XBus is a VCA-style bus compressor plugin from Kiive Audio, available in VST3, AU and AAX formats for Windows and macOS. It is modeled on a modern revision of a classic mixbus compressor.
XBus is a compressor plugin from Kiive Audio that aims for the glue and punch associated with VCA bus compression. Its design draws on a modern revision of a well-known mixbus compressor, and it adds a headroom control for driving into the compression. A sidechain filter and an optional saturation stage give producers more control over how the plugin responds to low end and dynamics, and over the harmonic color it adds to vocals, drums or a master bus.
Kiive Audio describes XBus as a classic VCA bus compressor inspired by a modern revision of a legendary mixbus design. The developer says it enhances transients, stereo cohesion and overall energy, which suits drum groups, full mixes and master buses.
The headroom control lets you push signal into the compressor. This adds character and saturation as you increase it, so the same control handles both gluing and coloring the sound.
The advanced sidechain filtering lets you shape what the compressor reacts to. You can tailor the response to the low end or the dynamic content of a mix, which helps when bass or kick is driving the gain reduction more than you want.
The optional saturation adds harmonic warmth. Kiive Audio positions it for vocals, drums or masters, and it can be left off when you only need the compression behavior.
Formats, systems and requirements as listed by Plugin Boutique. Missing details are left out, not guessed.
| Developer | Kiive Audio |
|---|---|
| Type | Plugin |
| Category | Compressor |
| Formats | VST3, AU, AAX |
| Operating systems | Windows, macOS |
| Architecture | 64-bit |
XBus is available in VST3, AU and AAX formats. It runs as a 64-bit plugin on Windows and macOS.
On macOS, the listed requirements are OS X 10.7 or higher, with 10.14 or higher recommended, and 4GB of RAM. On Windows 64-bit, the listed requirements are Windows 7 or above, a 1 GHz Intel Dual Core processor or AMD equivalent, and 4GB of RAM.
The headroom control lets you push into the compression. Kiive Audio says this adds character and saturation to the sound.
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