Three characters. One compressor. No compromises.

Lowtide Glue is a bus compressor built around three distinct compression personalities that go far beyond a simple tone switch. Each character reshapes the saturation curve, voicing filters, and envelope behaviour of the compressor — so Warm, Clean, and Punch aren’t just different flavours, they’re fundamentally different tools suited to different material and different moments in a session.

The signal chain starts with a fully linked stereo envelope detector — a single gain-reduction decision applied to both channels simultaneously, preventing the image shifts that happen when a compressor reacts asymmetrically to the stereo field. A sidechain high-pass filter (the Low-End Anchor) removes kick and bass energy from the detection circuit, so the compressor responds to the midrange content you actually want to control rather than pumping on every kick hit. The output trim compensates for makeup gain and the Mix knob delivers parallel compression without any additional routing.

Every parameter runs through per-sample smoothing, so automating any control — including switching between Warm, Clean, and Punch mid-session — produces no zipper noise or audible stepping. A dual-layer meter (RMS and peak simultaneously on both input and output) and a live gain-reduction display make dialling in the right amount of compression immediate and visual.

• Three compression characters

  Warm applies a high-frequency voicing filter and mild harmonic saturation for analogue-flavoured glue — suits acoustic material, vintage mixes, and anything that benefits from a little softening on top. Clean is flat and transparent, the default starting point for modern pop, R&B, and sessions where the compressor should be felt but never heard. Punch tunes the envelope to let transients push through before the compressor grabs, tightening the low mids for physical snap on drums and beats.
• Amount & Speed — two knobs, full control

  Amount sets compression depth by adjusting threshold and ratio together — turn right for more glue with no second-guessing the interaction between two separate controls. Speed blends continuously between fast and slow attack/release times, covering everything from punchy snap to smooth, breathing compression in a single sweep.
• Low-End Anchor sidechain HPF

  A high-pass filter on the sidechain detection circuit — sweepable from 20 Hz to 300 Hz — removes kick and bass energy from the compressor’s decision-making. Set the cutoff above your kick fundamental and the low end breathes freely while the compressor works on everything above it.
• Linked stereo envelope detector

  A single envelope tracks the combined stereo signal and applies identical gain reduction to both channels. Prevents the stereo image from shifting when the compressor reacts to a loud element on one side — essential for mix bus and drum bus use.
• Parallel dry/wet Mix knob

  Blend the compressed signal against the unprocessed dry signal directly inside the plugin. Instant parallel compression without any additional routing — works equally well as a serial insert on a bus or blended lower for subtle texture and cohesion.
• Dual-layer RMS and peak metering

  Simultaneous RMS (the energy you hear) and peak (instantaneous level) on both input and output — one meter, both readings. A live gain-reduction display shows exactly how hard the compressor is working, updated at 24 Hz with no audio thread overhead.
• Zero allocation audio thread

  All buffers are pre-allocated in prepareToPlay(). The audio thread performs no heap allocations during processing — preventing dropouts in resource-constrained live or broadcast environments and keeping CPU usage predictable regardless of session size.
• Factory presets & user preset saving

  Factory presets cover common use cases from subtle mix bus glue to heavy parallel compression on drums. Save, load, and delete your own presets — all parameters restore correctly with your session. Preset file I/O runs on a background thread so the UI never freezes during a load on network-redirected drives.