Getting started
Buy on Gumroad, install on macOS, load a preset, choose the emphasis region and turn the SQUASH knob.
Airchain is sold and delivered through Gumroad. There is no platform download page and no key to activate on your Squaresmile account.
Quick start
- Buy Airchain on Gumroad (€19, one-time). The dashboard tile and the
/airchainpage both open the listing. - Download the installers from your Gumroad receipt or library. The package contains VST3, AU and a standalone app for macOS — a Universal binary for Apple Silicon and Intel.
- Install, then rescan plugins in your DAW. The AU passes Apple's
auvalvalidation. - Insert Airchain on the master or a bus — or open the standalone app.
- Pick a preset from the menu in the title bar. There are 14, all loudness-matched, in three groups: Eras, Characters and Utility.
- Choose the emphasis: Off, EU (50 µs) or US (75 µs).
- Turn SQUASH. The four gain-reduction meters (L, LM, HM, H) show the loudness war happening.
- Press ? whenever a control is unclear — help mode explains whatever is under the cursor.
The six stages
| Stage | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1 · AGC | Rides your levels before the fireworks start; AGC Speed sets how fast. |
| 2 · Phase Rotator | The classic broadcast trick that tames spiky vocals before the limiters. |
| 3 · Four-Band Squash | L / LM / HM / H compression in parallel, all driven by SQUASH, with live gain-reduction meters. |
| 4 · FM Emphasis | Genuine 50 µs (EU) / 75 µs (US) pre-emphasis — why radio highs shimmer. |
| 5 · Soft Clipper | Oversampled; Clip Drive sets loudness, density and attitude with the ceiling respected. |
| 6 · Transmission | Hiss, 19 kHz Pilot tone, Flutter and multipath Blend — from pristine signal to a pirate station three hills away. |
Around them: In Gain, Mix for parallel use, and Out.
What SQUASH does
One macro drives the entire four-band section the way a station engineer would push the processing harder: thresholds sweep down from −20 dB to −45 dB, makeup gain rises to +6 dB, and releases speed up at the top of the range for that pumping CHR density.
The presets
- Eras — a time machine from warm 1970s gold through the full-tilt 1990s CHR loudness war to today's streaming-safe conservative sound.
- Characters — instant atmosphere for lo-fi, synthwave, vaporwave and film cues.
- Utility — the serious tools hiding inside the fun ones, for mastering checks and bus processing.
For drum-bus destruction, try the Parallel Crush preset at 35 % mix.
Every preset is loudness-matched, so flipping between them compares character, not volume.
Latency and specs
Six samples of latency from the oversampled clipper — about 0.14 ms at 44.1 kHz — reported to the DAW so plugin delay compensation keeps everything aligned. Tested 44.1–192 kHz, mono and stereo.
No Windows build at launch. Updates are free for licence holders and arrive through Gumroad.
Thanks for the feedback.