ADHD – Free Tube Leveling Amp Plugin

Audio Tools recently announced the release of their plugin ADHD, an emulation of hardware leveling tube amps, similar to the classic LA-2A Leveling Amplifier. Leveling amplifiers are typically associated with subtle compression for adding flavor and the ADHD stays true to form, it works especially well with a light touch. What sets this plugin apart from other leveling amplifier emulations? ADHD has an unusual amount of knobs for compressors of this type which gives you much more control over your compression parameters.

On the interface, you will notice the classic VU meter smack dab in the middle of the plugin, next you may notice the typical two knobs for Gain and Peak Reduction. The developers of this plugin went the extra mile though and gave us controls for Attack, Release, Ratio, and Dry/Wet. These controls make it a much more flexible tool than the hardware counterparts it’s emulating. Normally (as far as “rules” go in a creative practice) you would use a leveling amplifier like this on vocal processing to add character and warmth, but with fine tuning at your hands, you have more room to experiment with other signal processing. Finally, having a knob for wet/dry mixing allows for easy parallel processing.

ADHD is free to download as a VST or Au plugin for 32 & 64-bit systems. Download here from the Audio Tools website.