heavy compression removes transients from the signal. The Punch control enhances transients in a compressed track, helping it sound crisp even at very high compression levels.
  
• Harmonics: Imagine a saturator acting as a compressor—that’s what Harmonics is. This feature provides harmonic saturation controlled by gain reduction, meaning the more you compress the sections, the more they saturate.
  
• Shape: Adds our signature “smiley face EQ curve” to emphasize low and high frequencies and add definition to the compressed signal. (The smiley face EQ curve distinguishes “New York Compression” from regular parallel compression. The IHNY-2 can do both.)
  
• Slope: This causes the compressor to exert more force on either the low or high frequencies of the signal. This can be useful for processing bass-heavy material and for allowing the high frequencies to breathe (or vice versa).
  Lo + Hi
• Preserve: Prevents compression of low and high frequencies above/below clipping points. This is a great way to preserve the bass drum while compressing the other drum buses.
  

OTHER FEATURES

• Oversampling: Run the plugin in 1x, 2x, or 4x oversampling mode. (We recommend 1x for better CPU performance.)
• Solo: Monitor the processed signal in Solo mode. Useful for fine-tuning or using IHNY-2 as a regular compressor.
• Tooltips: Enable these to receive explanations of each parameter while using the plugin.
• Save as Default Settings: Save your own default settings that will be loaded every time you open a new instance of IHNY-2.
• Reset to Default Settings: Reset the plugin to the default settings.
• Baby Audio Logo: Disable the plugin.
• Resize Icon: Change the size of the plugin.