Mastering

Nightcap

A tape deck, a complete mastering chain and every meter you need, in one window.

$15$30launch price

Mac · Audio Unit and VST3 · Apple Silicon and Intel · macOS 11 or later. Also in the All plug-ins bundle ($40).

Nightcap starts with a half-inch two-track tape deck, with four tape speeds and five tape formulations, and follows it with an equaliser, a glue compressor, a multiband and stereo tools you can put in any order. A clipper and a true-peak limiter finish it off, with dither for the final export.

The meters are all there too: loudness to the broadcast standard, true peak, loudness range, a spectrum with reference-track overlay, a vectorscope, and a preview of what Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and others will do to your level, with a button to hear it.

Tape deck

Four speeds, five formulations including cassette, calibration, NAB or IEC playback EQ, bias, head bump, wow and hiss.

Equaliser

Shelves, four bells and filters, each on stereo, mid or side, with an optional linear-phase mode.

Glue comp

A bus compressor with sidechain high-pass, mix and auto release.

Multiband

Four bands, each a compressor or a dynamic EQ, with solo and bypass.

Stereo tools

Width for lows, mids and highs, mono bass below any frequency, and balance.

Clipper and limiter

A level-matched clipper, and a true-peak limiter with four styles and one-click Match to your loudness target.

Reorderable chain

Drag the middle modules into any order; switch any of them off with its power button.

Complete metering

Loudness, true peak, PLR, PSR, crest, spectrum with reference overlay, vectorscope and correlation.

Platform preview

See and hear what each streaming service will do to your level before you release.