The World’s First Luxury-Cat Dual-Channel Compressor.
Perfectly Reasonable.
Perpetual license - pay once, own it forever.
By purchasing you agree to our EULA and Privacy Policy.
Howdy Compressor is a genuinely fast, punchy VCA-style bus compressor wearing sunglasses and a tiny pink cowboy hat. Hard knee. Single envelope follower. Classic glue character. Threshold, Ratio, Attack, and Release are tuned for immediate response, not the slow optical drift of West Coaster. Attack reaches 2 ms. Howdy does not mosey.
Left and Right channels can work together or independently in Stereo, Dual, or Mid-Side mode. Auto Level compensates for gain reduction, Mix handles parallel compression, and the sidechain high-pass filter stops low end from ordering the entire detector around. The signal path is direct, useful, and completely capable of behaving professionally.
The cat was not in the original technical specification. The specification has since been corrected. We regret nothing.
Load It. Watch the Whole Panel Get Excited About Compression.
The sparkle field twinkles only while real signal is moving through the plugin. It goes still the instant the signal stops or the power is switched off. Gain reduction finally has the stage lighting it deserves. We do not have a more sensible explanation.
Try Howdy Compressor FreeNo account required - we send the link to your email. Silences briefly every 30 seconds in demo mode.
The Controls
Left and Right each receive a complete independent control set. Threshold runs from -40 to 0 dB. Ratio offers four positions from 1.5:1 through a very real 6:1. Attack spans 2 to 200 ms. Release begins at 40 ms and reaches an AUTO detent that derives its own timing from the previous sample's gain reduction. SC HPF keeps bass out of the detector, Output trims the result, and Mix blends dry signal back in for parallel control.
Howdy's VCA signal path is deliberately direct. There is no saturation stage softening the attack and no external sidechain complicating the mission. What you get is speed, punch, complete dual-channel control, and one cat more than strictly necessary.
The Cat
This is not a fixed animation loop. The cat's head follows your DAW's actual tempo and time signature, landing its bob directly on the downbeat of whatever you are working on. Your compressor now has better timing than several musicians we have worked with. Do not stare at it for too long; it will absolutely distract you from mixing.
Above the cat, both VU needles perform another entirely necessary piece of engineering. Each needle changes rendered size slightly with signal level in addition to its normal swing. One grows as it approaches silence and shrinks toward +3 dB; the other does the exact opposite. It is a small effect, genuinely fun to watch, and further evidence that we occasionally require adult supervision.
Eleven Factory Presets
Default and Punchy Buss cover the everyday work. Drum Buss and Vocal Buss lean into faster attacks or gentler ratios according to the source. Holy Catnip, Batperson! drops Threshold to -20 dB, selects 6:1, and sets a 2 ms attack. It is exactly as unreasonable as the name promises and suspiciously excellent on drums.
This Town Ain't Big Enough for Two Transients arrives ready to settle a dispute. Fast Attack, Slow Blinking Cat pairs the fastest attack in the range with Release parked on AUTO, allowing the compressor to recover at its own lazy pace. Every preset is a useful starting point. The names simply refused to behave professionally.
Channel Mode, Link & Auto Level
Channel Mode routes between Stereo, Dual, and Mid-Side processing. Engage Link and the Right channel follows the Left channel's complete parameter set in real time, including the on-screen knob movements. It does not merely match the audio behind the panel. Disengage Link and both channels become fully independent again.
Auto Level provides automatic output-gain compensation. Push Threshold or Ratio harder and hear the changing compression character without a quieter result pretending to be worse merely because it lost level.
One-time purchase. Yours forever. No subscription, no renewal.
Install on up to three machines simultaneously. Need to move a license? Email us.
Encrypted activation over HTTPS. No telemetry. No data leaves your machine during use.
You email us, we answer. No ticket queues, no bots, no knowledge base rabbit holes.
VST3 (64-bit) - Windows, macOS, Linux
AU (64-bit) - macOS only
Windows 10 / 11
macOS 11 Big Sur or later (Apple Silicon + Intel)
Linux - Ubuntu 22.04+ or equivalent
Any VST3-compatible host: Reaper, Cubase, Studio One, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Bitwig Studio, Nuendo, and more
AU (macOS): Logic Pro, GarageBand, MainStage
Fast VCA-style feed-forward detector, hard-knee. No oversampling - no saturation stage to alias. 0 samples latency - no lookahead, no block buffering.
Perpetual, single user
3 simultaneous activations
Need to move a license? Email us
SHA-256 (mmedia-howdy-compressor-v1.0.1.zip): 4eecf22961eeb4be3fc92212b8dabae7982ee53a1f995bcc18fa28b752caea4d
Tested on Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, Debian 12, Fedora 40. Requires one system library for license verification:
sudo apt install libsodium23 # Ubuntu / Debian sudo dnf install libsodium # Fedora / RHEL sudo pacman -S libsodium # Arch
VST3 only. Confirmed working in REAPER and Bitwig.
Perpetual license - pay once, own it forever.
By purchasing you agree to our EULA and Privacy Policy.
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