ConsoleH
github.com/airwindows/ConsoleHChannel/releases
github.com/airwindows/ConsoleHBuss/releases
These are the Channel and Buss plugins that make up the ConsoleH system
github.com/airwindows/ConsoleHPre/releases
This is just the tone shaping of ConsoleH, standalone and dual mono, to be used as additional tone shaping or with other Console versions
ConsoleH.zip (2M) standalone(AU, VST2)
This is a set of standalone retro/generic ConsoleH plugins (AU, VST2) and also includes example files for using AirwindowsGlobals to configure the main (JUCE-based GUI) plugins.
It includes the upgrade to TapeHack2: the original plugins as released are available at ConsoleHOriginal.zip (2M) standalone(AU, VST2)
An Xmas miracle! ConsoleH is here, before 2026 (as promised), and it’s pretty much ready to go!
It works like other Console versions: channel plugins on the channels, unity gain between channel and buss, buss plugin on the buss. It can make even small track counts sound enormous, but the big thing for ConsoleH is really adaptability. You’ve got multiple plugins that aren’t out yet (Dynamics3, SmoothEQ3, X2Buss if you count the separate buss compression as a standalone plugin, DarkMeter) all developed for THIS system. You’ve got highpasses and lowpasses out of Cabs2, a turbo version of TapeHack, the recent PurestSaturation on the buss (set up so the softclip threshold ends up at around +2 dB, so it makes it more forgiving to get near 0dB!). There’s a wild array of displays: pan lights that show at a glance if the channel you see is panned hard left or hard right, blinkies for every single slider in the Dynamics section, a near-clip light for the buss (on the Pan trim control) that can show you both whether you’re near maximum peak, and whether you have enough dynamic swing for an aggressive punchy sound.
This is also the first place you can use DarkMeter: developed to do Airwindows Meter over a black backdrop for dark-mode lovers, adapted so the slew-versus-peak ratio it measures (in Meter, drawing blue dots as the height of sonority) instead draws a wide variety of colors, from blues and reds for bassy dark tones, through green for that sonority zone, then cyan for post-80s ultra-hype that’s still classic, to white dots for the brightest of the bright. And it’ll draw this rainbow of dots across the peak meter so you can measure and dial in exactly the aura of hit-record you need, on peaks that are supposedly impossible to directly hear… but we feel these, and know when they are wrong. And underneath this display, the zero cross meter that tells you where your bass is at, whether it balances and shows up in the mix, ehether it’s just right or too low for the biggest bassbins.
No guesswork. It just shows you. Turns out that is very helpful.
And the great thing about ConsoleH is, just about everything in it can be bypassed when set flat or turned to zero. The compression, the speaker-cabinet-like highpasses and lowpasses, the isolator-DJ-filter versions of those on the buss, the vaguely-tapelike overdrive on the front of the channels: these all drop out of circuit when not in use, and so to an extent way past last year’s ConsoleX, ConsoleH forms itself to YOUR sounds. If you pull out the whole bag of tricks, it’ll really sound like everything all at once. If you clean stuff up, or take a particular direction, it’ll emphasise that direction and reward it. So, ConsoleH sounds like you, or like whatever new version of music you’re interested in making.
Whether you’re sculpting compression and gating boldly (or delicately!), or virtually re-amping everything, or bringing in sampler voices or strange glitch effects, ConsoleH can let you make those sounds. It’s hilariously good at reinventing any old thing you’ve got for tracks, whether you have awesome tracking abilities or whether everything’s coming out of free softsynths and you haven’t even got a mic.
If you want the broadest possible range of studio sound, ConsoleH is the free, open-source, retro generic antique plugin OR latest flashy-GUI plugin for you. I’m still producing generic builds for retro PCs and Raspberry Pis! But thanks to Sudara’s ‘Pamplejuce’ project (and his valiant last-minute help!) we have a modern JUCE version that should be good to go even as screen displays travel towards 5k or 10K monitors. And it reads the same ‘AirwindowsGlobals.txt’ file that worked for ConsoleX, so now there’s a whole new mixing system where if you customized the color, texture, font of your ConsoleX plugins, exactly the same applies for ConsoleH. In fact, if you made global changes they will automatically be applied.
ConsoleH is my gift to folks who like this sort of thing. I hope you have as much fun with it as I will :)
(ConsoleH doesn’t fit in Consolidated or the Rack plugin, so there’s no link to those for ConsoleH)
download 64 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Signed M1/Intel Mac AUs.dmg
download Signed M1/Intel Mac VSTs.dmg
download LinuxVSTs.zip
download LinuxARMVSTs.zip for the Pi
download Retro 32 Bit Windows VSTs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac AUs.zip
download Retro PPC/32/64 Mac VSTs.zip
Mediafire Backup of all downloads
All this is free and open source under the MIT license, brought to you by my Patreon.
What you’re doing to that 808 really sounds incredible.
Thank you very much!
Thank you so much Chris! You said once that Console is to be used with many tracks to come alive, and that Channel is a better fit for mixes involving just a few tracks. Is it still the case?
thanks
Thank you! This is so cool. I have a problem. I can operate knobs only with mouse wheel. If I simply click drag they will reset to their default value. Bitwig 5.2.7 Win 10 ioT LTSC.
Thanks you Chris for your great plugins, talent and generosity ! All the finest best for you and your people for this new yeat !
We’ll I will lie – don’t need any help in that. Someone put a half-dollar in my eye.
Looking how to cook up – Beyonce already tweaking with Console H.
@realla_the
Just to be sure: The Channel plugin comes last on tracks that send their audio to a bus at unity gain and the Buss comes first on the receiving Buss track? And if I want to sum up multiple busses into a master bus, I can either use the DAWs built in summing or put another Channel plugin last on the sending Busses and another Buss plugin on the receiving master Buss?